What the Hand Does, the Mind Remembers

“What the hand does, the mind remembers.” – Dr. Maria Montessori

Children remind me that they learn with their hands, something Dr. Montessori understood through quiet observation over a century ago. This continues to be true in the current time of digital technology (literally: tools used by the hands) and an adult focus on abstraction as a metric of success. I have grappled with the inclusion of technology and testing in the Montessori classroom, in both private and public charter environments, and I continue to believe that they are incongruous with the beautiful and patient process of a child learning by holding actual objects – clay, fossils, fern fronds – with their hands.

“Do not tell them how to do it. Show them how to do it and do not say a word. If you tell them, they will watch your lips move. If you show them, they will want to do it themselves.” – Dr. Maria Montessori

A few years ago, I asked a mother of one of my students to come in and demonstrate how she makes her own kombucha. There were simple ingredients and a live bacteria, which we stored in our room for weeks and watched grow, documenting its bubbling surface and the layers that it formed in a controlled environment. It is much easier to just buy a bottle of kombucha at a store, however the children looked forward to being a part of the process – using gloves to touch the SCOBY, selecting the flavors to add. Convenience is not always possible nor preferable. It often stalls understanding.

"The senses, being explorers of the world, open the way to knowledge." – Dr. Maria Montessori

In the Montessori learning environment, especially the expansive Cosmic Curriculum, there are many varieties of concrete materials – from the wooden Bohr diagram modeling the inside of an atom to the Timeline of Life with era boxes full of fossils to the Land and Water forms (used with colored water poured from a jug). Many of these initial materials have extensions which allow interested children to go deeper. For example, many children choose to make their own Land and Water booklet with brown and blue paper, or (in this case, shown above) models formed by painting dried clay models.

When I think about the ways in which public education (and, often, adult thinking in general) prioritizes large quantities of superficial, one-time-only lessons – some of which are never reviewed nor returned to – I feel thankful that Montessori education functions in the exact opposite manner. Children are encouraged to go deeper, to be reiterative, to be creative with a concept, making the trench of the neural pathways surrounding it that much further ingrained.

“Education is a natural process carried out by the child and is not acquired by listening to words but by experiences in the environment.” – Dr. Maria Montessori

Children learn about Parts and Kinds in Montessori education, from math to language to science:

Parts of the Atom and Kinds of Atoms

Parts of a Line and Kinds of Lines

Parts of Speech and Kinds of Words

Children are attracted to the largest things and the smallest things. When we study the Coming of the Earth, we find an inter-relatedness with the Inner Earth and the Plate Tectonic activity that caused and causes land forms to exist, that allowed animal and eventually human migration to occur. Children are fascinated by superlatives: the highest, the furthest, the smallest, the coldest, the hottest. Again, it would be easier to simply purchase a model of a volcano from a craft store. However, witness these children forming volcanoes with their own hands!

“The hands are the instruments of man’s intelligence.” – Dr. Maria Montessori

It is amazing to be alive, and children in Lower Elementary also come to a knowledge that death is something that belongs to all things. We study life cycles of living things, such as a tree or a jellyfish, and we also know where our Universe is in its own lifespan. (Like me, it’s middle-aged!) This knowledge of the ephemeral quality of nature is deepened when children see the Timeline of Life, specifically how old the world is, how old other organisms are (like the jellyfish, one of the longest lived creatures on the planet), and how young we humans are as a species. When we study the life cycle, we see the same phases and know that each organism is unique and special.

“The human hand allows the mind to reveal itself.” – Dr. Maria Montessori

One of the most inspiring things to see is what children create from their own imaginations. When they use geometric building blocks as a Practical Life activity, they are resting their reading mind and engaging their body – their kinesthetic and tactile intelligences. They are using the concept of gravity when they balance an arch on a cone. They are using the concept of symmetry when they build a structure out of rectangular prisms, pyramids, and cylinders. Mainly, though, they are free to experiment, make mistakes, try again, and eventually hopefully innovate while creating an architecture of their own happiness.

The Prepared Environment

“To assist a child we must provide him with an environment which will enable him to develop freely.” – Maria Montessori

One of the most unique aspects of a Montessori learning environment which sets it completely apart from other classrooms is the preparation and sequencing of the materials which Maria Montessori created over a century ago with the children whom she guided. Since her death in 1952, Montessori guides (teachers) have continued using Montessori materials and creating materials inspired by her scientific approach. In her books, Montessori speaks so often about the importance of the prepared environment where child can cultivate confidence, independence, and mastery.

“The environment itself will teach the child, if every error he makes is manifest to him, without the intervention of a parent or teacher, who should remain a quiet observer of all that happens.” – Maria Montessori

Usually, shelves in the Lower Elementary room are arranged by curricular area – Language, Math, Practical Life, and Cultural studies. Guides rotate the shelves throughout a school year, due in large part to the observations of the children by the adult guide. She notices which materials are relevant and enticing to the children, and she also observes when the children are no longer intrigued. When new materials appear, interest is stirred and activity is contagious amongst the children, who want to manipulate the concrete materials with their hands and other senses.

“The environment must be a living one, directed by a higher intelligence, arranged by an adult who is prepared for his mission.” – Maria Montessori

The center of the 6-9 year old mixed-age classroom is Cosmic Education, the scope and order of the stories of the Universe from largest and oldest to the most recent and familiar. The vastness of the Cosmic curriculum in particular – from astronomy, physics, and chemistry to geology, geography, and life sciences – demands fluidity of movement as the children move through the Great Lessons. The children’s best and first teacher is the real material which they are given to touch, such as real plants in need of water, real fossils of trilobites, and real igneous rock that was once ejected from a real volcano.

“The child must live in an environment of beauty.” – Maria Montessori

Regular change on the Cultural shelves mimics the inevitable and continuous changes on Earth – from the growth of continental plates from vulcanism to the erosion of rock through the Work of Wind and the Work of Water to the migration of humans due to natural hazards and civilization. These grand ideas are presented as key experiences to spark the imagination of the child.

“To do well, it is necessary to aim at giving the elementary age child an idea of all fields of study, not in precise detail, but an impression. The idea is to sow the seeds of knowledge at this age, when a sort of sensitive period for the imagination exists.” – Maria Montessori

Math shelves contain materials which the child can use independently or with a partner after an initial lesson from an adult Montessori guide. The materials are also sequential and attuned to different learning styles. For example, several different materials can be used by a child learning a math operation, such as addition. The Golden Beads are all the same color and require the child to use her pincer grip, which is developing at the 6-9 ages, with great care and precision. The Stamp Game is similar to the Golden Beads in terms of quantity and place value concepts, yet variations include size, shape, and color (also reinforcing place value – green representing units, blue representing tens, and red representing hundreds).

“The first aim of the prepared environment is, as far as it is possible, to render the growing child independent of the adult.” – Maria Montessori

The Small and Large Bead Frames are often an option preferred by children with strong spatial and kinesthetic learning styles, especially those who have tired of using the Stamp Game in a plane; the Bead Frames allow exchanging to happen in the vertical sphere. The Bank Game allows children to work together in small groups, role-playing using the expanded form of the operations. In most Montessori classes, the children eventually (and ideally) work with such confidence and independence that they hardly register the observing presence of their adult guide.

“The teacher’s first duty is to watch over the environment, and this takes precedence over all the rest.  Its influence is indirect, but unless it is well done there will be no effective and permanent results of any kind; physical, intellectual or spiritual.” – Maria Montessori

Language shelves contain materials (usually card materials) which are self-correcting and self-explanatory for a child to use – again, after an initial lesson with an adult Montessori guide, by herself or with a partner. Children learn sounds of vowels and consonants using Phonics towers, language relationships (such as compound words, synonyms, and homophones) using Word Study drawers, and parts of speech (such as nouns, adjectives, and prepositions) using Grammar boxes.

“Not upon the ability of the teacher does education rest, but upon the didactic system.  When the control and correction of errors is yielded to the materials, there remains for the teacher nothing but to observe.” – Maria Montessori

Children keep track of the drawers they complete in order to find appropriate partners of any age, and many children enjoy the maturity and responsibility of giving lessons to their peers. The adult guide watches and intervenes only when needed, redirecting the child back to the material and using questions to assist in the child’s own discovery. Children help each other in the same way as the adult models them, avoiding telling an answer and instead asking questions or walking through the prepared environment to locate resources such as a dictionary, atlas, or thesaurus.

“Education is a natural process carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words, but by experiences in the environment.” – Maria Montessori

Practical Life is an area of the Montessori curriculum which is central to the 3-6 year-old Primary classroom, however since Lower Elementary children ages 6-9 are also still developing fine motor, gross motor, sensory integration, and self-regulation skills, the activities and materials on the Practical Life shelves provide great relief and reprieve for children from the abundant (and sometimes rigorous) academic materials.

“The exercises of practical life are formative activities, a work of adaptation to the environment. Such adaptation to the environment and efficient functioning therein is the very essence of a useful education.” – Maria Montessori

Practical Life materials are hands-on – such as braiding, sorting, and weaving. Practical Life materials are creative – such as watercolors, clay tablets, and building blocks. Practical Life materials soothe and calm the whole body – such as yoga, jumping rope, and carrying hand weights. These shelves are favorites for children in need of a “brain break” who often return to their intellectual work soon after with renewed energy and concentration.

“The materials, in fact, do not offer to the child the content of the mind, but the order for that content.” – Maria Montessori

One of the most iconic places in any Montessori learning environment is the Peace Table, a beautiful space where children may sit by themselves or with a friend with whom they have conflict. In a Primary room, a single rose in a vase on a table symbolizes Peace. In my Lower Elementary classroom, I have decorated our Peace Table (which sits close to the floor) with a soft scarf, a Tibetan singing bowl, a Chinese meditation egg, and a few lovely gemstones. Maria Montessori respected children as emotional, intellectual, social beings. The adult guide may give a lesson on how to use the Peace Table – either for internal balance or for interpersonal problem-solving – yet it remains in the child’s power to decide if and when to use the materials.

“The children must be free to choose their own occupations, just as they must never be interrupted in their spontaneous activity.” – Maria Montessori

The scope and sequence of the Montessori curriculum and classroom set-up is quite intentional, not unlike the scaffolding of a building under construction – or a theater stage. Children are unaware of the preparation of their learning environment – from lessons to materials to shelf layout and rotation. They do not need to know all the content or all the steps in order to grow. They only need to feel secure that they are free to explore and discover in an organized fashion.

“Freedom without organization is useless.  The organization of the work, therefore, is the cornerstone of this new structure.  But even that organization would be in vain without the liberty to make use of it.” – Maria Montessori

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.

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!