Mo’s Montessori aims to provide a happy, secure, friendly, learning environment where children, parents and teachers work in partnership, where each individual child is valued, encouraged and respected for his/her uniqueness and is allowed to develop to his/her full potential.
Our Mission Statement
Mo’s Montessori teaches the children using the Montessori Method
The Montessori Method provides the opportunity for each child’s development by fostering a natural desire of learning. As well as teaching language, arithmetic and geography, the Montessori classroom nurtures vital social skills. The children learn kindness, courtesy and respect for the rights of others as well as learning independence and responsibility. The Montessori method allows the child to learn the way he or she learns best, by doing things for themselves.
The Classroom
- The classroom is designed to help prepare the children for life out in the real world
- The classroom contains many materials and objects that provide motives for exploration activity and learning.
- The activities are placed in a specific order in the class. These activities and how they are carried out, make up the curriculum of the class.
- The structure and order in the class allows the child to feel safe and secure thereby enabling them to absorb information and knowledge.
- While still offering the child a certain amount of freedom, the structure of the class is essential for each child’s independence, self-discipline and concentration.
- The materials are especially interesting to children aged 2 and a half to 6 years of age, are developmentally appropriate and are designed to teach.
- The class is a social community vital for developing each child’s interpersonal skills.
See below more in-depth details about each area of learning in the classroom:
It involves exercises that require movement, for example pouring lentils from one jug to another. The exercises become progressively more challenging. For example, pouring from a jug to three vessels. Polishing, washing clothes, chairs, tables, sweeping, flower arranging and hand washing are just some of the exercises the children will do in Practical Life. Even children who have moved on to more difficult work often return to Practical Life just to get their minds concentrated and ready for their work.
- Practical life aids the growth and development of the child
- The control of and co-ordination of movement
- The ability to concentrate
- The development of orderly habits and an orderly mind
- The development of the intellect
- Helps the child on the road to independence
The sensorial material aims to show expressions of a thing such as colour, weight, size or dimension. It taps into the five human senses of taste, touch, sound, smell and sight and aims to give the child an experience. The materials in the sensorial section are abstract ideas made into concrete objects.
The sensorial area of the class enables the child to build their intellect through the refinement of their senses and the classification of sensory impressions. They encounter material that has a self-correcting exactness about it. It encourages repetition, which enables the child to become a master of the activity. Through their efforts to be exact, the child will concentrate and develop his/her own will.
When a child comes to the Montessori classroom age 3 they have a fully constructed spoken language, which they have learnt by absorbing from their home life. The child’s speech is not yet perfected of course.
In the Montessori classroom they will learn spoken language through daily vocabulary enrichment exercises and language training. Vocabulary will be expanded through the teaching of few words through simple lessons, informally from everyday conversations and through activities.
The children will learn to clarify their speech by listening to the teacher and other older children and by speaking themselves. Because children have a natural ability and tendency for language they learn rapidly and without effort. The language training, which the children learn with their teacher, is the foundation for reading and writing.
In the Montessori class for 2 and a half to 5 years we offer arithmetic, the science of computation, using numbers. Children have a natural attraction to numbers. They love to count and are very interested in the patterns of numbers.
All of the Montessori work prepares the children for maths. The practical life and sensorial work helps to establish internal order, precise movement, a work habit and the ability to understand and follow a process.
In arithmetic the child is first introduced to the idea of quantity, then the symbol will be attached for them to learn. The children learn the sequence of numbers. The Montessori materials enable the children to learn:
- Numbers through 10
- An introduction to the decimal system
- Numbers above 10, teens etc.
- Memorization of numbers
- The linear continuation of numbers
The children will get an introduction to the different cultures of the world. They will learn about flags of the world, different foods and animals that come from all over the world.
The children will learn about the globe, the land and water, the continents, seas and oceans and the different countries in the world. They will learn about the solar system and the wonder of space and the stars.
