Multi-Aged Classrooms
One of the core differences between a Montessori environment and a traditional classroom is that of multi-aged environment.
Montessori classrooms are designed to span three years. Three, four, and five year old children share one environment
(some children turn six while at this level, so it is referred to as 3-6). Six, seven, and eight year olds share an early
elementary classroom (referred to as 6-9). A multi-aged classroom provides the following benefits:
- Self esteem boosting for children in the program for more than one year.
- Confidence builder - the child knows the teacher and class expectations.
- Each child has access to many “teachers,” not just the adults in the room to seek out help or guidance, but older children that know the material.
- Maximizes curriculum options available to any one child. If you have an advanced three year old, your child is not expected to do work of other three year old children. Your child is able to move through the curriculum at their own pace.
- Provides a family atmosphere where children develop sibling like relationships. Older children watch out for and nurture the younger children. The younger children learn from the older children and return the favor in future years.
Children in a Montessori classroom are always busy! In a Montessori environment children use various materials at different times in unique
ways. For example, a child may sensorially explore the geometric solids. The child handles the solids and explores them, but may not be
ready to learn their names. After a time, the child learns the name of each solid. The material stayed the same, but what the child was
developmentally ready for changed. This happens with many materials in the Montessori environment. Montessori multi-aged classrooms offer
opportunities for children to grow and learn over an extended period of time.
“What I have shown in the immense potentiality of the child is the existence of an energy which previously had not been taken into
consideration.” -Maria Montessori