First Metal Inset
Age 4
This is an early Metal Inset done by a 4-year-old Montessori preschool child. Notice the careful tracing of the triangle and the precise lines inside of it.
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Designing with Metal Insets
Age 5
Here is a later Metal Inset drawing from a 5 1/2 -year-old Montessori preschool student. Students use Metal Insets as a creative outlet, exploring with the various shapes to create beautiful designs and further developing their control of a pencil.
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Exploration of Addition
Age 5
A 5 1/2-year-old used a Montessori preschool material called the Addition Strip Board to help her figure out the different combinations for 11. This exploratory work is excellent preparation for memorizing math facts later on.
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Subtraction with the Stamp Game
Age 4
A 4 1/2-year-old used a Montessori material called the Stamp Game to figure out these subtraction problems. Notice that they involve “borrowing” from the next category. Work of this kind presupposes a strong grasp of place value, which our Montessori preschool students gain through extensive practice with hands-on bead materials.
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Dot Game Addition
Age 4
An almost 5-year-old calculated this huge addition problem using special “Dot Game” paper and color-coded place value categories. Many Montessori preschool materials use colors to aid children in ordering and retaining new concepts.
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Multiplication with Bead Bars
Age 5
A 5-year-old preschool boy explored with Montessori bead bars in order to come up with these multiplication problems and answers.
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Division with the Stamp Game
Age 6
A 6-year-old Montessori preschool student used the Stamp Game to solve these division problems. In doing so he learned that division means to share equally among a given number. Green, blue, and red stand for the place value categories of units, tens, and hundreds; these colors are used consistently throughout Montessori preschool and elementary school math materials to aid children in retaining the order of the categories.
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Cursive Practice
Age 5
A 5-year-old Montessori preschool student practiced his cursive letters after he traced them with the Sandpaper Letters.
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Montessori Phonogram Work
Age 5
Montessori preschool students learn phonograms such as “ch” by reading words in which they are isolated, building them into words using a Movable Alphabet, or writing words that contain them, such as in this example. Notice that the new sound is highlighted in red pencil, and that this is also an opportunity for the preschool child to practice cursive writing.
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Exploration of Silent Letters
Age 5
Here, a 5-year-old Montessori preschool boy made a poster of the silent letters g, t, and k. He demonstrated his comprehension of the words by drawing a picture beside each one.
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A First Story
Age 5
Montessori preschool students are encouraged to express themselves through writing from a very early age. Here, a 5 1/2-year-old wrote and illustrated one of his first “stories.”
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Creative Writing
Age 4
A prolific 4 1/2-year-old wrote and illustrated this touching story. Montessori preschool students are not corrected for punctuation or spelling; we believe it is more important to foster their written expression than to strive for complete correctness at this stage. Gradually, in the Montessori Lower Elementary years, students learn–and are expected to use–standard punctuation and spelling.
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Beginning Sewing
Age 5
A 5-year-old Montessori Primary student might engage in an activity such as sewing, which integrates several areas of the Montessori classroom: Practical Life (learning the real-life skill of sewing in a straight line), geometry, and handwriting.
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Parts of a Tree
Age 5
Learning about the parts of animals and plants is a popular activity in a Montessori preschool classroom. Here, a 5-year-old extended the knowledge she gained by using puzzles and nomenclature cards to create a beautiful watercolor painting with each part of her tree clearly labeled.
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Geometry Extension Activity
Age 5
This work is an excellent example of a Montessori extension activity. It brings together a child’s sensorial exploration of geometric shapes with the vocabulary she’s learned for those shapes, her burgeoning cursive writing skills, as well as tracing and gluing skills. This is the first page of a 6-page booklet of similar work, created by an almost 5 1/2-year-old Montessori preschool girl.
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