With sandpaper letters or using a sand tray, children trace the shape of letters while the teacher connects with the letter’s sound, or use alphabet cut-outs (moveable alphabet) to form words. Through activities such as these, they gain experience with the beginnings of the language sequence, laying the groundwork for decoding, or reading.
This process activates and connects the visual, kinesthetic, tactile and auditory modalities and is supplemented with highly differentiated and individualized materials created by the child’s teacher. Included in the Language curriculum and introduced at each child’s unique moment of individual readiness, would be oral and written expression, reading, listening, speaking, drama, and children’s literature.

Building upon the principles and skills gained in Practical Life and Sensorial, which
include, grouping, one-to-one correspondence, matching, comparing similarities and differences, sorting, counting, grading and predicting patterns, the hands-on materials Montessori so carefully designed leverage those understandings to help children move to more abstract concepts. Using sequenced presentation of the manipulative, rather than rote memorization of facts, students construct their own knowledge of number sense, place value, numeration, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division through internalization, or a process she termed “materialized abstraction.” Older children can progress to even higher level abstract concepts which include fractions, geometry and the beginnings of algebra by using their hands and minds to grapple with content using materials which go beyond these basic concepts.

Fundamental to Montessori’s philosophy is the interrelatedness of all things, a view which forms the underpinnings of what she called physical and cultural geography. Study of the diverse cultures of the earth and the ways humans interact with nature to meet basic needs are among the ways children gain awareness of geography and science in the Primary Classroom. Moving from what children know to what they do not, from simple to complex, the whole to parts and concrete to abstract, they engage in geographical, historical, artistic, musical, scientific and interrelated activities. We offer a strong foundation Montessori education to children enrolled in our childcare center & daycare NJ.

This area capitalizes on childrens’ need to connect with their environment through the five senses, providing materials of various qualities (size, shape, color, dimension, texture, length, width, temperature, mass, pitch) designed by Montessori, such as knobbed cylinders or color tablets. Using a multisensory approach, children learn to distinguish, categorize, and add to prior knowledge. They can move from concrete to abstract understandings by ordering, classifying, comparing and contrasting; simultaneously, they build vocabulary through naming and expanding the language of labeling. Montessori believed that children immersed in a stimulus-rich environment use all of their senses to absorb sensory impressions, and through this process begin to order these impressions and make sense and meaning of their world.