Montessori Areas of Learning

AEL consists of activities which on the one hand equip children with skills that lead to greater independence, while at the same time being a route to improving the children’s fine motor skills, hand-eye co-ordination, sense of order and concentration. The range which these activities can cover is large, and typically the teachers change the materials regularly. The dressing frames (for learning to use large and small buttons, buckles, poppers, zips etc) are always accessible; other activities encompass pouring, threading, polishing, opening and closing boxes and bottles, cutting with scissors, sweeping up and using a dustpan and brush, nuts and bolts, locks and keys, transferring objects with spoons, tongs and tweezers, and transferring liquids with sponges, basters and pipettes.

The sensorial materials were scientifically prepared by Dr. Montessori to refine, enhance and educate the senses.  Working on the concept of isolating one difficulty at a time, these activities help children grasp abstract concepts such as big and small, light and heavy or long and short.  These materials provide scope to explore colours, shapes, sounds, textures and patterns. They also help children widen sensorial experience; improve skills of observation and discrimination that are important to understand complicated educational concepts later on.

Materials such as the number rods, spindle boxes and counters,provide simple yet concrete step by step guide to learning numbers and counting. The concept of maths is also approached indirectly through other areas where they measure and pour, or grade big and small. The maths materials do not just provide them with the concepts, but help them progress at their own pace and understanding before they move to the next stage.

Children are natural learners and have the capacity to learn more than one language at a time. In the Montessori classroom, children have freedom of speech and movement and this, to a great extent helps them in building language skills. Moreover, language, like maths is also approached indirectly through other areas when they are given the precise terminology of things that are used in the environment. Materials such as picture cards help them widen their vocabulary. With the use of sandpaper letters, children use tactile sense to trace around the letter and understand the letter; this helps them when they begin to write the letters later on. Metal insets, another piece of material, where children learn to draw within a boundary, helps to a great extent in preparing the hand and the mind for reading and writing.

Our qualified Early Years Arabic Teacher will support children who have Arabic as their first language and introduce Arabic through play activities to those children who are non-native speakers.

Children also have free access to the book corner, where they can delve into the world of books themselves or request for a story at any time. Everything in the Montessori classroom is about learning language- they learn language while singing songs, listening to stories, creating an artwork or by just talking to their friends.

The Montessori cultural curriculum brings the world into the classroom through some very exciting activities. Children begin to understand cultures, different people, and countries through various activities such as globe, puzzle maps and other activities.

Also activities such as matching, sorting, classifying using picture and name cards further enhance their cultural knowledge while underpinning the cultural aspect.

Here in the UAE we have a diverse society and celebrate UAE traditions and National Day events as well as global festivals which helps children understand and appreciate the community we live in.

Creative expression forms an integral part of the whole curriculum. With the variety of materials provided and themes introduced children are free to innovate and experience art in their own way. They are given freedom of expression of their creativity in the painting corner. Apart from drawing and painting, modelling, stories and songs play a significant role in creative curriculum too. There are also many teacher led activities that work around a theme based on current events that help children in their creative expression.