MATERIALS

Practical Life Exercises

Sensorial Materials

Mathematics

Language

Presentation of the Material:

In classical Montessori education, each new material is introduced with a nonverbal presentation, as is every new variation of active engagement with it. After extensive concrete sensory experience with the material, the corresponding names and terms are introduced using the Three-Period Lesson:

Period: Naming, 'definition', e.g., “This is a cube”
Period: Experience of passive word usage, 'reproduction', e.g., “Show me the cube, feel the cube, place the cube...”
Period: Active word usage, 'abstraction', e.g., “What am I holding in my hand? – What am I giving you? – What am I hiding?” The passive vocabulary becomes active usage.

The vocabulary has expanded, and the child (patient) is able to work independently and autonomously. Well-timed lessons, combined with the material, provide the child (patient) with a “key to the world” that opens up new dimensions for them.

In Montessori Therapy, action-accompanying speech is used purposefully during the presentation.

The Montessori Material:

Practical Life Exercises

With this material, culturally dependent as well as culturally independent daily life skills are learned and practiced, thereby facilitating or enabling social living.

The following groups are classified:

'Elementary actions' or general preliminary exercises for developing movement coordination and control, e.g., carrying, opening and closing, folding, cutting
Self-care: e.g., spooning, pouring, dressing frames, hand washing
Care for the environment: e.g., cleaning, polishing, flower care
Behavior in and for the community: e.g., social interaction, setting the table

Sensorial Materials

“It is a key to the world and must not be mistaken for the world itself.” — Maria Montessori

This material, designed according to mathematical principles, initially develops and sharpens the individual senses in isolation, then supports overall perceptual ability. Training the senses is crucial for mental development, as grasping leads to comprehending. Clear concept formation through sensory experience prepares the capacity for abstraction.

There is material for the tactile, weight, temperature, hearing, taste, and smell senses, as well as for the visual and stereognostic senses. The constructive triangles, the binomial cube, and the trinomial cube are advanced materials that clearly demonstrate how the sensory materials also serve as a basis for mathematical understanding.

Mathematics Materials

By comprehending quantities, mathematical dimensions and processes are illustrated and made more understandable, while also teaching the fundamental skill of arithmetic.

The basis of all mathematical understanding is work with concrete materials:

The exercises of practical life, which unconsciously already form the understanding of the four basic arithmetic operations
The sensorial material, designed both arithmetically and geometrically, which teaches shapes and properties in isolation and indirectly prepares for the decimal system

The concrete mathematics material:

For the development of number concepts and acquisition of quantity sense, e.g., number rods, spindle boxes
For learning symbols, e.g., sandpaper numerals, card sets
For introduction to the decimal system, e.g., golden bead material
For introduction to the four basic arithmetic operations, materials in various levels of difficulty
For building understanding in all other areas of mathematics, such as word problems, calculations of time, weight, and distance, handling money, exponentiation, and root extraction

Language Materials

In Montessori work, language is used very deliberately in all areas, fostering a precise understanding of language and exact language usage.

The language materials support language comprehension and active language use, as well as the cultural skills of writing and reading. They incorporate movement and sensory activities, allowing children to grow into the joy of the richness and dynamism of language. The ultimate goal is total comprehension of the language.

Language materials include, among others, sandpaper letters, movable alphabet, reading games, materials on the function of word classes, and materials for sentence analysis. Following the principle of isolated difficulty, the learning process to achieve a specific skill is divided into many individual engaging exercises, each of which can independently motivate the child to take action.

For learning to write, for example,

the handling of the writing tool,
the execution of the letter shapes, and
the perception are practiced separately.

Cosmic Education

Montessori summarized her didactic and methodological considerations in the following principle: “Teaching details causes confusion. Establishing the relationships between things conveys understanding.”

The material of cosmic education serves to gain knowledge and understanding of the interconnectedness in our world. Here, Maria Montessori’s humanistic worldview with its spiritual orientation is reflected. Cosmic education highlights the interrelationships of all living beings and forms of existence, revealing their individual role and significance within the cosmic plan of creation.

Concrete visual and experimental materials are used to learn about and respect elements and laws of nature, for example in geography, the environment, world religions, and the cosmos. The goal is to foster a caring, responsible, and sustainable relationship with the environment.