Pedagogy kindergarten
Children aged 3- 6 years consciously choose activities that allow them to learn and practise abilities and skills that they see adults carry out in their environment. Children want to be independent. And they also long to make a valuable contribution to their community – we are driven by a need to be needed. The need to learn is innate in all children. It leads them to attentive observation, exact imitation and eventually to independent activity. An environment that meets this need is, according to Maria Montessori, the so-called “prepared environment”. The prepared environment functions on the principle “help me to do it by myself.”
The prepared environment in kindergarten comprises a variety of areas: practical life activities, sensorial material, language, mathematics, biology, geography, scientific experiments, music and art.
Practical life activities
Practical life activities help children to act more independently and build a bridge between their home and kindergarten.
The children learn, for example, to open and close buttons and zips on garments, to polish shoes, to pour water from a jug into a glass, to set the table, to cook pasta, to wash the dishes and much more. Clear presentations of the practical life activities help children to structure themselves and to internalize logical sequences of activities.
Sensorial material
The sensorial material contains the keys to the world. They make a single quality perceptible.
Children become acquainted with the qualities of objects in a concrete way through hands-on experience and learn to name these qualities (for example colour, shape, smell, taste, texture). Afterwards, they can “abstract” this knowledge and apply it in the environment (from concrete to abstract). For example, they learn to differentiate and name colours by using the colour tablets. First, they pair the same colours, then acquire the names of the colours and finally apply these names in the environment - “My jacket is blue, yours is green.”
Language
Language plays a key role and permeates all aspects of the Montessori Method. The children enlarge their vocabulary, develop their ability to communicate and acquire the basics in writing and reading as well as in grammar.
Being with other children, with their teachers and carrying out the activities offered, children enhance their language skills. The sensorial material in particular helps children to acquire the exact terms for abstract concepts and to learn to use them. In addition, the “sound games” and the “sandpaper letters” open the world of writing and reading to children and allows for the first insights into the structure of language.
Mathematics
The Montessori mathematics materials allow children to develop a concept of number up to a million by means of working with concrete quantities.
This knowledge is then extended in a playful and hands-on way through the four basic arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). Even children as young as kindergarteners do work in geometry and algebra at a sensorial level, experiencing the joy of discovery when gaining new insights.
Biology / Geography
Subjects such as biology or geography are also presented to children at a sensorial level so that they may experience and understand abstract concepts in a concrete manner.
Afterwards, the children apply the acquired knowledge in their environment.
By means of simple scientific experiments, the children have the opportunity to observe and describe a number of phenomena.
They discover, for instance, that warm air rises or witness how a caterpillar metamorphoses into a butterfly.
Music
Kindergarten children experience music in different ways. They sing, dance, refine their sense of hearing and work on the basic principles of music theory using the Montessori music material.
They sing together with other children, practise new songs and perform them for an audience at school events. In class, children listen to musical pieces, visit the theatre and go to concerts. From the age of 4 years, they can learn the piano, the guitar, the ukulele or the violin in private lessons at the school.
Art
Art is an integral part of education. There are a number of activities offered so that the children can engage in artistic work.
Children are introduced to the work of various artists and to a variety of art movements with carefully selected materials. They visit museums and exhibitions with their teachers. From the age of 5 years, they paint at the school art studio, which is organized according to the principles of the educationalist Arno Stern.
Summary and perspective
This variety of carefully selected activities opens the doors for the children to the culture that they grow up in and helps them to find their way in their environment and to explore it with joy.
Children acquire many abilities and skills at home and in kindergarten. They learn to integrate and contribute in a meaningful way to a community.
The development of the child as a whole personality is not only carefully observed and supported in kindergarten, but also during elementary school. Social learning gains even more significance for the children aged 6 – 12 years.