montessori education Archives

June 3, 2023June 3, 2023

Choice and Self-Pacing in Montessori Classrooms

early childhood montessori boy drawing, self pace activity

In a Montessori classroom, children have the freedom to explore their interests. Montessori children learn at their own pace. Montessori education has been transforming parents, educators and students over a century. In this blog I will focus on why the Montessori method emphasies choice and self-pacing. And how it leads to more engaged and confident students.

The Montessori Philosophy: A Brief Overview

Developed by Dr. Maria Montessori, the Montessori method is a child-centered educational approach. Montessori education focuses on nurturing the whole child. This includes cognitive, emotions, physical and socially. By hands-on, experiential learning in a carefully prepared environment. Guides and facilitators rather than traditional teachers. One of the core principles of Montessori education is allowing children to choose. Students have the freedom to choose activities that interest them and work at their own pace.

montessori student working independently at table with clay

The Importance of Choice and Self-Pacing in Montessori Classrooms

1. Fostering Intrinsic Motivation

When children have the freedom to choose activities they develop a natural curiosity. This intrinsic motivation is a powerful driving force, leading to more engaged learning. The student takes ownership of their education. Intrinsic motivation also promotes love for lifelong learning. A Child will develop a genuine interest in acquiring knowledge and skills.

2. Encouraging Self-Confidence and Independence

As children make decisions about their learning, they build a sense of independence. They trust their instincts, and follow their passions. Taking responsibility for their own growth. This prepares them for future success by fostering resilience, adaptability, and problem-solving skills.

3. Catering to Individual Learning Styles and Needs

Each child is unique, with different learning styles, strengths, and needs. Montessori children work at their own pace. Montessori education acknowledges and embraces these differences. This ensures that every child has the opportunity to progress at a speed that suits them. It also enables teachers to provide personalized support, further enhancing the learning experience.

4. Cultivating a Collaborative Learning Environment

In a Montessori classroom, children often work in mixed-age groups. This encourages collaboration and peer learning. They can learn from one another, share ideas, and develop essential social skills. This collaborative environment fosters empathy, communication, and respect. Qualities that are vital for success in an interconneced communities.

The Lasting Impact of Choice and Self-Pacing on Learners

The Montessori approach’s emphasis on choice and self-pacing has many long-term benefits. Fostering intrinsic motivation, self-confidence, and independence, children develop strong foundations. This effects their lifelong learning and personal growth. They become adaptable, resourceful, and innovative thinkers. Montessori children grow to be able to take on challenges of today’s complex world.

The Montessori method’s focus on choice and self-pacing. Which sets it apart from traditional educational models. Creating an empowering and engaging learning environment. By embracing each child’s unique interests, learning styles, and needs. Montessori education cultivates confident, motivated, and well-rounded individuals. Preparing them to thrive in all aspects of life.

Want to learn more about Montessori Education:

Families & Montessori Education American Montessori Society

Association Montessori Internationale

Montessori Foundation Families

PREPARING A MONTESSORI ART ENVIRONMENT AT HOME

Montessori Art Guide – BUY NOW ONLINE

June 30, 2021November 10, 2021

Montessori Painting with Children | Tips

How to Support Montessori Painting with Young Children

I’ve been painting with many children in staged Montessori art spaces over the years, and I’ve also observed how they best learn to paint. So, I wanted to share some tips on how to support concentration and independence while kids paint. These tips can be helpful if you’re trying to create more Montessori painting activities within your classroom or home.

Here are some tips on how you can support creative painting sessions:

Flow & Concentration
Independence
Exploration & Discovery
Creative Experimentation
Freedom Within Limits

Support Flow & Concentration

Allow uninterrupted periods of creative time while your students are working. When you don’t interrupt children’s painting, they can enter more creative states of flow with heightened concentration. Children can concentrate and go deeper into learning new ideas when not interrupted. To help with these states of flow, try to observe your students from a distance. Too often, creative flow is interrupted by teachers or parents. You should practice more uninterrupted work periods by being conscious of how you are interacting with your child during their painting sessions.

Support Independence

You can support your students’ independence by preparing their art environment to support their painting independence. Think about how you have arranged their painting space. Is their working space aligned with their level of abilities? Is their drying area nearby and easy for them to hang or lay their paintings on? Are materials all set up and easy for them to reach so they can get to work? Have you given them the right amount of demonstrations so they know how to use all the materials properly? By revisiting demonstrations, you can support your child to work more independently.

Support Exploration & Discovery

Exploration and discovery can come in many ways. Allow your children the freedom to choose their materials, such as paint colors, and paintbrush sizes. You can even give them the freedom to choose the size of paper they want to paint on. Children flourish when they can explore how materials behave or even discover how they work in different ways. The process of exploration and discovery is the best way young children learn painting skills. Allow for lots of discovery time. Young children learn to paint over a long period of time. Try supporting more exploration and discovery rather than the outcome.

Support Creative Experimentation

When children go in different directions than you had planned, take a deep breath and allow their experimentation to happen. Example: If they do not use the paintbrush the way you demonstrated or do not choose the colors you planned in your example. You might be thinking, “Green would look lovely for painting turtles,” but your student thinks, “Purple turtles are better!” If your child uses their fingers to paint instead of the paintbrush you took time to stage, as long as they are safe and not disrespecting the art materials, simply allow this type of creative experimentation to go on. This is truly considered one of the artistic processes the National Core Art Standards supports; it’s called INVESTIGATE!

Montessori PAINTING with Children | Tips

Support Freedom Within Limits

YES, discovery and exploration are part of the creative process, but we can provide freedom within limits by presentations and demonstrations that support healthy limits. We can demonstrate where the painting will take place, where it’s accepted in the art environment, and where it’s NOT allowed.

One of the biggest lessons I learned early on, which I share in several of my kids’ painting books, is that you need to explain to children where painting is not allowed, like the walls, and how walking around with loaded paintbrushes is not allowed outside of their art workspace. I also explain to children how to set up and clean up when they are done painting.

As a homeschool mom, I even had to explain this to two of my own little artists. The freedom should be in what they want to express or paint but not where they want to paint. 😉

I hope these tips help you bring the joy of painting into your Montessori spaces.

If you want to learn more, I recommend learning more about my books, video training, and art supplies.

Spramani Elaun

Ultimate Guide to Montessori Painting

No part of this blog may be used or be reproduced in any manner whatsoever including reproducing, publishing, performing, and making any adaptions of the work – including translation into another foreign language without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Nature of Art® Publishing P.O. Box 443 Solana Beach, California 92075.

April 17, 2020April 22, 2020

Montessori Art: Mandala Activity for Stress Relief

Mandalas are a geometric design pattern that offer several mental and emotional benefits. Mandala, which means “circle” in Sanskrit, is a sacred symbol that is used for meditation, prayer, healing, relaxation, and art therapy for both adults and children—especially when used in a Montessori art mandala activity.

In Hindu and Buddhist cultures, the circular design of mandalas represents the idea that everything in life is connected and the infiniteness of the universe. Mandalas can also symbolize a personal spiritual journey for each individual viewer.

While there are several types of mandalas, the three most common are: the teaching, healing, and sand mandalas.

Each shape, line, and color in a teaching mandala represents different aspects of Buddhism. Monks learn to create these mandalas during their monastic education.
A healing mandala is an intuitive design made for the purposes of meditation, focus, and concentration.
Sand mandalas are unique in that both their creation and destruction have symbolic meanings. Multi-colored sand is placed in concentric circles, working from the outer part of the design to the center.

Many clinical studies have shown that mandalas can be used to boost the immune system, reduce stress, ease depression, alleviate pain, lower blood pressure and promote healthy sleep.

Designing and coloring mandalas can help your students (or you) focus their attention. That’s why they’re a great exercise for helping kids calm down when they’re stressed. Here are some other benefits of mandalas:

They create a feeling of balance
They bring peace and tranquility
They strengthen fine-motor skills through repetitive movement
Looking at them produces a sense of calmness
They help with focus and concentration
They encourage mindfulness
They calm the nervous system
Working on them opens pathways to allow creativity to flow
The different color schemes in mandalas can be therapeutic

Mandalas have been recognized by psychology as a therapy tool. The Swiss psychologist Carl Jung believed that mandalas are representations of our minds and that we project our thoughts and feelings onto how we perceive and interpret mandals. And different branches of psychology recognize different benefits of mandalas; for example, transpersonal psychology uses mandalas as an exercise for connections and behavioral psychology uses them to improve memory, attention, and coordination.

The intricate design of mandalas can be intimidating, but children don’t need to be artists to reap the many benefits of mandalas.

Montessori Art: Mandala Activity using nature

Where to Start: Montessori Art Mandala Coloring Activity

Your students can use natural or found objects to make their own mandalas—which doesn’t require any drawing at all. Or, you can download a blank mandala (or purchase a mandala coloring book—there are plenty for sale online) and have your students color them. You can also use Montessori insets to create simple mandala designs to color.

Making the conscious effort to embrace mandalas and to introduce Montessori art mandala activities in your classroom are the first steps to helping your students feel calmer, more mindful, and less stressed.

One Step Further: Watch My ‘Combating Stress with Art’ Webinar for FREE

Again, even just the action of coloring a mandala can offer your students tremendous mental and emotional health benefits. A few weeks ago, I co-hosted a webinar titled ‘Combating Stress with Art’ with Montessori teacher Kristen Richter, about using mandalas to combat stress, and encouraged the attendees—Montessori parents and teachers—to color mandalas as we went through the information.

The webinar teaches about the emotional literacy cycle and types of stress kids face, as well as a deeper dive into how simple art techniques like doodling or coloring mandalas can help alleviate stress.

You can download and watch the Combating Stress with Art replay, by clicking here!

A Short Cut Just for You

A Montessori art mandala activity isn’t the only way to help students work through difficult emotions like stress. If you’re looking for more art lessons to teach your students, check out my Kids Art at Home Lesson Bundle! I created it as an introduction to Montessori art; it includes lessons from each of the five visual arts domains, so you can give your students a well-rounded art foundation.

how to teach kids art lessons digital download

The bundle also includes materials lists and resources so you can feel confident knowing your students will get the most out of each lesson. On top of that, I’ve just added a very special Nature Art Mandala lesson for a limited time. It applies many of the mandala benefits described in this blog, while giving students the opportunity to be in and explore their natural surroundings—which also promotes stress-relief!
To purchase the Kids Art at Home Lesson Bundle, click here.

December 6, 2018February 1, 2020

Setting Up Your Montessori Classroom Art Space

By Spramani Elaun

Inspiring children to be creative is my business! I’ve spent more than 20 years observing how they learn and teaching them visual art. In my experience, one of the most essential components of students exploring and learning art is their environment. Luckily, it’s actually so easy to set up your Montessori classroom art space!

If you’ve been following this blog, then you know I believe every Montessori classroom should have an inspiration gallery and an art shelf, so I bet you’re wondering what else you could possibly need. I can go on and on about all the things you can use to set up an art space, but to keep it simple, I’ll just share the five basic necessities with you. (Of course, you can dive deeper and learn about all the fun, unique, colorful, exciting things that you can add to your classroom by reading my books Introducing Visual Arts to The Montessori Classroom and Defining Visual Arts.)

The most important thing to understand is that making a space for art means making space to get creative and have fun. Now, when I say that, I know a lot of teachers think fun means mess. While that’s the case sometimes, if you set up a designated space for making art, it’ll contain the mess, while still giving students the freedom to create as they please.

Setting Up an Art Space

Kids need an art space to doodle, draw, write, paint, craft, sew, knit, cut, glue, build, construct, and play with clay. For kids to make these types of art projects successfully, they need the proper space. Here are the five basic necessities for creating a place for art in your classroom.

1. Rugs & Floor Coverings

Spills are inevitable, so it’s important to consider the flooring of your art space. If your classroom has wood, tile, or linoleum floors then spills will be an easy, worry-free clean up. However you may still want to a rug to lay out that will protect your floors—especially if your floor is carpet.

Rugs come in many sizes and can be inexpensive or pricey. If you don’t want to invest in a rug, then you can use a drop cloth or tarp while your students are working, and then fold it up and put it away when they’re done.

2. Table

Table size will not affect your students’ ability to be creative, but the sturdiness of it will. I’ve witnessed kids create beautiful works of art on a surface as large as their lap, so don’t feel like you need a huge, glorious art table in your classroom.

When I’m hosting events and teaching art classes I’m usually setting up on the fly and rely on a small (but sturdy!), cheap, portable fold-up tables. These are great—not just for my events but in the classroom as well—because you can set them up when you need to and not be limited to a full-time art table since they can be folded up and tucked out of the way when not in use.

3. Chairs

Along with a sturdy table, kids need a sturdy chair or stool to sit on safely. A bench or folding chair can work just fine, as will pulling a chair from elsewhere in your classroom. Having a table and chairs available makes invites a child to create and lets them know art should be made in that specific place (containing any mess to that space as well).

4. Light Source

I’ve spent many years observing children making artworks, and the ways in which they visually perceive their work is key to developing their artistic skills. That’s why a good, bright light source is important—it helps them identify pigments and color hues. Natural sunlight is the best, but a lamp light source can work just as well.

5. Art Supply Storage

Every art space should have a place where art supplies are stored. I’ve found that children can be overly stimulated or even get bored if they’re given total access to every art supply in your classroom. The best way to keep them excited and engaged with art is to keep rotating the materials that are available to them. You can use jars, baskets, or closed plastic containers to separate different types of art supply and store them away from the art space when necessary.

Creating your Montessori classroom art space doesn’t need to be fancy or complicated; it’s really not that different from the areas you have set aside for other lessons.

If this has you inspired and eager to start teaching art in your classroom, you should definitely sign up for my online training, Art Teaching Blueprint. It’s a quick, seven-week course that takes everything I’ve learned about teaching art to students and breaks it down into 43 short, easily-digestible videos. It’ll help you build a foundation for teaching a quality visual arts program in your school or classroom. I’m so excited to offer this course to you and I really think it’ll empower you and give you invaluable teaching skills. You can click here to register.