Montessori Sunday: The Prepared Environment (part 2)

This is slight continuation of my earlier post about the prepared environment. Like I said in that post, it is a huge topic (trust me on this, I wrote a 20 page paper on the subject and still only hit the high points) so I thought it deserved a second post. Last time I focused on the arrangement of materials and how this made it easier for the children to navigate the room. This weekend I want to really delve in to what it means to have things be child sized and accessible.

Child sized seems obvious. Most preschool provide chairs and table that are small enough for children to sit at properly. They often provide hooks or cubbies that are also at the child's level. Montessori does all this and adds having all the shelves be sized for the children. One will not likely find high shelves containing things for adult use only, rather everything will be at least within reach of the average 6 year old.

A Montessori room will also have a sink (or 2!) down at a level the children can reach for themselves. Ideally each classroom will have a bathroom in it, or at least very near by, that contains a child sized toilet and sink. Windows will go down almost to the floor so even the youngest child can look out without stretching.

Photo Courtesy of Montessori Services

Beyond these physical components though, a Montessori guide will ensure that all the objects in the
room can be handled by the child. A job concerned with pouring water will contain a pitcher that is the right size for a young child's smaller hands, not an adult. Cloths for wiping up spills will be small enough for the children to fold neatly and wring out if they get too wet. All the dishes for preparing and eating snacks will be smaller than normal, and light enough for children to carry easily.

The standard Montessori materials available for purchase are obviously designed for use by children, though it is still up to the guide to make sure there are appropriate trays and/or baskets to store and carry them in.

Child sized might also be re-interpreted as child accessible. A pitcher with too tight of a cap is not useful to a child because they cannot refill it themselves. Beads stored in a container that requires adult strength to open is simply asking for children to try themselves and either fail or create a huge spill. Aprons for activities obviously need to be sized for the child, but it important to have Velcro or snaps rather than the standard ties because most younger children are incapable of tying bows on their own yet.

Of course having something be child sized is not always an option. Doors need to be of normal height for safety reasons (and the comfort of the adults who need to use them!). While some well planned schools may be able to have two doors to solve this problem, most will not. Instead the doors should be light enough for children to push them open easily, with handles that turn easily for smaller hands.
Light switches may also be out of reach of children and should have extenders attached to them so children can independently turn the lights on and off.

Most important to preparing the environment for children though is to observe them using it. Simple things like angling a shelf or swapping out a tray for a basket, can make a huge difference in accommodating children's development.

Montessori Sunday: The Prepared Environment

"The things he sees are not just remembered; 

they form a part of his soul." 

Maria Montessori

So this Sunday instead of talking about a specific material I'm going to highlight the importance of the Montessori prepared environment. It is a HUGE topic, so this week I'm only going to focus on the arrangement of materials.

Like other preschool settings Montessori classroom have furniture that is child sized but it goes beyond the normal daycare. It's not just tables and chairs that are small, but the shelves, the handles of the faucet, the knobs on the door, and just about everything else is meant to be in reach of the children. Yes, this means that it is very likely children may take out a material they are not yet ready to use. That's ok. We want them to learn restraint against temptation and impulse. It also means that they do not need to wait for an adult to assist them. 

Imagine how frustrating it would be if each morning you needed to wait for your boss to provide you with your keyboard before you could get started for the day. And then when you make a typo you need to go track down that same boss and ask them for the key for the backspace button, which they then took back as soon as the typo was fixed. (Actually this sounds a lot like my days as a lowly cashier at a chain bookstore....but that's another blog....). This is basically what happens in a typical preschool setting. A child may want to do an art project but the supplies are kept out of reach and the teacher is the only one who can use the glue. The child is kept dependent upon the adult to provide them with the things they need. 

Cleaning paint off the floor by the easel.
Paint is kept at the easel all day, along with a spray bottle
to wet the watercolors as they dry out

In a Montessori classroom all these things are kept not only where the child can reach them, but they are also shown how to use them. Scissors are introduced, complete with small papers to practice snipping on, and more complicated lines when the child has mastered the basics. Pasting is an activity all it's own, and while the container of paste may be small to prevent the child from going completely overboard, it is always available and refilled when necessary. 

These preparatory lessons make it so the child can successfully complete a more advanced project. A perfect example is out in our classroom right now. This flower art involves the child cutting out the stem, soil and flower from three separate pieces of paper and then gluing them together. There was one little girl who really wanted to do this work, but wasn't well versed in scissors yet that we could direct to the earlier scissor work and let her know she needed to practice that first.

The entire classroom is situated this way, and in fact the materials are even arranged on the shelves in order (especially in the math and language area) so it is easy for the child to see what they need to learn and practice before advancing to the next thing. The classroom space is also divided into four basic areas (practical life, sensorial, language and math). This division helps the child classify the types of activities, and can help the newer children become more comfortable in the classroom because most of their activities are located in one small area of the room.

A fabric wall hanging adds a colorful touch to a bare wall
(thanks mom!)

The materials of the classroom though do not just refer to the activities though. The furnishing of the room are also an important part of the environment. Montessori advocated that not only should all the items be sized for the children, but also be light enough for them to move and re-arrange as needed. She also said that the objects in the room should be in good repair and beautiful, so the children would be better able to sense their value and respect them. A table covered in nicks, scratches and pencil marks doesn't encourage a child to keep his pencil on the paper. A pristine table on the other hand will violently show up the same errant pencil and demonstrate to the child the consequence of actions.

And this furnishing goes beyond the necessities of teaching, to beautifying the classroom. Dr. Montessori came to realize that children could love and appreciate fine artwork and decorations and so she put them in the classroom. Their purpose was to expose the children to the beauty of the world, and to make the environment feel more home like and of greater importance to them. It was these small additions and attention to detail that teaches the children what respect for the environment means, and instills in them a desire to create lovely spaces.