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The Montessori Casa Curriculum
Practical Life:
Montessori felt that this curriculum area was the heart
of the classroom. Practical Life helps children to develop
many skills including order, concentration, coordination and
independence.
Order - All practical life activities
help the child develop a sense of order - some more than
others. For example, sorting activities will help the child
develop his sense of order as he learns to organize the
materials into groups. Other activities like transferring
or spooning will enable the child to develop order by repetition
of the exercise and analyzing the steps to get one material
or liquid from one container to another.
Concentration - The transferring and spooning
exercise requires the child to concentrate as he empties
one container ensuring that there are no more beans or liquids
left. The preliminary activities tend to be with materials
that are larger and with fewer steps. As the child is successful
with the preliminary exercise he will move on to do more
detailed and lengthy practical life activites. Montessori
believed strongly in having an isolation of difficulty in
her activities. This way children would not be distracted
by external stimuli which might disrupt their learning process.
By incorporating an isolation of difficulty the child will
have better success in concentration of the task at hand.
 Coordination
- All of the exercises will help the child with coordination.
Transferring requires that a child learn how to hold a spoon
or pour from one container to the next. The cutting exercises
will enable the child to master control of her hand movements
in order to successfully cut a piece of paper. Walking the
line will help the child to learn how to coordinate his
own movements as he puts one foot carefully in front of
the other. The child's coordination is challenged further
when holding a bell or a container full of water to make
sure that the ball does not sound or the water does not
spill while walking.
 Independence
- Practical life exercises are designed to aid the child
in developing a feeling of independence and success. The
materials range in difficulty and as the child works from
the simpler activities to the more difficult ones he will
feels a sense of accomplishment and confidence. "If
teaching is to be effective with young children, it must
assist them to advance on the way of independence...We must
help them to learn how to walk without assistance, to run,
to go up and down stairs, to pick up fallen objects, to
dress and undress, to wash themselves, to express their
needs in a way that is clearly understood, and to attempt
to satisfy their desires through their own efforts. All
this is part of an education for independence." (Maria
Montessori, The Discovery of the Child, pg. 57)
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Sensorial:
There have been a lot of new findings about children's interaction
with sensorial stimuli. Montessori was ahead of her time when
she conceived her sensorial curriculum to appeal to the development
of the child's senses. As Montessori knew back in the early
1900's children use very little of their visual sense and
more of their other senses when they are very young. Montessori
developed her materials to cater to the specific sensitive
period for sensorial qualities. Some of these senses are tactile,
stereognostic, baric, taste, olfactory, auditory and visual.
 Tactile
Sense - This is the sense of touch. Montessori
developed this sense by having equipment that fostered its
development. We see the sense of touch being developed in
her touch boards and touch tablets. The child will learn
to differentiate between rough and smooth and then to grade
the tablets from roughest to smoothest. The child will also
learn to have a light touch with her fingers which will
later aid her in tracing sandpaper letters.
Stereognostic Sense - This is the sense
also referred to as muscle memory. We see this being used
well in Montessori equipment of geometric solids where the
child has to try and remember the shapes only by the feel
of the solids.
 Baric
Sense - This is the sense that helps the child
distinguish weight. Montessori developed baric tablets as
each tablet has a different weight. The child has to later
grade the tablets from heaviest to lightest.
Sense of Taste - This is an exercise that
helps the children distinguish between salty, sweet and
bitter tastes. Montessori developed taste bottles that had
varying tastes and the children could put samples of those
flavours on their hands and lick them. This way the children
could explore the different tastes and learn to match them.
Olfactory Sense - This is the sense of
smell. Montessori had cylinders made with holes on the top
to reveal different smells. The child will learn to identify
the different smells as well as to match them.
Auditory Sense - This is the sense of
hearing. This sense is developed in some of Montessori's
materials by having sound cylinders. The child shakes each
cylinder and tries to match the loudest to the softest.
Also Montessori developed bells so that children can learn
to match or grade the notes of a scale. Each activity is
made to encourage discretion in hearing.
Visual Sense - This is the sense of sight.
Montessori materials utilise and develop this sense. For
example the colour tablets develop the child's ability to
distinguish colour and then to take that information into
the exterior environment. The child will learn that there
are different shades of blue but that they are all called
blue, etc. The materials are also visually appealing. We
use wood to show off the beautiful wood grain or bright
colours such as blue to entice the child to an exercise
(i.e. the geometric solids are bright blue). The point is
that with other equipment, the visual sense is used but
not to the point of being distracting. As in the geometric
solids, all the solids are blue as to make them all the
same except their shape. With the colour tablets, the child
will learn how to distinguish different colours using the
visual sense.
Click
Here to learn more about the development of the
Sensory Apparatus
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Language:
Children with autism typically have difficulty with language
development. It is important to help these children to have
a functional communication system in order for them to develop
their academic and social skills. The different sensitive
periods (described in the sensorial curriculum) contribute
to the development of language. We will briefly descibe motor
co-ordination, sensorial qualities, order, small objects and
language.
 Motor
co-ordination - Motor co-ordination contributes
to the development of language by developing the child's
precision of movement. This is essential for holding a pencil
for writing. The child can develop fine and gross motor
skills by tracing the sandpaper letters, using the moveable
alphabet, using the chalkboard and other writing activities.
Sensorial qualities - This is the development
and refinement of the senses. The senses that develop language
are auditory, visual and touch. The auditory sense is developed
by language training. This includes songs and any verbal
communication done in the classroom.
 Order
- Order is used not only in presentations given by the teacher
but also for reading and writing. The child's need for order
is fostered by having presentations done in a left to right,
top to bottom strategy. We do this because in the English
language we read and write from left to right, top to bottom.
The child also needs order and predictability in the environment
so as to have order in the mind.
Language development in autistic children is so important
as they need as much help from their environment as possible.
The environment must foster language development through imitation,
requesting objects and other reinforcements using a functional
communication system.
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Math:
Dr. Montessori believed that everyone had the capacity to
learn math and it depended on how much the child could absorb
from her environment. She felt that this would be accomplished
if the child was exposed to concrete and precise presentations
using materials that were concrete in order to understand
the abstract concept of math. This term is called materialized
abstraction.
For example, if a child were introduced to a new piece of
material, such as the unit bead and we placed one bead in
their hand and called it 1, the
child would say 1. If we brought
out another bead and said 2, the
child would still say 1 because
the child will simply see the same item. The child will usually
not grasp the concept that there is 1
and 2.
 This
is why Montessori developed the number rods. The first rod
is 4" long and is red. This represents 1
to the child. The next rod is twice as long with 4" being
red (like the first rod) and the other 4" being blue.
This is done to show the child by length that it is different
(unlike the beads above that were all the same) but it is
separated by colour so the child understands that there are
two parts. This concept is further developed with the use
of the spindle boxes where the child gets the message that
2 or 5
is made up of 2 one's or 5 one's.
The order of math is important as the mind of the child
needs order to be clear. Each material in math needs to be
done in a particular order because concepts build upon one
another. The teacher is able to be precise in understanding
where a child excels or lacks in the math curriculum because
of the way the materials build on each other. For example,
if the child has no problems doing spindle boxes but can't
lay out the numerals in the correct sequence when working
with the numerals and counters, the teacher knows that the
problem lies in sequencing and can then help the child develop
their sequencing skills.
 Another
example where order is important in the math curriculum is
in the mathematical operations. Unlike regular schools, Montessori
groups addition and multiplication together. She does the
same with subtraction and division. This is because the mind
can easily understand the concept of adding something together.
Multiplication is just an extension of addition. It is adding
the same number a certain number of times. The Montessori
method is designed to develop the child's subtraction and
division skills after she has understood addition and multiplication
because it is a more difficult concept for children to learn
as it is more abstract. The materials are always done as concretely
as possible so that the child may grasp the concepts with
ease and be successful.
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Culture:
Dr. Montessori believed that children needed the vision of
the whole in order to understand the parts. She believed that
it was important for children to learn to understand and respect
that we are interdependent with our environment. The teacher
can support the idea of interdependency by developing the
child's appreciation of each subject. In culture there are
several activities that help the children develop respect
for their environment and appreciate the interdependency of
all living things.
 In
Geography there are several exercises that
develop this style of learning. Exercises might include
having the children make a mural and having the children
draw a billion stars on it. The child will see that this
is an impossible task as stars are infinite in number. As
teachers we can show them what are galaxies are by having
the children make circle clusters or groups to show these
galaxies on the mural. At this point the teacher could introduce
'The Milky Way' as the galaxy in which we live. There are
many more activities such as the world map, the continent
map and the three elements that can help the child understand
the world. The child can learn where she lives in context
to the world as well as about other cultures that make up
our existence on earth. The three elements of land, water
and air can help the child to visualize interdependency
and apply those themes closer to home. She can see that
water, perhaps in a puddle or at the beach, and land is
everywhere. It is important for her to learn about air because
we cannot see it, yet it is all around us. When children
understand these concepts, they can learn to develop a sense
of awe for the universe of which they are a part.
 Biology
has numerous activities that the teacher can utilize to
develop the child's appreciation of interdependency. In
Zoology, children learn to classify the five different vertebrates.
The child can learns common and different features about
each type of vertebrate. By utilizing illustrations of fish,
amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, the child can learn
to appreciate the beauty and diversity of all life. These
exercises can lead to discussions and stories giving the
child more information about the specific topic. For example,
asking the child a questions such as "Have you ever
seen a fish?" can help them personalize the activity
and remember different concepts that they will absorb.
 In
the History curriculum there are activities
that aid children with learning and understanding about
different civilizations. Classified cards of past civilizations
can help the child explore these ideas. The teacher could
begin with the modern civilization so that the child had
something that she could relate to. The teacher can then
help the child to compare our civilization to that of prehistoric
times. In our western culture we have classified cards on
prehistoric, egyptian, greek, middle ages and the renaissance
periods. By introducing these civilizations in the correct
order of time, the child can learn how art, language and
medicine have changed. Dr. Montessori believed that it was
important for us to educate children about the pioneers
of the past. Science also has many activities to develop
a child's understanding of how the world works. For example,
the teacher can utilize classified cards on the different
parts of the body. Each card could isolate a different part
of the body (i.e. head or leg). This can help the child
to understand the human body and how all the parts work
together. Many autistic children will do better at the preliminary
activities while other autistic children will be drawn to
more advanced concepts. This curriculum will be taught based
on the level of development of each child.
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