Classrooms in the Children’s House are organized around a carefully designed curriculum that aims to promote independent learning and self-discovery. As many parents know, the curriculum is divided into several key areas, including the following:
Practical Life: This area includes activities that allow children to practice practical skills such as pouring, spooning, and cleaning. These activities help children develop fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and concentration.
Sensorial: The sensorial area is designed to help children refine their senses through activities that engage their senses of touch, sight, sound, taste, and smell. For example, children may work with color tablets, sound cylinders, or texture cards.
Language: In the language area, children work on developing skills such as phonemic awareness, vocabulary, and writing. Activities may include letter tracing, matching objects to their initial sounds, and reading books.
Math: The math area is designed to help children develop a concrete understanding of
mathematical concepts. Activities may include counting, sorting, and working with number rods, bead chains, and other manipulatives.
Cultural: The cultural area includes activities that help children explore the world around them. This may include learning about geography, history, music, art, and science. Activities may include working with maps, learning about different cultures, or experimenting with scientific concepts.
In each area, you will find work shelves – an essential component of a Montessori learning environment. These shelves contain a wide range of materials and activities carefully selected and organized to cater to the different needs and interests of the class. A math shelf may have materials for counting, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. A language shelf may have materials for letter recognition, phonics, vocabulary development, reading, writing, and so on.
What some parents are not aware of is the importance of how the shelves are organized. The work shelves are arranged in a specific sequence to support the development of young children’s independence and their ability to concentrate. The sequence of shelves follows a left-to-right, top-to-bottom progression, easiest to most complex. You will find the simplest work material located on the top shelf to the left and the most complex material located on the bottom shelf to the right.
This sequence of work shelves reinforces cognitive habits, supporting the child in moving from simpler activities to more complex ones, building upon previous knowledge. This pattern also helps with children’s understanding of the pattern of language. When a child learns to read, their experiences will guide them to start at the top left and work across the page before moving down to the next line. This left-to-right sequence in our work shelves promotes a sense of order, enhances the child’s ability to follow directions, and prepares them for reading and writing skills in the future.
Through the morning work cycle, each child is free to choose their activities and work at their own pace. They learn how to select a material from the shelf, use it as long as they need, and then put it back when they are done, promoting self-discipline, concentration, and a love of learning. The teacher’s role is to observe the children and provide guidance when necessary. They may introduce new materials and demonstrate their use, but the ultimate goal is to let the children learn through exploration and discovery.
If you are interested in learning more about the Bay Farm Children’s House and our classroom environments, we encourage you to contact the office to schedule an observation.
