More than play: the purposeful work in Montessori

If you’ve ever visited the primary or elementary classrooms at  Mia Montessori, you may have noticed something that sounds a little surprising at first: children talk about choosing their work.

Not their activity.
Not their assignment.
Not even their play.

Their work.

For families new to Montessori, this language can feel formal for early childhood education. But in a Montessori environment, the word work is intentional, respectful, and deeply meaningful.

“Play is the work of the child.”
— Dr. Maria Montessori

Honoring the Child’s Effort

The term comes from the observations of Maria Montessori, who saw that children are not passive learners. They are active builders of themselves. When a child carefully pours water, traces sandpaper letters, builds the Pink Tower, or solves a math problem, they are doing more than playing. They are:

• Developing coordination

• Refining concentration

• Strengthening independence

• Building neural pathways for future learning

Calling it work acknowledges the focus and effort children invest in these tasks. It communicates that what they are doing matters, because for the child, play is a serious and purposeful activity.  

“ Grown-ups think of play as a purposeless occupation that keeps children happy and out of mischief, but actually when children are left to play by themselves very little of their activity is purposeless. ”

-Dr. Maria Montessori, Maria Montessori Speaks to Parents

Concentration Is the Real Goal

In a Montessori classroom, uninterrupted work cycles allow children to fully immerse themselves in a task. When a child becomes deeply focused—sometimes for 20, 30, or even 60 minutes—they are developing one of the most important foundations for lifelong learning: the ability to concentrate.

This is why we protect long work periods in our programs. You can learn more about how our classrooms are structured on our Programs page.

Independence Builds Confidence

Montessori work is carefully designed so children can complete it independently—from beginning to end.

They choose it.
They carry it.
They complete it.
They return it.

This cycle builds confidence in a powerful way. Instead of relying on constant adult direction, children begin to see themselves as capable problem-solvers.If you’re curious about how independence develops in early childhood, our Montessori philosophy page shares more about our approach.

“A child’s work is based on doing things for their own sake… through their work they are building who they will become.”

— Dr. Maria Montessori, Maria Montessori Speaks to Parents
 

Work Is Joyful

Importantly, Montessori work is not rigid or pressured. It is joyful, hands-on, and self-directed. When children are free to choose meaningful tasks in a thoughtfully prepared environment, their “work” feels deeply satisfying. You’ll often hear a child say:

“I’m not done with my work yet.”

That sense of ownership is exactly what we hope to nurture.

Preparing for Life — Not Just School

When we use the word work, we are also planting a seed: that learning is purposeful and valuable.

Children who experience meaningful work develop:

• Persistence

• Responsibility

• Intrinsic motivation

• Respect for their environment

These qualities extend far beyond the classroom.

At Mia Montessori, we see each day that children are not simply learning letters and numbers—they are engaged in the important work of building themselves. As part of our commitment to partnership and transparency, we warmly invite parents to observe a morning work cycle in the classroom. During these quiet observation mornings, families often witness the calm focus, independence, and intrinsic motivation that define a Montessori environment. 

Montessori classrooms call it “work”  because children are doing the important work of building themselves—intellectually, socially, and emotionally. It respects the child. In a Montessori classroom, children are doing real, developmentally appropriate tasks—pouring, building, reading, calculating, problem-solving. Calling it “work” honors the effort and focus children invest, just as we would with adults.

The Science of Reading

In an effort to improve literacy, there is a movement across North America focused on The Science of Reading. It is an interdisciplinary body of research spanning 50 years spanning several fields including cognitive psychology, neuroscience and linguistics. It has been developed based on empirical evidence, rather than being curriculum focused. The Science of Reading emphasizes the importance of systematically teaching foundational skills like phonemic awareness (the sounds of individual letters), phonics (the relationship between sounds and letters), fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

Although the Science of Reading is a new approach to reading in traditional education, Dr Montessori developed the principles over 150 years ago for application in Montessori early childhood (primary) and elementary environments. The Montessori approach, similar to the Science of Reading, emphasizes building foundational skills through a scientifically researched, structured, multi-sensory approach.

How does a Montessori guide (teacher) teach a child to read?

Phonemic awareness and phonics

In a Montessori environment, phonemic awareness is developed first with oral language and then writing activities. The sound cylinders, a Sensorial material, help the child build and increase their awareness of the tone and pitch of sounds. The Sandpaper Letters are a tactile material that help the child associate letter sounds with their symbols. The Moveable Alphabet engages the child in a tactile exploration of writing. In a Montessori environment, the child is guided through the process of recognizing that language is made up of sounds, that each sound is represented by a letter and by blending these sounds together they can form words.

Multi-Sensory Learning

A foundational element of Montessori education is the use of multi-sensory materials. The materials engage multiple senses, which helps the child strengthen their understanding of sounds, symbols and word formation. For example, when working with the Sandpaper Letters, a child traces letters formed of sandpaper (tactile and muscular), sees the symbol (visual), and hears and says the sound of the letter (auditory). Similarly, when working with the Moveable Alphabet, the child practices building words with their hands (tactile and muscular) as they see the letter symbols (visual) and say the letter sounds (auditory). This reinforces phonetic language and word structure.

Systemic ad Sequential Instruction

Montessori materials are structured sequentially, from simple to more complex. This allows children to build their knowledge gradually and incrementally, ensuring a sound foundation (pun intended). Children start with basic sounds, progressing to phonograms and puzzle words. The materials teach the children through a variety of methods - encoding (i.e. writing), decoding (i.e. reading) and eventually leading to fluency. This systemic approach is advocated by the Science of Reading.

Vocabulary

In a Montessori environment children are introduced to vocabulary in every area of the curriculum. Children are presented with precise terms, synonyms for words they already know and complex, multi-syllable words that many would think are too advanced for a young child. The Montessori teacher understands there is no limit to the quantity of complex words children can learn, as long as the vocabulary is used in the right context (for example, a child may get ‘injured’, ‘hurt’ or ‘cut’, rather than get an ‘owie’).

Encoding before Decoding

While the Science of Reading method focuses specifically on reading, the Montessori method focuses on all aspects of language skills and culminates in reading. In fact, writing comes before reading in a Montessori classroom. Dr. Montessori understood that writing is easier for the child than reading. Writing is encoding and involves a child putting together sounds they know to build words. Reading is decoding, or taking words apart to identify their sounds and putting them back to understand their meaning. When a child reads, they are presented with a whole word and must take the word apart to identify its sounds and then put it back together to understand its meaning. Only when the child is confident with writing (encoding) does the Montessori method progress to reading (decoding).

The Montessori method was developed over a 100 years ago, based on research, study and experimentation. The Science of Reading has similarly been based on research and experimentation and embraces many of the same Montessori principles for reading. Both methods follow a structured, phonics-based, multi-sensory, and sequential approach. A key difference is that Montessori understands the value in learning to write before beginning to read.

What causes Montessori elementary students to thrive?

It’s no secret that children thrive in a Montessori environment. In fact, the longer a child has the opportunity to learn in a Montessori environment, the more benefits they receive coupled with a lifelong love of learning. So many of our students come back after moving to traditional high schools and universities and share their perspectives, only fully appreciating the benefits a Montessori foundation gave them now that they’re able to perceive it from the ‘other side’.

Montessori classrooms are fundamentally different from traditional ones. They are so unique in fact that it is hard to identify the differences that contribute to enabling children to thrive. We could write an entire book on this (and in fact, many have - refer to Paula Polk Lillard’s book Montessori Today for more information on the workings of a Montessori elementary classroom), for now, here are 5 key factors that contribute to your child’s success.

Children have choices. There’s no one-size-fits-all curriculum

Think about when you do your best work. Is it when you’re engaged and passionate about the topic and you freely choose it? Or is it when someone assigns you a task? Autonomy is a huge factor in motivation, and Montessori elementary enables children to have a say in their learning. Of course, each child has to learn certain skills; mastering arithmetic isn’t optional. But instead of forcing each child to complete the same worksheet, the Montessori elementary classroom ensures repetition by offering a variety of materials for practicing a given skill - for example, multiplication practice includes work with the Bead Chains, the Stamp Game, the Checkerboard, the Large Bead Frame, and the Flat Bead Frame.

Students are encouraged to be curious. They are engaged and love learning. When we take our students on field trips, the people we encounter, from museum guides to park rangers, regularly comment that our students are the most curious and engaged group of children they have seen. This is common feedback for Montessori elementary schools - children love learning, because they have a chance to be actively engaged in the process.

The classroom is full of materials, instead of textbooks and worksheets

A lot of the work in traditional elementary schools is focused on textbooks and worksheets. While there is nothing wrong with this (as we love reading as well!) you won’t find textbooks in a Montessori elementary classroom. Many visitors to the classroom comment - how do the children learn then? What curriculum is taught to them?

Dr. Montessori viewed the early elementary years as a critical stage in the mind’s development, when the concrete thinking of the preschool years matures into abstract thinking. During the Primary years, children explored many materials, such as the Trinomial Cube or the Golden Beads, primarily for the sensorial interest. Now, in elementary, children use materials to understand how the world works. They are interested in the why and the how of things; they’ve become “reasoning explorers of the abstract”. The materials in Montessori are not mere instructional aids: Just like in Primary, much of their learning happens as the children use the materials to explore topics from grammar to division, from the fundamental needs of man, to the role of water in erosion. With the materials, learning is focused on the world; children acquire a mindset of thinking about things and figuring them out, rather than memorizing words or processes because an adult says so.

Teachers are guides, not lecturers

In traditional elementary education, a lot of the teaching happens at an all-class level where students generally move through the same curriculum at the same pace. This is truer now more than ever before, as mandatory standardized testing forces teachers to ensure that all students meet common minimum standards. This approach by definition fails to optimally challenge most of the students, most of the time. For example, a child who is advanced in a subject will be bored and one who is behind will quickly become anxious and concerned about their shortcomings.

Montessori is different. Most instruction happens in small groups as teachers observe students and bring together children who are ready for a particular lesson. After the lesson, each child has time to practice a skill or further explore an area, either alone or with freely chosen partners. They have time to think, and they are kept interested because they are consistently challenged.

In a Montessori classroom, an advanced student will be challenged to perform at their best. For example, it’s not unusual for a 3rd grade Montessori student to tackle what would typically be considered 5th grade math. At the same time, a child who struggles can get the extra support they need without suffering the negative effect on their self-esteem that comes from needing remedial work in a traditional elementary school setting.

Children learn with and from each other, in a mixed-age environmenT

In traditional education, the emphasis in preschool is on “socializing” the child, and children are expected to do things together in groups. Come elementary schools, class time is largely focused on individual work, in strictly same-age classrooms, and social interactions are limited to recess and lunch.

This approach - a focus on group activities in preschool, and individual activities in elementary school—is fundamentally wrong, according to Montessori. It all comes down to Montessori’s scientifically tested (and now validated) Stages of Development. Young children in preschool are focusing on building themselves - left to their own devices, they often choose to do things by themselves, and much activity in a Montessori Primary class is in fact individual work. As children near the end of Primary, they often start to work together in pairs. In fact, becoming interested in and able to work with a peer is one indication that a child is ready to move up to elementary!

In Montessori elementary, children interact with each other, across age groups, all day. You’ll often see 2-4 children working together on projects, negotiating roles and learning social skills in a safe, supervised setting as they choose co-workers and figure out that they can work with a range of companions, not just with their closest friends.

The Montessori mixed-age elementary classroom encourages them to grow into a community and practice important social skills everyday, instead of competing with each other on adult-assigned, similar tasks.

The day has two 3 hour work Cycles, instead of a schedule where activities are constantly changeD

As adults today, our concentration and focus levels are decreasing at an alarming rate. It’s unlikely you need the results of recent studies to prove the impact that emails, social media, notifications and other digital distractions are having on your own ability to concentrate on individual tasks (though, in case you’re not in the majority, studies show concentration levels have declined at an alarming 33% in the past 10 years alone).

Now, more than ever before, the ability to concentrate and focus on the task at hand is vitally important - not only for our intellect and ability to achieve tasks, but general mental health as well.

Protecting children from interruptions when productively engaged is key to their development of concentration and interest in their work. Dr. Montessori commented that traditional schools have broken up the day in many short time periods in an attempt to hold the children’s interest. In fact, it’s had the opposite effect as children remain mentally fatigued despite the alleged benefit of variety.

In contrast, Montessori schools have proven that children need a cycle of work for which they are mentally prepared. Intelligent work that is interesting is not fatiguing and children shouldn’t be cut off from it by a call to play, or change in topic. Interest is not immediately born and if, when it has been created, the work is withdrawn, it is like depriving a whetted appetite of the food that will satisfy it.

Therefore, there’s no morning recess at a Montessori elementary school. There isn’t an hour-by-hour schedule. It’s one of the most overlooked benefits of a Montessori elementary class - that children have time and space to think.

Montessori elementary classrooms are very different from traditional schools and these are just some of the factors that contribute to an environment that enables children to thrive.

What is cosmic education?

Dr. Montessori called the program for Elementary aged children - the between 6 and 12 years old - Cosmic Education. Why?

Because during the second plane of development, children experience an innate need to use:  

1. Their imagination to envision concepts that they cannot necessarily see

2. Their reasoning minds to make sense of how each new idea fits into the big picture.

Therefore at this time, we need to give them the universe, the world - the cosmos.

The Primary child was learning to become an individual and the Elementary child is learning to become an individual within a society - firstly in the class, and then in the broader community. To do this the skills they need to build are responsibility, independence, the ability to think for themselves, generosity, consideration for others, empathy, and a desire to serve - these are the characteristics contribute to a harmonious society.

So how does this happen?

We Start with the Big Picture

First, we need to make children aware of their history - the history of the human being. That everything they have around them - from the pencils they use to the country and world they live in, were gifted to us from other people serving their society. Further still, understanding biology and zoology teaches them the interrelatedness and interdependency of nature.

Cosmic Education starts with the whole, (i.e. the universe), and works toward the parts, (i.e. individual cultures, history, geography, life forms, etc.). This gives the child a foundational sense of perspective. Within the big picture of the universe, everything the child learns is connected. Children use this big picture perspective to mentally organize new information. Information gains relevance when it’s understood as connected parts of a whole and is essential in capturing children’s interest.

It should be realized that genuine interest cannot be forced. Therefore, all methods of education based on centers of interest chosen by the adult are wrong. Moreover, these centers of interest are superfluous, for the child is interested in everything. A global vision of cosmic events fascinates children and their interest will soon remain fixed on one particular part as a starting point for more intensive studies. Thus, the way leads from the whole, via the parts, back to the whole. The children will develop a kind of philosophy that teaches them the unity of the universe. This is the very thing to organize their intelligence and to give them a better insight into their own place and task in the world, at the same time presenting a chance for the development of their creative energy.

- Dr. Maria Montessori

The Imagination

The elementary years are the most significant developmental years for the child’s imagination. The child, who previously had to experience concepts through his or her senses, can now imagine ideas without physically experiencing them. Compelled by their growing imagination, the elementary child will seek information that corresponds with their interests.

Human consciousness comes into the world as a flaming ball of imagination. Everything invented by man, physical or mental, is the fruit of someone’s imagination. In the study of history and geography, we are helpless without imagination, and when we propose to introduce the universe to the child, what but imagination can be of use to us?

- Dr. Maria Montessori

The Reasoning Mind

According to Dr. Montessori, children transition from the Absorbent Mind stage into the Reasoning Mind stage at about age six or seven. Children no longer soak up information spontaneously and without conscious effort.

Learning happens very differently now. Children are less drawn to mimicry and repetition, and are more inclined toward abstract thinking in areas of science, history, geography and more.

Children at this age are also developing important social skills. Thus, they are far more interested in engaging with others in their environment. These children are making the transition from working (and playing) alongside peers to working with them cooperatively. They become interested in their extended community and have an ever-broadening sense of social awareness.

Learning about the interconnected and interdependent nature of the cosmos helps children understand their role and importance in serving through their actions. For younger children in the elementary class, it may be something as simple as telling another child the time or helping them tie their shoelaces. As they get older the services they can provide are more involved. The teacher helps them gain an awareness of their unique strengths and areas of development, and emphasising their strengths makes them think about how they can use them to contribute to the broader society.

The Five Great Lessons - the catalyst to the Montessori Elementary curriculum

In the beginning…there was darkness…

Isn’t that a great way to start a story? Pausing for dramatic effect, watching the children’s eyes go big with anticipation of what’s to come.

And so begins the first of The Five Great Lessons - the catalyst to the Montessori Elementary curriculum. They’re meant to inspire and ignite the child’s imagination. Told too quickly, the lessons become meaningless, causing the children’s imaginations to jump from one concept to another.

When we imagine, we are using abstract thought to think of things that cannot be seen. The follow-up lessons that come from each of the Five Great Lessons are used to materialize these abstractions. In other words, the children prove the existence of the wonders of the universe through concrete exploration.

The Five Great Lessons form the foundation of the Montessori elementary environment. The excitement that they foster drives the child’s work in the classroom. The Great Lessons lead to further discussion - What was happening during the First Great Lesson? Which of these concepts was most interesting?

It leads them to research the topics they are most interested in. They start by recording their questions in their journal, including the date, time and heading of their interest - written in full sentences. The materials in the Montessori Elementary classroom supports the research the students will need to find the answer.

A younger student generally works with an older one, to encourage collaborative learning. For the younger child, they have someone to work with and look up to. For the elder child, this reinforces their own learning by having to explain and guide the younger child through the work.

Not all students need to be working on the same topic at the same time. Older students may have ideas about what they want to research while younger students are just learning how to conduct research. The Montessori teacher encourages students to use books and computers to gather research, take notes, and write reports. They are always asked to write their reports in their own words. Math and language go hand in hand with this, allowing students a greater opportunity to explore. Students cannot conduct research if they cannot read; they cannot calculate light years if they cannot do math.

The Five Great Lessons are the curriculum guide for the Montessori Elementary classroom.

Introduction to Practical Life

A child’s work is to create the person they will become. An adult works to perfect the environment but a child works to perfect themself.”

- Dr. Montessori

This distinction is best illustrated by a father and son, planting a tree on a hot day. Both are shovelling soil to create space for the tree. If anyone offers help to the father, he accepts gladly, grateful for a break. The son however, clings possessively to the shovel because he is the only one that can do this work. By constant repetition of movement, he is strengthening his muscles, perfective coordination and gaining confidence in a particular skill.

The Practical Life exercises in a Montessori classroom are designed to satisfy the child’s need for meaningful activity and to support their learning of the following key skills:

• Control of movement

• Concentration

• Self-confidence

• Independence

• Adaptability

• Social awareness (grace & courtesy)

The Practical Life activities consist of familiar objects that a child normally sees every day. The goal of these activities is not only to help children build self-confidence in their working abilities, but to expose the children to fundamental work that builds up their concentration span with activities they will encounter through adulthood. For the young child there is something special about tasks that an adult considers ordinary - washing dishes, cutting celery, arranging flowers. They are exciting precisely because they imitate adults and imitation is one of the child’s strongest urges during these early years.

Although the Practical Life exercises may seem simple and commonplace, they are actually a very important part of the Montessori program. Each of the tasks helps a child perfect coordination which indirectly prepares them for later academic work. Without concentration and attention, future learning cannot take place and these practical life exercises help them to gradually lengthen the time in which they can focus their attention on a specific activity.

Introduction to Sensorial

Adults and children alike experience the world through their senses - their eyes, ears, hands, nose and mouth. A young child in particular meets the world through the constant use of all their senses. To examine a new object, a baby will look at it, hold it to feel the texture and weight, shake it or lick it.

As the child quite naturally uses all powers of observation during the early years, Dr. Montessori believed that this was the ideal time to give them the equipment to sharpen their senses and enable them to understand the many impressions they receive through them.

The Sensorial materials in a Montessori classroom help children become aware of details by offering, at first, strongly contrasted sensations, such as smooth vs. rough or light vs. heavy to appreciate differences. Secondly, children develop likeness through matching exercises, for instance the 1st Colour Tablets include matching two red tablets, two blue tablets etc. Following this children move into variously graded sensations, for example the 3rd Colour Tablet box grades colours from darkest to lightest.

Each of the Sensorial materials isolate one defining quality. For example, colour, weight, shape, texture, size, sound, smell, etc. The materials emphasise one particular quality by eliminating or minimising other differences. Therefore, the Colour Tablets, for example, are all the same size, the same shape, the same texture - their only difference is colour.

Why do we educate the senses? It’s possible for adults and children alike to receive a plethora of sensory impressions without any increased effect. Two adults can attend an art exhibition together. One experiences great pleasure and the other, with equally sharp eyesight, is bored and weary. Sense impressions are not enough by themselves. The mind needs to be educated and trained to be able to discriminate and appreciate.

Likewise, children can also remain unmoved by a myriad of sensory impressions in their everyday environment. They don’t need more and more impressions, but rather the ability to understand what they are perceiving.

The Montessori Sensorial materials help children to distinguish, categorise and relate new information to what they already know.

Some of the most widely recognised Montessori materials are Sensory materials - The Pink Tower, The Broad Stairs and the Red Rods - were the first materials Dr. Montessori introduced in her classroom, over 100 years ago. She did not invent them, but rather borrowed them from tools that were used by psychologists at the time to test psychological capacity of adults. The psychometric tests at that time were an indicator of an adult’s intelligence as they either passed or failed depending on whether they had learned and ingrained the concepts at a young age. By introducing these materials in the classroom with children, she ensured that their brain’s developed to learn these concepts from the start.

Introduction to Language

Dr. Montessori recognised that a young child has a natural sensitivity for language development that starts in the womb. Children from 2 to 6 years have a unique fascination for words - written and spoken - they can build a vocabulary from about 200 to 10,000 words over this period. This fascination is what allows them to begin writing and reading before the age that its traditionally taught.

The Montessori teacher is able to follow each child’s period of interest and introduce the materials associated with language at the optimal time. Acknowledging that a child has already gained language (i.e. the mother tongue) before starting in the classroom, the teacher starts with sound games leading on to Sandpaper Letters which allow the child to come to writing with ease. Building words using the Movable Alphabet nearly always precedes reading in a Montessori environment.

For writing, children need two skills - the memory of the shape of letters and their corresponding sounds, as well as the muscular ability to use a writing instrument with control.

Acquiring both skills at the same time can be very discouraging and frustrating. The materials designed by Dr. Montessori offer children the opportunity to learn the shapes and sounds of the letters in a way that is independent from perfecting the motor skill. For example, the child can gain confidence in their ability to write by using the Movable Alphabet which allows the child to compose without the underdeveloped hand getting in the way. Children in Montessori classrooms learn to write, not by writing, but by performing a variety of purposefully structured activities that prepare them directly and indirectly for success in handwriting.

Some children read at four, some at five and some at six. The actual age isn’t as important as their level of readiness. If they begin too early, they’ll be discouraged. If they’re forced to wait and the time passes their initial period of interest then they’ll miss the golden opportunity when they’re propelled by their own natural enthusiasm. The freedom of Montessori allows children’s own interests to determine their progress.

Introduction to Mathematics

The basic concepts of math are learned by a child in two ways - either using concrete materials at an age when they enjoy manipulating equipment, or abstractly when they are older and in elementary grades.

Dr. Montessori showed that if a child has access to mathematical materials in their early years, they can easily and happily assimilate many facts and skills of arithmetic. These same concepts on the other hand, may require long hours and drill learning if they are introduced later, in abstract form.

In a Montessori classroom, a child first experiences the concepts of 1, 10, 100, 1000 by holding these quantities in their hands, before they’re introduced to the the symbols for these quantities.

As they get more familiar and comfortable with numbers 1 - 10, the decimal system is introduced moving from quantity to symbol. Fundamentally, they are learning by discovery - not by being told - and slowly they develop an enthusiasm for the world of numbers.

Mathematical operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are done in a similar way - using concrete materials that are manipulated to understand and arrive at the solution. Slowly they’re weaned off materials and moved to the abstract as they grow older and start to gain an understanding of concepts.

Introduction to Cultural Studies

The Cultural Studies area of the classroom encompasses a variety of subjects that are supplementary to the Montessori method. Cultural subjects include: Geography, Science, Botany, Zoology, and Art & Music. Exploring these subjects provide children an opportunity to explore their curiosity of different worldly ideas.

Studying Geography and Foreign Languages allows children the opportunity to understand the immensity of the planet as well as understanding their own culture and that of others. Children can relate and understand cultural diversity and ultimately come to appreciate differences between humankind and compassion for one another.

The large wooden Puzzle Maps are one of the most popular activities in the classroom. Children can move each puzzle piece by grasping little knobs (thereby also developing their pincer grip to support writing later on). The introductory map of the world has a separate puzzle piece for each continent. Following a sensorial exploration of the puzzle map, they learn the names of the continents, countries within, their flags, languages etc.

Science in the Montessori classroom allows the children to explore and work with hands-on experiments that will cultivate a lifelong interest in nature and discovering more about the physical properties of matter of our world, for example, the concepts of sink and float, magnetic and non-magnetic are taught through materials.

Through the study of Botany, the children learn to identify plants through the shapes of leaves (what they look like, how to take care of them, how they grow, etc.) so that they may appreciate nature in a more organic way.

The study of Zoology shows children animals from all around the world (where they live, their unique eco-systems, what they eat, how they’re classified, etc.).

Lastly, the study of Music allows the children a very unique opportunity to express themselves. Music is explored through The Bells, a Montessori material where the child develops and refines the auditory discrimination of pitch. Children progress from learning each note, to learning simple songs.

Culture activities facilitate children's cognitive, social and emotional development in a constructive way.