3-6
Casa
The Montessori Casa is a preschool program for children aged 3 to 6 years old. It is often referred to as the "Children's House" or "Casa dei Bambini" in Italian. We refer to our classrooms as the Children's House as the environment is designed to replicate their home environment, except everything being accessible to them. The Casa belongs to the children and we guide them.
Our 3-6 Casa program offers children the opportunity to gain independence, self-control and respect. The main areas of the Casa environment are Practical Life, Sensorial, Language and Math. Within these areas the child will also have further opportunity to explore music, geography, history and science. Our 3-6 Casa classroom follows the core Montessori lessons provided by an AMI trained Guide. Salmon Springs Montessori dedicates itself to providing parents with a legitimate Montessori experience for their children.
Practical Life
This area of the Casa helps the child to function in their environment. These are the things we often take for granted but are the most important activities in the Casa. As an adult, practical life activities are ones we tend to not enjoy and are viewed as a chore. Children, however naturally gravitate towards these activities as they respond to their natural development.
Practical Life activities create an advancement of development on multiple levels, such as creating a connection between the home environment and the Casa environment as well as satisfying many areas of the absorbent mind, sensitive periods, and human tendencies. Through the practical life activities the child gains independence, autonomy and confidence as well as developing motor skills. The child is filled with a huge sense of confidence when they can complete something that an adult can do, children strive for independence. It is in the practical life area where the child first practices a pencil grip and works with their dominant hand. It also allows the child to learn self-respect as well as respect of their environment both in the Casa and at home.
Sensorial
The sensorial activities respond to many sensitive periods including language and order as well as certain human tendencies, such as activity, order, repetition, movement, and exactness. Children who enter the Casa have already had plenty of sensorial experiences, however the activities in the Casa aim to help the child to arrange and organize the sensorial impressions they receive as well as classifying the impressions received. It is natural for us to classify and organize as it is our way of making sense of the world. Through the sensorial activities, the child also works on refining their senses by distinguishing and differentiating at small levels which helps bring awareness to the world. Working with these activities also helps the child with the ability to form abstractions. This allows the child to understand and make sense of concepts which aren’t random or vague. Through concrete and hands on experience the child can form clear abstractions to the point at which they no longer need the concreteness right in front of them.
“However, when I gave the children this scientific material, they preferred it to toys, because it responds to an urge in their nature; it enables them to develop. We call it a material for the development of the senses, but sense development is merely the consequence of the urge to do something with the hands. The children also gain the ability to control their movements with precision, and this skill brings them closer to maturity.” (The 1946 London Lectures p. 16)
Language
Because of the absorbent mind we acknowledge in the Children’s House that it is easier for the child to learn to write around four years versus six years as they do in traditional schooling. This is because of the sensitive periods and human tendencies that the child is genuinely interested in learning how to write, versus being forced to learn. When we write, we start with a thought that we have. So, writing comes from an idea, that we form into words. Before writing these words we must analyse the sounds in these words. From there we can attach the symbols that represents those sounds and so writing occurs. There are three different aspects of writing: mechanical, intellectual and psychological. Mechanical reading is the preparation of the hand which occurs indirectly through practical life and sensorial activities and later on, feeling sandpaper letters and metal insets. Intellectual writing is fostered indirectly through oral language activities such as the movable alphabet. Here the child can write before their hand is ready to do so, but intellectually they are able to. Later the child can write on a chalkboard followed by writing on paper. Here the child can write their thoughts or even copy the work of others. Psychological writing is the child’s confidence to express their own thoughts. The child is prepared for this through the News Period for example. ​
Math
In the Montessori House we introduce the child to mathematics at a very young age, around four years. We introduce it so early, because the child still has the absorbent mind, human tendencies, and sensitive periods. Simply, we offer mathematics activities as they are aligned with the child’s mentality and their development. The child with the absorbent mind will take in everything around them without even trying, therefor introducing the child to math they naturally take it in without it being a forced process. A child’s human tendencies such as abstraction, calculation, and exactness help propel the child to these activities and to further explore them. The child is also in the sensitive period for refinement of senses and language. Through this we can easily introduce the child to the language of mathematics and the material offers the child a sensorial impression of mathematics and therefore meets their needs of refinement of their senses. The mathematics material is also materialized and gives the child a sensorial impression of mathematics. Montessori brings in abstract ideas and materializes them so the child is able to understand and learn. The child is able to work with abstract ideas in a concrete form through the mathematics material which is all tangible. While the materials start off very concrete and tangible, the mathematics area increases in abstraction as we continue working our way through. This gradual process of increasing abstraction helps prevent mental blocks. Mathematics is also a part of our culture. Through the knowledge of mathematics the child will also have a better understanding and adaptation to their environment. Mathematics helps the child understand the world around them.
Montessori uses the term ‘Mathematical Mind’. She was the first to apply this to children. She described that children have the innate capacity to think mathematically and logically. Therefore teaching them mathematics is possible and the children easily acquire the knowledge.
