Montessori provides primary children with a
sense of belonging in our world, our country, our state, our city and our
school, our home, our family. This sense of belonging
increases the child’s sense of self-worth. The
child identifies himself as separate from others but still a part of the larger
picture.
It begins very simply with the child’s
basic understanding of what they know from their environment each day. Classroom Guides can begin with concrete
materials by mapping the classroom, placing every piece of furniture in the
room on a piece of paper in clay. In a separate lesson the child is given the opportunity to “map”
his/her bedroom at home. This
is done in a either a concrete manner with the clay or a more abstract way (2 dimensional) with paper and crayons depending on the needs of the individual.
lessons continue by exposing the children to the location of the child’s home and the school using a city map and pieces of clay. Each child's home can be located on a map which can introduce the concept of the city. This becomes a natural progression of lessons
that finally culminates with the introductory lesson of the Montessori planisphere and continent maps.
One suggestion is to take a ball of blue clay and create a sphere. Label it as a globe (comparing it to the sandpaper and continent globes. With an appropriate cutting tool slice the clay globe in half. Then flatten each half flat and lay it on a yellow piece of construction paper. Let them know that this is how the Montessori maps can be viewed. so Antarctica and China both have a small piece cut off and consequently both have a place on both sides of the map.
The sand paper globe is introduced as a cultural lesson and illustrates the concept of land and water. The second globe introduces the concepts that includes the
continent names.
The children learn to name the continents,
and understand where they live and belong in this world just as everyone else does also.
With this as the foundation of cultural learning the children branch out
into wonderful lessons that cover geography, sociology, and the understanding that everyone has a place in our world and differences are valuable. (a) Gail Moore
