Montessori truly is a unique form of teaching – in fact, when transitioning from a traditional teacher to a Montessori teacher, one typically has to resist from practicing everything they learned about teaching and start from scratch. In Montessori education, we are known for our careful attention to every move and mannerism we make. We believe in setting the example for everything to encourage productivity and creativity – even thorough lessons around building with simple blocks are presented – nothing goes overlooked, as there are indirect and direct lessons in everything. We discover lessons within lessons. For instance, we may begin by teaching children organizational skills while sorting blocks by color and size, naturally leading into discussions about what structures to build. Similarly, in our Practical Life Area, we guide children in the careful pouring of water from a pitcher, subtly introducing the concept of division as they learn to distribute the water evenly among several cups. While our primary focus in many lessons revolves around establishing a strong sense of order, fine motor skills, and care for materials, we simultaneously introduce vocabulary to describe objects, sequence stories, and explain our sensory experiences, among other things.

Montessori teachers learn about pointing out subtle details as they walk children through step-by-step hands-on processes, for example, the manner in which we pick up a peg puzzle piece is significant, the sound that the beads make when hitting the glass is noted, and making comparisons with similar materials to address subtle differences is discussed. This observational style of teaching invites your children to pay attention to details, and we see the curiosity spark as they engage in the materials themselves during the work cycle. Every moment presents an opportunity to teach, and we embrace each one, knowing that children at this age absorb information like a sponge, laying the groundwork for lifelong learning and character development.

While we hope you’ve been keeping up with our lesson lists, we would like to take a moment to showcase miscellaneous snapshots of teachers delivering some of those lessons throughout the school year, offering you a better grasp on our approach. First, we’ll spotlight a Montessori classic: Maria Montessori’s “Brown Stair,” a set of 10 blocks with varying dimensions (also known in the plural form as the Brown Stairs). The original term is singular as the set comes together as one once organized. Let’s take a closer look:

Montessori Brown Stair

When presenting this classic Montessori material, each block is carried carefully to the rug one at a time, and children observe the teacher’s placement, spacing, hands, and posture. Each object is lined up from the children’s left to right (which appears inverted for the teacher during the presentation – right to left), offering an indirect lesson on language—a practice we regularly incorporate with most of our works. Additionally, we make quiet movements with occasional comments regarding size, dimension, weight, and placement. Although the blocks are placed in a seemingly random order, they are still neatly organized in a line before the teacher arranges them from largest to smallest, thoughtfully highlighting interesting details along the way. This lesson not only teaches children to discern size differences, but also introduces them to superlative and comparative vocabulary applicable to everyday life materials – all while building a sense of order. 

Metal Insets Presentation

What appears to be art doubles as indirect language preparation. The pincer grip, essential for writing, is developed by tracing metal shapes known as metal insets (named because they fit inside one another). Both hands are needed at the same time to handle the metal insets, so a child must carefully coordinate their positions. While our youngest students begin with basic tracing and coloring, children eventually progress to elaborate designs, building up their fine motor skills in the process. While we provide initial ideas to spark their interest during presentations, students are encouraged to think up their own ideas as they select their preferred colors and shapes, fostering independence and creativity.

Mystery Bag Presentation

Filled with an assortment of objects, the Mystery Bag engages the senses. A teacher reaches for one item at a time while keeping the items in the bag, describing the item’s texture, weight, temperature, and shape with rich language. This creates an excellent opportunity for the children to take turns guessing the object based on the teacher’s description before revealing it. During the work cycle, children often work in pairs with this material, taking turns describing the objects while using their sense of touch, learning to work together as they share and discuss their observations.

In Montessori, we find ways to “isolate the senses” to enhance focus on a single sense. With the Mystery Bag activity, children isolate their sense of touch, which in turn helps to sharpen this sense since they cannot use their sight to assist them.

While I have only mentioned a few of the many Montessori staples, teachers also design unique approaches and work materials by using the Montessori approach in their presentations. Let’s look at some recent examples we have used in our classroom.

Teacher-Made Works

Songs & Storytelling

At Indigo Montessori, one of our distinctive approaches is to introduce songs as stories. While this engaging method may not be entirely unique, it contributes to our unique identity in comparison to other Montessori schools. Maria Montessori believed in teaching with real-life imagery to teach about the world and aid memorization. In the spirit of this perspective, we believe she would have valued our modern adaptation through creating narratives with real-life imagery on PowerPoint to enrich our storytelling, among other subject areas in the classroom. By gathering stock photography to capture each song line into a PowerPoint presentation, we then read the corresponding verses alongside each visual as we would with any picture book. We also talk about the songwriter’s interpretation of the story, acknowledging that they share their song with audiences, inviting them to create their own personal meanings or connections. This method does more than just emphasize the story told by the music; it invites every student to connect with the song in a memorable and personal way. Occasionally, we might weave in American Sign Language (ASL) to boost memorization of the lyrics.

Decorative Division Tree

Oh, how we teachers love using felt, foam sheets, craft paper, and hot glue guns when crafting up our works for students! We make story boards, felt boards, grids, and attractive surfaces for work materials throughout the classroom. This particular festive activity features felt trees with a bowl of colorful buttons, visually representing division as the teacher demonstrates to students how to evenly distribute the button décor, thus bringing big math concepts into a practical, child-friendly format.

Customized Activity Pages

For at least 14 years, I have been handcrafting my own activity pages for children at Indigo, often designed to invite them to “finish the drawing” by adding their personal touch, reflecting the uniqueness of our materials and the interests of our children. In addition, I have been working on imagery to help children strengthen their recognition around lowercase letters, as we focus first on lowercase in Montessori. While these custom pages are an Indigo exclusive, you’ll occasionally see some clip art activity pages along with classic Montessori pages – it’s not all my handiwork of course, as we like to incorporate variety. Nevertheless, I have created and built up binders full of hundreds of images that complement our specific lessons. Selfishly, it’s a fun way to keep my old Fine Arts Degree from just dusting away, but ultimately it brings me joy to see children getting creative and making the images their own.

Recycling Work

During a recent PowerPoint presentation, the children were shown images of landfills, recycling plants, and people hard at work in these settings. We talked about imagery that suggested the dangers litter poses to animals, balanced with heartening pictures of animals being rescued and communities engaged in environmental clean-up, composting, and recycling efforts. This approach fosters awareness while maintaining a message of hope, which offers a drive for our young learners. After the presentation, a lesson on sorting recyclables was given, teaching children to recognize the types of materials they can recycle in their own homes.

Seasons Tree

A laminated tree allows children to decorate it with seasonal items, teaching about the changing seasons.

We also offer seasonal works focusing on the seasons as they come, such as the “winter storytelling work” that is currently available on the shelves, including figurines and a snowy scene to build a winter village.

Practical Life Transfer Works

In our Practical Life Transfer Works, we carefully select beads, marbles, and ceramics to help develop children’s fine motor skills through practical life transferring tasks. Transferring tasks include scooping objects with spoons or tongs from one bowl to another, wet and dry pouring, and finger grasping. Teachers refresh these materials bi-weekly, observing how frequently students engage with them. Our observations inform us when it’s time to introduce new challenges, such as different utensils or additional steps in the transfer process, to continue to sharpen our students’ attention span, hand-eye coordination, and fine motor skills.

When we teach each of these types of materials, we demonstrate how to move objects by grasping, scooping, pouring, or transferring with tongs. Along the way, we highlight subtle details such as colors, textures, and sounds. Hand movements are slow and careful, with a focus on the pincer grip or specific utensil use.

Beginning Sounds Storytelling Boards

Unique to Indigo, our beginning sounds objects are integrated with handcrafted storyboards, fostering children’s phonetic awareness alongside their storytelling skills. These boards prompt children to sequence events, enrich their descriptions, and animate their tales with lively verbs. In crafting these narrative canvases, we might get carried away with the process, but the results are storytelling treasures. Here is a sample of the board and objects that go with the sound ‘p’, setting the stage for tales of a painter whose studio is covered in splattered paint, with paintings for all to see, leading down a purple corridor. Our figurines come to life as they visit the storyboard space, and children come up with their own unique stories.

Before a story can be told, students are first shown to organize each object under custom printed letters, familiarizing themselves with various fonts and enhancing memory by moving over the letters with a translucent gem, emphasizing the shape and sound of each letter. This hands-on experience provides a memorable method for teaching children to learn letter sounds.

Montessori-Inspired Store-Bought Materials

Everyday puzzles and other strategic activities are often adapted to our method as we discuss problem-solving in a manner similar to our classic Montessori materials. Everything can be organized and presented thoughtfully, shining a new light on these materials by introducing additional challenges related to order. For some items, this thoughtful reorganization goes a step further, rendering the materials into unique and complex tools that offer a fresh learning experience.

This glimpse into our approach in Montessori education is just a start. Our teachers dedicate hours beyond the school day, meticulously crafting materials and fine-tuning their lesson delivery to align with our educational goals. We hope this has been an enlightening peek at our unique approach. There’s so much more to share, from our unique approach to language around positive acknowledgement to fostering empathy, responsibility, and a hands-on academic foundation. While we’re always happy to share more, we hope this has given you a stronger understanding of our approach, trusting you’ve gained valuable insights into our Montessori world.