Practical Life Activities Engage the 6-9 Child

In the Lower Elementary Montessori classroom, students enjoy a balance of Language, Cultural, and Math studies using concrete academic materials designed by Maria Montessori over a hundred years ago. In addition, children ages 6-9 enjoy hands-on Practical Life work which includes:

• sorting activities (which is a pre-math skill),

• pin-poking shapes, such as a continent or country puzzle piece (which aids in handwriting), 

• sewing, 

• playing a melody harp (which gives a gentle calm to the bustling classroom environment), 

• cooking food to share with the class, 

• making designs on a geometric board with colorful rubber bands, 

• building architectural models of real buildings which we are currently studying, 

• gardening (or watering indoor plants during winter months), 

• doing yoga exercises (asanas) with a partner or by oneself,

• and walking a peace labyrinth. 

Practical Life activities build a child’s motor development from fine to gross -- strengthening both the pincer grip involved in legible penmanship and the patience needed to remain engaged with a project for a length of time. Practical Life also provides students with opportunities to explore their senses and enjoy activities related to the life of the community. Practical Life is indeed a “practical” skill which the child notices improves the more s/he practices it. A child is intrinsically motivated to cook, to sew, or to build. 

This type of activity grounds a person emotionally and physically, allowing him/her the space and time to make something beautiful, delicious, or intricate. In this way, the spiritual life of the Montessori student blossoms, in giving to others and in caring for oneself. Practical Life is the essence of Montessori's Peace Education.

Honoring the Emotional Aspect of the 6-9 Child

Montessori education addresses the whole child, giving equal respect to a child's intellectual, emotional, social, physical, and spiritual needs. Many educational models focus mainly on the intellectual with lesser regard for the feelings, interactions, movements, and insights of students. One of the greatest gifts Montessori parents bestow on their children is honoring the emotional life of their child, letting him/her grow at an individual pace according to his/her strengths and areas of development. Parents and teachers may benefit from remembering Maria Montessori's belief that "it is the child who makes the man, and no man exists who was not made by the child he once was." It is our responsibility as adults to provide structures of routine and consistency, and it is imperative that we also step out of the child's way to allow for his/her own experiences.

Emotionally, the 6-9 child is becoming more independent than s/he was just last year, perhaps demonstrating rebellion against or resentment for what seems like default authority and assumed fact.  As Montessori said, "if an educational act is to be efficacious, it will be one which tends to help toward the complete unfolding of life. To be thus helpful it is necessary rigorously to avoid the arrest of spontaneous movements and the imposition of arbitrary tasks." This might fall under the category of a parent or teacher replying, "because I said so," a statement that children find (understandably) illogical. While the 6-9 child is socially very concerned with justice, emotionally s/he is simultaneously pushing at imposed limits and at times acting "out of character", though what s/he is really doing is developing character by striving toward individualism. 

While the 6-9 child is often concerned socially with belonging, emotionally s/he is chiefly concerned with personal happiness. In the Montessori classroom, social responsibility and emotional peace are balanced by daily, spontaneous problem-solving. The adult serves the child best by helping when needed and asking the child to "find a peaceful solution" or to accept that which s/he cannot change. This is a life skill that many adults still find challenging, yet children are frequently willing to discover a way of their own to make a situation feel better. This demonstrates the familiar declaration of the Montessori child: "I can do it myself," a kind reminder to adults not to intervene unless necessary.

An orderly environment has an emotional impact of great significance on the 6-9 child, who is branching out into a world that can feel scary and chaotic. The Montessori classroom is tailored to the height and viewpoint of a child, not to that of the adult. Work is arranged on low shelves sequentially, with care for beauty and space, so that a child can freely choose materials and use them (after a lesson with a teacher) without further need of an adult. S/he may also repeatedly use the work to encode learning and extend enjoyment, which has a direct impact on his/her happiness. The child feels empowered, free, and successful in the classroom, at times one of the few places in his/her world where s/he is truly trusted. Materials are self-correcting teachers of the child, who uses his/her hands to create understanding within the prepared Montessori environment. As Montessori said, "The children must be able to express themselves and thus reveal those needs and attitudes which would otherwise remain hidden or repressed in an environment that did not permit them to act spontaneously." The Montessori classroom is the child's work space, at all times accessible. 

The 6-9 child is pushing away from family a bit by meeting new people who have different skin colors, beliefs, and behaviors rather than more familiar characteristics. Montessori education values differences as well as similarities, as every child has his/her own personality, learning style, and confidence level. Children learn to look for comparisons between themselves, and Montessori guides encourage positive self-talk, a sense of striving for one's personal best, acceptance of emotions, and helpfulness within the classroom community. It can be a painful time for parents to pull back and allow your child to let go of your hand in order to strengthen his/her own sense of self. At school and at home, consistency and routine are vital to a child’s sense of stability. 

Solid partnerships in the two most important locations of your child’s life make him/her feel secure.  Montessori suggests that "an adult, if he is to provide proper guidance, must always be calm and act slowly so that the child who is watching him can clearly see his actions in all their particulars." Children absorb so much that we do not, having become with age and experience accustomed to our own posture, tone of voice, and volume. Teachers and parents model the behavior they wish to encourage in the child. When adults see a child suffering, we feel an inherent desire to either comfort or control the situation, perhaps recalling the way the child as a baby screamed in the supermarket. We were embarrassed or inconvenienced, but that child is no longer a baby. Truly respecting the 6-9 child involves asking what s/he needs at the time, rather than assuming or jumping instinctually to conclusions. 

Montessori understood that this requires mindfulness and restraint, since for adults "even to help can be a source of pride." We adults feel important when we help children, but children need to feel important by having a voice and a choice in their emotional lives. Often, when given a chance to reflect on his/her emotions, the 6-9 child will find a way to handle a situation that feels appropriate to him/her: taking some time to calm down, eating a snack (to balance blood sugar levels) or drinking water, practicing yoga in the peace corner, or journaling about a problem. Often children verbalize or demonstrate solutions that prove best to themselves, since each person knows best him/herself.

Maria Montessori implored guides trained in her method to avoid making demands of children and to instead use positive language -- telling what one wants rather than telling what one doesn't -- to model problem-solving and encourage emotional strength through words and non-violence. It is interesting, nonetheless, that Montessori admonished adults in two of her most famous sayings regarding students' emotional development: "Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed," and "Do not erase the designs the child makes in the soft wax of his inner life." Montessori students are impressionable people who are learning -- from us, the adults in their lives -- how to balance emotions and express their feelings. Children need to see that adults are not perfect, that we make mistakes, that we feel regret, that we practice courage by apologizing, that we help other people, and that we strive for our own personal best.

Honoring the Social Aspect of the 6-9 Child

Maria Montessori defined planes of development that distinguished the kindergartner from the elementary school-aged child. A main difference was social. Beginning in first grade, a child gradually pulls away from family and toward peers. This shift makes consistency at home and school crucial, since the child is experimenting with cause and effect, rules and consequences, and fairness and justice (which may not always be synonymous) in the two major arenas of his/her life. In the Montessori classroom, the child experiences respect, freedom, and responsibility both to self and to the learning environment comprised of materials, lessons, and classmates of various ages and abilities. 

Socially, the 6-9 child is passionate about justice. At this age, children create mini-societies, microcosms where they can role-play power, status, and competition and feel effects immediately. Our school year begins with a rules assembly, where the societal framework of the Constitution is placed alongside the faculty’s commitment to a mission statement honoring the whole child. School rules are a child’s version of the same expectations for behavior upheld in the larger society, explained with examples and reason. These rules are: respect the rights and needs of others, act in a safe and healthy way, treat all property with respect, and take responsibility for learning. 

Students often discuss at group the logic of these rules, imagine hypothetical (“what if…?”) situations, and work with partners to illustrate them using their hands, hearts, and minds. It is very important that the child understands for him/herself the values of the community, which mainly concern respect, responsibility, and safety. Friendships and belonging are significant at any age, and at the 6-9 level friends can quickly become foes when carefully crafted rules are bent or leaders assert themselves without being chosen. Montessori classrooms are proactive in their approach to social dynamics. Teachers follow the child and respond to needs as they arise. 

We use positive language, exercises in grace and courtesy, peace education, class meetings, and mediation. Conflict resolution is a daily endeavor in all classrooms. Teachers are available to students as guides and models for peace-making, yet the Montessori teacher is not a judge in matters of dispute. We hear concerns and remind children of their own abilities: to tell others how they feel and what they want, to understand the meaning of actions, to ask others about their intentions, and sometimes to apologize and make reparations for the future. Listening skills, the ability to take turns, and a sense of perspective in a consistent three-year cycle bring amazing insights to the 9-year-olds who leave our classes mature and caring individuals.

The 6-9 child enjoys such democratic processes while also exploring morality to understand for him/herself what seems good and what seems evil, and why. The Cosmic Curriculum, the center of study at this age, describes physical and chemical processes that occur without consideration to feeling – such as extinctions, eruptions, and tectonic shifts. Children relate to these events on a very personal level, often mimicking the sounds of a volcano just as, on a stormy day, their moods often create weather within which is similar to that outside. The child also notices in the actions of his/her peers that everyone – even a teacher, even a parent – makes mistakes and is vulnerable to emotions, stress, and fatigue. Honesty about one’s feelings, a sense of humor, and humility go a long way in the Montessori 6-9 classroom, and students benefit from sharing groups where they can compliment others on their perseverance, personality, and progress.

Finally, Montessori classrooms honor the child by allowing him/her to select the preferred social context for activities – solo, partner, or group work.  Each dynamic’s success depends in large part on the individual’s learning needs.  The mixed-age classroom aids a child’s social development by allowing for opportunities to learn from others’ actions, to model social responsibility, and to respond to others’ needs. It creates an atmosphere where children learn to help and be helped by others. Children gain an appreciation for their own work as well as others’ accomplishments, which challenge them without involving a sense of competition. Older children learn patience and tolerance by serving as role models and reinforcing previously learned concepts. Younger students learn courtesy, manners, and conflict resolution from older peers. By staying in a classroom for a three-year period, children develop a strong sense of community and stability, with one-half to two-thirds of a class returning every year. 

As Maria Montessori said, "When we think about mixed ages... we should not have a supermarket, but just what is essential." Because social dynamics are new each year, depth of study occurs when revisiting familiar lessons at a more sophisticated level of comprehension with a new role as an experienced learner. Familiarity and belonging also allows a teacher to better understand each child’s learning style, set holistic learning goals, build on strengths and weaknesses, and foster meaningful relationships with students and their families. It’s amazing to watch students who started as 3-year-olds move through the elementary years with a web of relationships that cross ages, cultures, and learning styles.  

The Prepared Environment

At the end of every summer when I return to work as a Montessori teacher for ages 6-9 (grades 1-3), I like to recharge the setting and make changes that follow the child. Maria Montessori considered "the prepared environment" of the classroom to be a place of order and beauty meant to attract the child to meaningful work, settle him/herself spiritually and emotionally, and allow him/her independent access to motivate auto-education. In anticipation of the start of the school year, I have taken some recent photos of some aspects of the Montessori classroom that live Maria's mission beautifully.

Montessori elementary focuses on the 5 Great Lessons (the Coming of the Universe, Earth, Humans, Language, and Numbers), which is called the "Cosmic Curriculum". We will be starting with the Big Bang (as one of the explanations of the start of the Universe, as well as cultural stories from around the world), so the work on the middle shelf left is called "Stellarnucleosynthesis" which is the birth (or death) of a star -- in our case, the Sun. The work is a series of concentric circles (made of felt), each representing one of the elements that was created when the Universe banged into existence. That leads into study of the Periodic Table, atoms, planets, and eventually Earth. That thing on the top shelf middle is a light box, for tracing various things -- pictures of animals in books, outlines of leaves from card material, flags, etc. 

Life Science: That big thing on the right is the Bead Cabinet. It's also in age 3-6 classes, as well as age 6-9 classes like mine. It helps with linear counting, multiples, cubing, etc. Those are called Golden Beads, where each number is assigned a certain color, for beauty and orderly isolation of numerals. (That's actually near the math area, but I thought I should explain it.) The life science shelf contains botany, as well as protists like fungi and bacteria, and I like to have a child-size microscope on the shelf where students can use it to look at pre-made slides (like of a butterfly wing or flower pollen) or slides they make (with seaweed or laundry fuzz). I also have a magnifying glass and two binoculars, as well as a tree identifying book and the leaf cabinet, so we will start the year by trying to find leaves with different margins and figuring out from what trees they fell. 

Room 1: This is a view of the room from the front door. Parent volunteers give weekly spelling tests to students at a computer table. I made the reading/writing corner in the back of the room larger and kind of isolated, so it might actually be quiet for kids reading or writing book reports. When I took everything off the wall in June, my intention was to move everything down the wall closer to student eye level. It is important to see the world from the perspective of a child, so sometimes lying on my back helps me get closer to his/her point of view. This is the students' room, not just mine.

Measurement: My favorite shelf this year! I bought a new lamp for the math area, so that sometimes we can lower the lights and work in dim calmness rather than under the glaring fluorescents. On the top shelf are glass containers with lentils, beans, chickpeas, and popcorn kernels in them -- fun for students to feel and use for measuring with real food! I made the "Today's Menu" for the vegetables, fruits, or herbs I will try to bring in every week. On the bottom shelf there are teaspoons, tablespoons, and cups as well as other kitchen items like a sieve, apple corer, peeler, etc. and some command cards for measuring. (Example: "Peel 1/3 cup of carrots.") Students can then put them out on the sink counter for a class snack. On the middle shelf, there are cook books, wide ruled index cards for writing recipes, and a scale for measuring weight -- we'll do that later this fall, after they grasp fractions. 

Zoology: I like to put animal work out in order of "evolutionary emergence", and since at the beginning of the year we're talking about the Coming of the Universe, we won't really get to animals per se until later this fall. However, on the top shelf, I put a coral (a present from my mom!) and animal families cards (Example: male/female/baby = stallion/mare/colt) with little animal objects to match. The middle shelf has card material for animal homes (and real examples of empty wasps nests the children can touch!) and animal sounds. (I may ask students to do that work on the back patio, so they can bray or moo all they like!) The bottom shelf has a lesson and card material about prokaryote and eukaryote cells, which is more appropriate for 3rd graders. 

Peace Table: Maria Montessori was very interested in peace education, maybe because she lived in Italy under a dictator who forced her into exile. Nearly every Montessori classroom has a peace table -- a quiet place for students to go when they feel the need for calm, and where disagreements between kids are settled. I have a deck of yoga cards for children, and there is a narrow rug for yoga next to the table. I also have a photo of me as a kid and my Grandpa Henry, so that the students see that I was once a kid (gasp!) and so I remember, too. The wooden bell is a sound cue to line up (for recess or specialist classes), and the Tibetan singing bowl is a sound cue for circle time. The candle is used at birthday celebrations, placed in the middle of circle to represent the sun, and the birthday child walks around it with a small globe (representing Earth) for each year of his/her life. 

Writers Corner: I like having a rocking chair, especially for children who feel soothed by moving. Parent volunteers sit here when reading with students once per week. The writing table has a lamp, journal prompt cards, and antique photos to help inspire writing, or partners can sit here to work on a book report or activity (like readers theater or a recommendation/review poster). A nearby shelf (the writers studio) contains all the art-related supplies they might need to do that work independently. I found a curtain rod and some drapes for readers theater, so I can't wait for students to have a chance to act out their favorite books! 

Practical Life: Starting in classrooms for ages 3-6, Practical Life work develops fine and gross motor skills like balance and coordination, as well as spiritual, emotional, and social skills like patience, helpfulness, and responsibility. There are command cards on the top shelf and little basket works (rock sorting by color, size, or weight; plant watering; hole-punching, table setting; beadwork; sewing; use of camera). On a nearby sink counter is a cute little elephant-shaped tea kettle and cups, as well as a hot water brewer and two kinds of tea. When parents or visitors come into the classroom for at least twenty minutes, students may ask them if they would like a cup of tea and serve them. The adults are happily surprised by such courteous children, and students know it counts as a work!  The basket on the sink counter is where the vegetables, fruits, and herbs for measurement go.

For parents and students new to Montessori (or new to the 6-9 classroom), this may explain and give depth to the meaning to the care and thought that goes into a child's education. Every Montessori teacher and his/her classroom is different and specific to his/her personality, yet all Montessori classrooms contain materials that Maria designed over a century ago (thinking ahead of her time!), as well as materials inspired by her pioneering, scientific spirit of free and open inquiry. I look forward to sharing this learning environment with my students this year!