Why the Montessori Curriculum is the Best Choice for Your Child
Montessori Education in Namibia: Hands-On & Adaptive Learning for Life
Children are special. They have their whole lives ahead of them. Often, they surprise us with their curiosity, unfettered joy and deep love for people and the natural world. Given half a chance, they show us their natural desire to learn: never-ending questions about every possible topic in the world!
The Montessori Curriculum has been nurturing children's inherent love for learning since 1907 in more than 20,000 schools across the world. It's the biggest alternative education method for a reason: it works. But what makes Montessori education so special?
Key-Take Aways From This Article:
- There are five key areas of the curriculum, integrated to allow for holistic, meaningful learning.
- Lessons have special features that boost engagement, increase retention and work with the child's psychological development.
- The curriculum is structured as an integrated spiral, revisiting topics in increasing depth throughout the years.
Table of Contents
Traditional vs. Montessori Curriculum: What's the Difference?
5 Key Areas of the Montessori Curriculum
- Practical Life - The Skills You Wish You Learned at School
- Sensorial - Refining Perception Through Isolation
- Language - A Rich, Immersive Experience
- Mathematics - Scientifically Designed Learning Materials
- Cultural Subjects - A Different View of the World
The Not-So-Secret "Secret Features" of Montessori Lessons
The Early Childhood Program: Montessori Curriculum for Ages 3-6
The Elementary Classroom: Montessori Learning Outcomes for Grades 1-7
Traditional vs. Montessori Curriculum: What's the Difference?
To really understand a Montessori environment, you need to first throw out everything you think you know about learning and school. In a mainstream school, children of the same age learn the same thing at the same time. They either pass, or they fail. If they fail enough, they have to repeat the grade. It works, I suppose, but saying traditional education "works" is like saying horse carts work. They have their place, but why wouldn't you want the comfort, safety and convenience of a new car? Just because you grew up driving a horse cart?
| Traditional | Montessori |
|---|---|
| Yearly outcomes / standards. | Phase outcomes (three-year cycles). |
| Everyone does the same thing at the same time. | Children progress through the Montessori curriculum at their own pace. |
| Rules are taught in order to solve problems and find answers. | Problems are solved in order to understand patterns and rules. |
| Learning materials are tools to make teaching easier (like training wheels). | Learning materials directly develop an understanding of concepts through exploration (like a balancing bike). |
| Top-down direct instruction with the teacher as the expert. | Bottom-up discovery with the teacher as the guide. |
| Children pass or fail. | Children cycle through practices until they have mastered a concept. |
| Social-emotional learning is an afterthought. | The whole system is based on social-emotional skills. |
5 Key Areas of the Montessori Curriculum
Traditional schooling has been built around "academic" subjects like languages and maths. Recently, social-emotional learning and soft skills have gotten more attention because an academics-only curriculum fails to prepare children for the fast-paced, demanding life of today.
However, in Montessori, these "soft skills" - independence, executive functioning, social awareness - aren't just an add-on. They are the foundation of all learning and permeate all five areas of the curriculum.
This grouping of subjects into five key areas is not an arbitrary division someone came up with in a conference. Instead, they have developed out of years of educational practice and are a useful tool to understand the genius of the Montessori Method.
Practical Life - The Skills You Wish You Learned at School
Practical Life activities are the first thing any child learns upon entering a Montessori school - no matter the age. They cover anything from "Where do I put my shoes?" to "How do I create a slide show?"
These are skills that help the child orient themselves in their environment. They reflect cultural and social norms like different greetings and titles. From the youngest age, children are shown how to take care of themselves, look after their surroundings and interact with other people. In pre-primary, this may include dressing and undressing, washing dishes or tying knots. In the elementary classroom, children move on to organising outings, using technology wisely and learning advanced social skills.
Having movement-based tasks that are meaningful and make a noticeable difference in the child's life encourages them to engage with these activities repeatedly. It's the easiest way to build concentration, confidence, motor control and independence in all ages.
Sensorial - Refining Perception Through Isolation
The Sensorial Materials are one of the most iconic things about Montessori schools. They resemble common toys - building blocks, puzzles, memory games - but are in fact the foundation for today's toys, not derivatives.
Each sensorial activity is carefully designed according to specific principles. Pieces of a single exercise will differ in only one quality to draw the child's attention to these fine differences without being distracted by different shapes, colours or letters.
Each follow-on activity is just a little more complex, adding only one unfamiliar skill or quality to explore. This makes it easy for the child to learn and allows the educator to differentiate lessons quickly. While only the pre-primary has separate lessons for Sensorial Education, the principles of this area inform all the materials across the curriculum to ensure learning is near effortless.
Language - A Rich, Immersive Experience
Whatever language is taught (English and German in our school), Montessori materials and principles hold true. Skills like writing are broken down into components and isolated so learning is easy: there is a material to build words without having to use a pencil, an exercise to build pencil control and a third activity to learn letter shapes. These can be done independently, so a creative child wanting to write a letter can do so even if they don't know how to form the letters with a pencil yet.
Because of the self-contained environment, mixed-age grouping and integrated subjects, the day is filled with spontaneous, natural and topic-related discussions. Interactive grammar and spelling exercises build a deep understanding of the rules of language and help the child see the beauty in how words are formed and used.
Mathematics - Scientifically Designed Learning Materials
After the Sensorial equipment, the mathematical lessons are most often shown as examples of the Montessori approach. They most closely resemble the sensorial principles of an isolated difficulty and single-step progression. As "materialised abstractions", they bring fuzzy concepts like "square roots" and "binomials" to life and make them physically touchable and explorable.
As in the other subjects, the Montessori educator presents (shows) how the material is used and then observes from the background while the child takes over and explores. This flipped approach is open-ended and discovery-based. Instead of being given a rule and a problem, with maybe some "learning materials" to solve it, children create the problems, explore different solutions and eventually formulate the rule themselves.
Cultural Subjects - A Different View of the World
The Montessori Method of education is an aid to life. It aims to unlock the children's potential - all of it, not just the parts that can read and calculate. In order to do this, all learning in Montessori schools is designed to foster understanding, independence and a love for the world.
And nothing does that better than the cultural subjects. In fact, Maths and Language are only tools to uncover and engage with the world, so it is understanding the world that is the prize!
In the pre-primary, the concrete and immediate environment is studied through the senses to give the child the language needed to talk about natural phenomenon. In the elementary, this knowledge is expanded through impressionistic stories that bring the universe into the classroom, so to speak. Geography, Biology, History and the Sciences are studied through a lens of interconnectedness - how does a natural feature influence humans, plants and animals and vice versa? We celebrate different cultures and explore history as a progression of human achievement.
The Not-So-Secret "Secret Features" of Montessori Lessons
The Montessori curriculum is a finely tuned synergy of many different parts. The materials, often shown as the main "ingredient", are quite useless if not implemented correctly. It requires a knowledgable teacher (a "guide", in Montessori terms) to connect the child with the materials in such a way as to spark joy and eagerness to work.
That being said, the materials (whether traditional or add-on) adhere to strict standards to be considered Montessori educational materials.
Skill Isolation
Each Montessori lesson focuses on a single skill, making it easier for teachers to assess progress and for children to learn gradually.
For instance, the Pink Tower cubes are identical except for size, allowing them to be arranged clearly by size without distractions.
Control of Error
Another quality of Montessori lessons is that they enable the child to check their work themselves. Each activity has a way for students to make sure they got it right, which means that the guide (teacher) needs to worry less about correction and has more time for connection and building interest.
Incidentally, checking your own work also gives you double the learning opportunities!
Scientifically Grounded Progression
Imagine school as the cliff side of a mountain. In traditional education, the teacher hammers a staircase into the rock and guides children along the same route decided by a conglomerate of people with varying teaching experience.
The Montessori curriculum allows educators to let children find their own way up the mountain. The teacher is there to observe, help, and guide them in choosing paths safely and effectively, knowing the next step if a child struggles. This adaptive technique was developed over decades through trial and error in the classroom.
Today, Montessori guides use a scientific approach to teaching, making observations, testing hypotheses, and adjusting methods to support students. We ensure that previous lessons are mastered before moving on, akin to securely fastening climbing hooks.
Aesthetics & Design
To keep the focus on what's important and not distract students, Dr Maria Montessori developed the materials to be simple and aesthetically pleasing. Colour-coding is used where it helps automate processes and there are no superfluous or whimsical decorations.
Montessori students come to appreciate the clean design and simple beauty as it speaks to their sense of order.
Cycle of Activity
The freedom of movement and relatively free choice within the Montessori environment encourage hands-on learning.
However, to ensure that children can easily transition from one activity to the next without getting distracted or stuck, the classroom environment must be set up in a special way. For one, every lesson, exercise and activity has a clear cycle of setup, action and finish.
For example, a child wishing to count numbers with the bead chains gathers the required materials (setup), then completes the activity (counting) and lastly packs away again (finish).
This cycle can be repeated as many times as the child wants, building their focus and perseverance. At the same time, if a child has misjudged their energy levels and cannot complete the whole exercise, there are ways to complete parts of the exercise before packing away, so that the work is not simply abandoned.
Integrated Spiral of Learning
Lastly, the lessons build on and connect to each other in what we call an integrated spiral. Skills are introduced, explored and revised in increasing depth and range over the years. Consider the example of the bead chains:
The bead chains are introduced sensorially in pre-primary. The children first learn how to handle them, show their equivalence with a square and make designs. Later, they may learn how to count the beads and place the number arrows.
In lower elementary (grades 1-3), the child has had some experience with the bead chains. They are comfortable using them and maybe even started counting the long chains that make cubes. Then, they are introduced to the concept of multiples - that all the little number arrows are actually the base number many times over. This is a jump-off point for further study with multiples and factors in the later years.
In upper elementary (grades 4-7), the chains are first used to determine the squares and cubes of numbers. Later, powers of numbers (exponents) are taught hands-on with the chains. And so one material accompanies the child throughout the phases, each experience building on the previous one.
The Early Childhood Program:
Montessori Curriculum for Ages 3-6
The Montessori Early Childhood classroom emphasises motor skills, functional independence and hands-on learning experiences for children from three to six years.
Learning Outcomes for Montessori Pre-Primary
This list of learning outcomes is a simplified summary. It gives an overview of what children experience and work on during the three years they are in pre-primary. Families enrolled with One Tree Montessori Schools may book an appointment to look through the full curriculum documents at the office.
Practical Life
Children learn to participate in daily classroom life with joy and curiosity. They build confidence, actively take part in lessons and build effective social skills (like asking for help, cooperative problem-solving and managing their emotions. Managing transitions confidently, they also learn to choose their own work, persevere when it gets challenging and be flexible when they have to wait or shift their plans.
Practical Life materials and Grace & Courtesy lessons build fine and gross motor control so children can handle equipment and tools safely and move appropriately in the classroom. They participate in self-care and maintaining their environment by regulating their physical activity (like eating), cleaning up and getting dressed themselves. Children also learn to use tools for arts and crafts as well as appreciate the art work of others.
Sensorial
Senses & Geometry
Children learn to order, pair, compare and discuss everything they perceive through their senses of touch, sight, hearing and muscle memory. They safely explore the senses of taste and smell and are introduced to geometrical concepts through a hands-on approach of shapes and solids.
Geography
Aspects of Geography (also included in the cultural subjects) are introduced "sensorially", i.e. through the senses. Children explore land, water and air formations including the oceans, continents, and weather. They also learn about countries and their flags.
Language
Medium of Instruction
At One Tree Montessori, English is the medium of instruction and German is offered on a first- and foreign language level. In the pre-primary, German is taught through an immersive approach to learning, where volunteers trained in-house engage the children in German as if it was their mother tongue. This develops a natural fluency. The outcomes below are the same for both languages, although multilingual children will mix up the languages and express themselves simpler in the second language. This is completely natural and normal.
Listening & Speaking
Children listen and speak effectively in a variety of situations, asking questions to clarify or gain information.
Writing & Composition
They develop foundational writing skills for cursive letters, which include understanding letter-sound correspondence, constructing words and phrases and effective pencil control). Experimenting with composition, they dictate, write or draw a variety of texts, show awareness of punctuation and capitalisation rules and begin adding details to their texts.
Reading & Comprehension
Children decode written words using letter-sound correspondence for single letters and digraphs (like sh in fish), build fluency in reading words and understand basic features of print. They read or listen to grade-level texts with purpose, asking and answering questions about text elements.
Grammar & Word Study
Learning about the parts of speech, they understand that different words do different things and explore patterns across words (like affixes and roots) they know.
Mathematics
Through the maths lessons, children learn to explain their thinking, use models or tools to show reasoning and identify patterns that exist within the materials.
Numeracy
They demonstrate understanding of counting, 1-to-1 correspondence and number symbols for the range 1 to 1,000 using the Montessori materials, recognise place value of units, tens, hundreds and thousands and know that 0 is merely a placeholder.
Operations
Children practice performing all four operations (addition, multiplication, subtraction and division) with the Montessori materials, using them also to explore essential combinations of maths facts. There is evidence of them moving to more abstract methods over time.
Fractions & Money
Children demonstrate understanding of the language and concept of fractions and begin using the materials to perform all four operations with fractions. They also identify and name Namibian coins and notes, counting coins up to $1.00.
Cultural Subjects (Science & Social Studies)
Geography & History
Children explore concepts of land, water and air, including continents, oceans and the weather. They explore globes and maps and study countries and their flags. Demonstrating an understanding of past, present and future, they retell and order events chronologically and have an awareness of ways to measure time.
Biology & Science
Children study the living environment around them, differentiating living and non-living, plants and animals as well as vertebrates and invertebrates. Children identify the parts and needs of plants and animals, demonstrating understanding that they need different habitats to survive. They further explore physical phenomena and can sort objects into magnetic/non-magnetic, sink/float or translucent/opaque. They also explore pushing and pulling and describe the speed and direction of a movement.
Arts, Civics & Economics
Children are exposed to a variety of art works, exploring them sensorially and becoming aware of different styles, compositions, subjects and themes. They demonstrate understanding of civics and economics by identifying leadership, participating in problem-solving and explaining what money is and how it is used.
The Elementary Classroom: Montessori Learning Outcomes for Grades 1 - 7
The Montessori elementary curriculum is designed for the age groups 6-9 and 9-12, extending to grade 7 here in Namibia. It fosters respect for others and independence in children, teaching them writing and reading in order to explore the world.
Standards for the Junior & Senior Primary Montessori Classroom
This list of learning outcomes is a simplified summary. It gives an overview of what children experience and work on during the years they are in each phase. Families enrolled with One Tree Montessori Schools may book an appointment to look through the full curriculum documents at the office.
Practical Life
Children learn to take responsibility for the wellbeing of the group, how to problem-solve collaboratively and recover from disappointment. In the lower elementary (junior primary), they focus on building foundational group skills. In the upper elementary, they expand these skills into leadership, accepting multiple perspectives and tolerating ambiguity.
Children in both phases actively shape their learning journey, planning and evaluating their work, setting goals and learning to persist in the face of challenge and longer projects. They work towards mastery rather than adult approval, participate in the maintenance of the classroom, organise outings and learn advanced practical skills as made possible by real-life needs and opportunities.
Mathematics
Children solve problems with increasing complexity and abstraction in this curriculum area, communicating their thoughts and reasoning through words, models and charts. They look for and identify patterns in the materials and the world around them.
Numeracy
Children consolidate their numeracy skills in lower elementary, demonstrating understanding of counting, place value, odd/even and comparing numbers of the decimal system from one to one million. They read and write numbers in various forms and round them to the nearest 10, 100 or 1,000. In upper elementary, they demonstrate a deeper understanding of the same concepts and can show that a digit in one place is 10 times more or 10 times less than the one next to it.
Operations
Children talk about addition, multiplication, subtraction and division using the correct and specific vocabulary. In lower elementary, they perform all whole-number operations and solve word problems using the materials to their full capacity and move towards abstraction. In upper elementary, they do so completely in the abstract.
Memorisation & Patterns
Children in the lower elementary work on memorising all math facts up to 12 and learn to apply properties of addition and multiplication to identify patterns and solve problems. In upper elementary, they demonstrate proficiency, fluency and accuracy in the math facts and use the properties of addition and multiplication to generate equivalent expressions.
Multiples & Factors
In lower elementary, children learn to use the relevant vocabulary for multiples and factors. In upper elementary, they demonstrate understanding of multiples, factors and divisibility including prime numbers.
Fractions & Decimals
Children demonstrate understanding of real, improper and mixed fractions and equivalence, sensorially performing all four operations with the materials in lower elementary. In upper elementary, they move towards abstraction, including unlike fractions in the operations. They also demonstrate understand of decimals by writing, reading and performing all four operations with them.
Algebra
Children in lower elementary demonstrate understanding of the concept and notation of squares and cubes using the materials. In upper elementary, they expand this to include square and cube roots, exponents, signed numbers and algebraic expressions.
Ratio & Percent
Children in upper elementary demonstrate understanding of the concept of ratio, percent and proportions.
Measurement & Data
Children collect and organise data, representing it with a variety of graphs they also interpret. In upper elementary, they learn to describe distributions and begin to understand statistical variability.
In lower elementary, children measure length, capacity and mass in standard units, work with time to the nearest five minutes, use money and solve problems for all of these. In upper elementary, they learn to understand relative sizes of units within a system, convert between units within a system and solve problems for all of these.
Geometry
Children in lower elementary identify and compose a variety of 2D and 3D shapes, can name and draw different lines and angles and learn about congruency. They understand the concept and finding of area and perimeter, can measure angles and use a variety of tools to construct shapes.
In upper elementary, children classify shapes on their attributes, lines and angles. They further understand the concepts of volume and surface area and can deduce and use the formulas for area, volume and surface area. They construct a variety of shapes, demonstrate an understanding of the Pythagorean Theorem using materials and accurately use four-place coordinate systems.
Language
These curriculum outcomes are based on a first-language development, but the Montessori lessons and materials are equally applicable to foreign language learners. This is due to their interactivity, differentiation capabilities and inherent error control – making learning a language (whether first or foreign) easy and engaging.
It is important to note that usually, foreign language learners move through the language curriculum at a slower pace with more time for vocabulary building and revision, especially for students with no previous experience in German. Indeed, for such children, the lower elementary phase focuses exclusively on developing receptive language (understanding, listening and word recognition), building vocabulary and phonemic skills (letter-sound association, rhymes, blending and segmenting, syllabication, etc.).
As always, the curriculum is adaptive and tailored to each child’s needs and abilities.
Foundations & Spoken Language
In lower elementary, children demonstrate understanding of a variety of strategies when decoding words and develop fluency, expression and accuracy while reading. They engage in collaborative discussions, prepare a variety of presentations with different media and work on their presenter skills.
In upper elementary, children further use combined knowledge of phonics and word-analysis skills to read longer, unfamiliar words even if out of context. Their collaborative discussions increase in depth and range, focusing on different perspectives and citing evidence for opinions. They prepare advanced presentations with different media and tailor them to the purpose and audience.
Writing & Composition
Children in both phases demonstrate knowledge of spelling, punctuation, sentence building and paragraphs when writing in a variety of contexts. While lower elementary students being using technology to compose texts, upper elementary students demonstrate proficient keyboarding skills to publish and collaborate using technology.
In lower elementary, children produce writing for a task and purpose. They plan, revise and edit. In upper elementary, children produce increasingly coherent writing structured for a task, purpose and audience. They rewrite drafts and try new approaches with support. In both phases, children explore writing different genres in increasing complexity.
Reading & Comprehension
Children in both phases evaluate and analyse grade-level texts in increasing depth. In lower elementary, word study focuses on affixes and compound words, as well as homographs, antonyms and synonyms as a vocabulary building exercise. In upper elementary, these skills are used to determine the meaning and spelling of unfamiliar words.
Children in both phases further work to use rich and suitable vocabulary aided by a range of reference materials. In lower elementary, children explore grammar and the parts of speech sensorially, identifying, conjugating and using them correctly in writing and speaking. In upper elementary, children also classify the parts of speech.
Children in lower elementary analyse simple sentences and identify the functions of all parts, using them to build new sentences. In upper elementary, they analyse compound and complex sentences, writing sentences which include clauses.
Sciences (Biology & Physics)
Botany & Zoology
Children in both phases study the timeline, evolution and extinction of life across earth's history. In lower elementary, Botany and Zoology focus on simple parts and needs of plants and animals and how they help the organisms survive and grow. In upper elementary, children demonstrate an understanding of the internal and external parts and how they help with survival, behaviour, growth and reproduction in different habitats. They classify organisms according to external features first, and later according to shared ancestry using the tree of life system.
The Human Body
Children in lower elementary demonstrate an understanding of the different body parts and their functions, while children in upper elementary identify internal and external structures and how they help with survival, behaviour, growth and reproduction. This includes health & diseases, sex education, drug abuse and other important information.
Ecology & Evolution
Children in upper elementary demonstrate understanding of healthy ecosystems, adaptations and evolution.
Matter & Laws, Light & Sound
Children in lower elementary demonstrate understanding that matter exists in different states and is impacted by temperature, as well as a basic understanding of sound and light properties. Children in upper elementary expand their understanding to include atoms and chemical reactions, as well as how waves work and are used to transmit information.
Forces & Energy
Children in lower elementary begin to understand that there are different types of forces and how they impact things, and that energy is needed for life. Upper elementary children start measuring forces and their impact, describe energy conversions and apply their knowledge of light, sound, heat and electricity to transferring energy.
Social Studies (Geography & History)
History
Children in lower elementary study natural history and human life on Earth with a focus on shared fundamental needs and the impact of weather, climate and other natural phenomena. In upper elementary, they demonstrate understanding of how certain characteristics influence population distribution and movement. Both phases utilise and create timelines and historical sources to learn about and show events.
Economics & Time
Children in lower elementary explore concepts of trade and demonstrate understanding that a complex network of people and tasks is required for communities. They learn about the origins of the names of the days and months and why people measure time the way we do.
Children in upper elementary demonstrate understanding of local, regional and global patterns in trades and economics, the impact of migrations and globalisation and the daily changes in lights and shadows caused by the rotation and revolution of the Earth.
Maps & Civics
Both phases use and draw maps in increasing complexity and variety, understand the concept of citizenship and explore how local, regional, national and global communities, governments and organisations shape people's lives.
