The 5 main areas in a Montessori classroom

When you enter a Montessori classroom, you are struck by the great freedom of the children to move around as they wish within the environment and freely choose the activities of their choice. How is a Montessori classroom organised? Why is it so? That's what we will explain to you. Follow the guide! 

Maria Montessori defined 5 areas that structure all Children's Houses around the world. 

The practical life area

The practical life area is certainly the most emblematic of Montessori pedagogy. This area includes fundamental activities of everyday life, which allow the child to function in daily life and to gain independence. These are the first activities that the child handles in the classroom. These activities include : 

• preliminary activities that help the child to function in the environment and gain real independence in everyday life: carrying a chair, rolling a mat, opening/closing a box, pouring seeds or water, folding towels

• self-care activities that help the child to take care of him/herself: dressing frames to learn how to open and close a zip, buttons, press studs, tie laces, knots, learn to wash hands, brush hair, put on gloves.... These activities help develop coordination of movement, concentration and independence.

• activities to take care of the indoor and outdoor environment that allow the child to take care of the environment around him/her: cleaning windows, dishes, laundry, sweeping, mopping, cleaning a table, a chair, etc.

• activities of grace and courtesy: this slightly outdated expression is used to designate all group activities that enable the child to learn the rules of life in society, social relations, politeness and empathy.

• The activity of walking on the line: in all Montessori classes there is a line on the floor in an oval shape. This line is used to teach the child to walk in balance, alone or in a group, on this line, thus developing coordination, balance, willpower, and self-control.

• The Silence Lesson: The culmination of the practical life activities, this exercise of teaching children to be completely silent in the classroom allows each student to exercise self-control through the inhibition of movement and sound.

The purpose of the practical life area materials is to

• to encourage autonomy

• to allow the emergence of the phenomenon of attention

• to lead the child towards concentration and social awareness through individual work.

The sensorial area

The sensorial material offers the child the means to develop, through manipulation and through observation of the environment. It enables them to reflect, understand, think and perhaps meditate. To form a representation of the world, the child needs to classify, compare, order, distinguish, specify and generalise.

Sensorial activities are essential for teaching the child to orientate himself better, to master his environment better by giving him the "keys" to decipher the concepts of shapes, colours, sounds, tastes, textures... and the corresponding language.

The mathematics area

It is through the manipulation of material representing elementary mathematical notions (numeration, the decimal system, the function of the four operations, memorising operations) that the child can move towards abstraction and access to mental arithmetic.

Mathematics is also introduced through the manipulation of sensory material which allows the child to organise his or her thoughts. Sensory discrimination, pairing and gradation exercises develop the logical mind and thus prepare for mathematics. The dimensions of a number of objects have been designed according to the decimal system we use for counting. These elements are an excellent preparation for mathematics.

During their schooling in 3-6 Montessori, children are encouraged to learn to count to 1000 (and beyond), to manipulate large numbers (thousands and millions), to perform the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) and to manipulate fractions.

Language area

Language is an integral part of the environment, beyond the material. A large part of the work is carried out with the constant concern for the enrichment of vocabulary, the use of precise words and the encouragement of oral expression.

Access to written language and reading is achieved through different materials which will lead the child to study the different sounds of the language, then their graphic form and finally to put them together.

Other activities constitute an indirect preparation for writing gestures. For example, motor refinement through practical life activities, or the arrangement of material from left to right for the sense of writing. But also the three-finger grasp of writing and the precision required by the sensory material. Intentional tracing and lightness of hand are also practised in preparation for writing.

The area of culture 

• Geography

The geography material is part of the sensory material area. It leads the child to access an important area of general culture and to a first representation of the planet on which he or she lives (the earth, the continents, the countries...).

• Art 

Through several free activities (painting easel, drawing, modelling clay...), the child can explore different media and techniques of art.

• Music

The bell material was specifically developed by Maria Montessori to lead the child from listening to each sound of the C scale to writing and reading music.

• The living world

The living world is present in Montessori schools: children observe and care for plants and sometimes pets (fish, rabbits, hamsters...) in the environment! The botanical and zoological material allows them to study plants and animals.