Friday, February 6, 2009

The Sequence of Montessori Work

No preschool this week - all of the families were sick, so we weren't able to meet. The girls and I have gotten some good work done, though, and I will post pictures soon.

As I mentioned recently, my oldest daughter is ready for some new challenges in the classroom. I pulled out a bunch of new math works but have felt uncertain about the sequence in which I should present them. That has led me back to the beginning, taking a fresh look at the Sequence of Montessori Work from David Gettman's book (which is very similar to other "scope and sequence" lists made available by multiple different authors and sources). I thought other homeschooling Montessorians might find it useful, as well.

You can download a Word version here. Otherwise, I've typed up the sequence below. But before you go :), what resources do you use for sequencing your own Montessori presentations?

SEQUENCE OF MONTESSORI WORK

PERIOD ONE
[Early Practical Activities, introductory Sensorial, Culture, and Language Activities, no Math]

Practical:
- Pouring beans between two jugs
- Opening and closing containers
- Buttoning
- Buckling
- Other simple dressing frames
- Carrying and laying floor mats and table mats
- Saying Thank You
- Other early grace and courtesy work
- Carrying a tray
- Lifting, carrying and putting down a chair at a table
- Climbing and descending stairs
- Walking on the line
- Folding
- Hanging clothes on a hook
- Brushing hair
- Dusting

Sensorial:
- Cylinder blocks
- Pink tower
- Color tablets, box 1
- Presentation tray of geometric cabinet
- Sensitizing the fingers
- Touch boards
- Presentation 1 of geometric solids
- Stereognostic bags

Language:
- Classified pictures, exercise 1
- Classified pictures, exercise 2
- Speech
- I Spy, Stage 1
- I Spy, Stage 2
- I Spy, Stage 3
- Book corner and library

Mathematics:
- None

Culture:
- Land and Water


PERIOD TWO
[Building fundamental skills in all subject areas except Math, concentrating on sight and touch in Sensorial work]

Practical:
- Pouring water from a jug
- Medium difficulty dressing frames
- Simple braiding of rope or yarn
- Laying a table for a meal
- Polishing brass, glass surfaces, shoes or furniture
- Washing hands
- Washing cloths
- Scrubbing a table top
- Sweeping sawdust
- Brushing clothes
- Folding clothes
- Hanging clothes on a hanger
- Handling a book
- Asking for and receiving scissors
- Greeting people
- Kindness to visitors
- Being silent

Sensorial:
- Advanced cylinder block exercises
- Brown stair
- Red rods
- Color tablets, boxes 2 and 3
- Geometric cabinet, exercises 1 – 4
- Binomial cube
- Blindfold
- Tactile tablets
- Later geometric solids presentations
- Stereognostic bags
- Sorting grains
- Sound boxes
- Preliminary presentation of bells
- Three-stage lesson on the names of the sensorial qualities

Language:
- Classified pictures, exercises 3 and 4
- I Spy, stage 4
- Single-letter sandpaper letters, exercise 1
- Metal insets
- Speech “questioning”

Mathematics:
- None

Culture:
- Land and Water exercises
- First maps
- Places classified pictures
- Classification by leaf, preliminary work

PERIOD THREE
[Developing more advance Practical skills, concentrating on other senses in Sensorial work, completing preparatory work in Language, fully entering Culture work, starting Math]

Practical:
- Pouring water from a jug
- Pouring water through a funnel
- Bows, laces, and other difficult dressing frames
- Advanced braiding, then plaiting hair
- Tying a tie
- Simple cooking chores
- Ironing
- Making beds

Sensorial:
- Geometric cabinet exercises 5 – 8
- Constructive triangles
- Square of Pythagoras
- Trinomial cube
- Fabrics
- Thermic bottles
- Baric tablets
- Presentations of bells

Language:
- Double-letter sandpaper letters, exercise 1
- I Spy, stages 5 and 6 frequently
- Exercise 2 with all sandpaper letters

Mathematics:
- Number rods, exercise 1

Culture:
- All maps
- Places picture folders
- Past and present
- Stories about the past
- Air
- Water
- Magnetism
- Classifying animals
- Classification by leaf
- Parts of animals
- Parts of plants


PERIOD FOUR
[Advanced Sensorial activities, early Language reading and writing, Mathematics Group 1 and starting Group 2]

Practical:
- Responsibility for certain daily Care of the Environment duties
- Helping and advising younger ones in a group

Sensorial:
- Geometric cabinet, exercises 9 and 10
- Thermic tablets
- Mystery bag
- Visual work with blindfold
- Bells exercises 1, 2, and 3
- Tasting cups
- Smelling boxes

Language:
- Movable alphabet
- Writing individual letters
- Writing families of letters
- Positioning letters on lines
- Sandpaper capitals
- Box 1 of object boxes
- Action cards
- Box 2 of object boxes
- Reading folders, exercise 1

Mathematics:
- Number rods, exercise 2
- Sandpaper numbers
- Number tablets (with the number rods)
- Spindles
- Numbers and counters
- Memory play
- Limited bead material
- Number cards
- Function of the decimal system
- Fractions

Culture:
- Gravity
- Sound
- Optics
- Places artifacts


PERIOD FIVE
[Further development in Language reading and writing, essence of counting, adding, subtracting, and multiplying in Math]

Practical:
- Assisting with group activities
- Attending to visitors
- Comforting other children

Sensorial:
- Knobless cylinders
- Bells, exercises 4, 5, and 6

Language:
- Matching and writing capitals
- The alphabetic sequence
- Writing copies
- Puzzle words
- Reading folders, exercise 2
- Classified reading
- Environment cards
- Articles
- Adjectives
- Conjunctions
- Prepositions
- Verbs

Mathematics:
- Formation of complex numbers
- Introduction to teens
- Introduction to tens
- Unlimited bead material (Addition, subtraction, and multiplication)
- Counting
- Stamps (Addition, subtraction, and multiplication)
- Dots
- Fractions exercises

Culture:
- Plant life cycles
- Timeline


PERIOD SIX
[Advanced Language work, basic division and arithmetic memory work in Mathematics]

Practical:
- Serving snacks and meals
- Subtle etiquette

Sensorial:
- Advanced bells work

Language:
- Margins
- Punctuation cards
- Reading folders, exercises 3 and 4
- Adjective matching
- Detective Adjective Game
- Adverbs
- Command cards
- Adverb matching
- Verb games
- Plurals
- Feminine and Masculine
- Root word charts

Mathematics:
- Unlimited bead material (Division)
- Stamps (Division)
- Addition and Subtraction Snake Games
- Addition and Subtraction Strip Boards
- Multiplication tables
- Multiplication bead board
- Addition, Subtraction and Multiplication charts
- Advanced work with fractions

Culture:
- Reading classified cards in Geography, Nature Studies and History
- Fact books from the library


PERIOD SEVEN
[Application activities in Language, abstraction in Mathematics]

Practical:
- Helping the Director prepare the environment
- Presenting practical activities to younger children

Sensorial:
- Presenting sensorial activities to younger children

Language:
- Written questioning
- Free writing
- Reading folders exercise 5
- Reading analysis

Mathematics:
- Unit Division Board
- Division Charts
- Short Bead Frame
- Hierarchies
- Long Bead Frame
- Simple Division

Culture:
- Definition stages of Classified Cards in Geography, Nature Studies and History
- Field nature observation work

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I did my training course a few years ago and use my folders to remind me when need be! Not very helpful!!! I would say as a general rule always start by reminding the child what they already know and then adding a little more to that. For instance if you were presenting the seguin board A for the first time (also known as the teens board). You would start by asking the child to count the beads on a 10 bead bar and tell them there are always 10 beads on the golden bar and they never need to count it again. Then introduce the numbers 11, 12 and possibly 13 with the beads only. When they've got up to 19 with the beads then do the same with the board - what is this number - 10 - that's right and waht is 1 more than 10 etc. Always building on secure knowledge. That goes for everything. If it is something completely new it is still being introduced because the child is ready for it and there will be an expereince in his/her past that will relate to it.

Don't know if that is helpful. Apparently youtube has some videos!

Familyoffoxes said...

thanks for this! I am just starting this homeschooling Montessori journey and this is one more piece of the puzzle!

Bethany said...

Thanks so much for this! I work in a Montessori school but am not Montessori certified. This list is so, so helpful to me for when I sub in the classroom. What a blessing! :)

Anonymous said...

By the way - one more thing! Although the periods are roughly right it is possible to get a child who can read well but not be able to count 1 object each time he points to an object. That would put him in 2 very different periods for literacy and Maths. While I would be trying to get the maths caught up with the literacy it is important to accept that all children have a preference one way or another (as we all do) and the stronger subject may always be ahead of the less favourite one. The trick then is to try and introduce exercises that complement and extend the child in their less strong area so that the gap is lessened. An example of this would be having practical lfe exerciese with as many steps as the child can cope with that must be done in that order - shoe cleaning or table scrubbing for example to help the maths need for order and counting. I would also introduce things like an old phone and a diary and pencil for number recognition and use. This kind of thing doesn't seem to come up in the online albums but is what happens in the classroom!

Anonymous said...

Hi Jennie,
Love the list. I also got an excel version from a Yahoo board that allows cross-referencing of categories across periods that you might like . I'd love to email it to you but your "contact us" button doesn't seem to be working right now.

Renée said...

Anna, thanks for all of your suggestions!

Carla, thanks for letting me know about the email link - it should work now. I'd be very grateful for the spreadsheet - thanks!!!

Unknown said...

Hi Jennie :) Hope you are well!

Just "needed" this right now & knew I'd find it here. Thanks!!

Anonymous said...

I would love the excel version from Carla if you have it. You can send it to mymontessorihome@mts.net
Thank-you so much.
I have the book from the library but this would save me alot of writing it out!

Mystic said...

Hi,

I would like to get the excel version with cross-referencing.

Can you share with me? ronaansi@yahoo.com

Thanks indeed.
Ansi