Probably what they meant is when we "present" materials in a Montessori classroom we usually will be presenting it to only one child at a time, thus you are working 1 on 1 with a single child, however Montessori is most def a group experience, in a proper Montessori class 1 Directress (as they are called,not teachers) can have 30 children ....obviously because of laws/ratios etc we do not have this here in Oz but that was how it was intended to be.
LA I will give u a run down of how my day was planned at my last centre which will give u a better idea of how our routine was
this was for the age group 2 - 4.5 pretty much though on paper my class was 18mnths - school age
9am children came in - group circle time (good morning, what we will do today, i showed them group presentations of montessori materials)
9:15 - 10:45 - Montessori work cycle, children chose work and did that, i observed & presented materials to individual children & small groups.
also within this time was morning tea, children served themselves, sat down at a table for 2 and then washed their plates & went back to work
10:45 pack away ...sit in circle. sunscreen on and in turns got hats (usually done in a fun way, if your name starts with f, s etc go get your hat, if u r wearing something yellow etc ...letters done phonetically of course!)
11:00 - 11:20 Gross motor activities outside... used to set up various obstacle courses or fun activities to help gross motor development...usually ended with races, and games like duck duck goose!
11:20 - hats off ....wash hands... sit down for lunch
lunch time 1 child served 1 child gave out food ... tables already laid with help of 3 children, doing tablecloths, plates, glasses & filling them with water....very Montessori, the children do or help do whatever they can
after lunch was wash hands etc and rest time
2pm - depending on days was French class, music class if was a day with nothing then I did story time, show & tell or music myself with them where we not only sang songs but learnt about musical instruments what they sounded like, as well as composers & their music
also used to take in my laptop and show them clips of things to do with our theme of the term eg Australia - showed them aboriginal music & dancing
some days at 2pm we did art & craft activties or cooking or gardening(keeping in mind they were free to do art & craft during Montessori work time as well but painting was about learning the techniques 1st before just splashing paint on paper, they learnt to make lines and curves, thick brushes gave a different stroke to thin, water colours needed different paper & had a different effect to acrylic etc) this art & craft was more "free" making themed stuff for the term, colouring sheets, etc
at 3pm we would do circle time again and say/sing goodbye and then go out for free play
We do a lot of stuff u probably do in normal childcare centres but during the Montessori Work Cycle we only do Montessori things which incorporated, practical life, sensorial, language, mathematics, geography, botony, art & culture ... we always had a book corner & children were free to sit & look at books etc as well during this time. Montessori work time was for me to observe what the children were chosing to do and when I saw they had mastered a particular Montessori material I would then move on and present either extension exercises materials (if they had any) if not then presented the next level up of that skill
http://www.infomontessori.com/sensorial ... ablets.htm
If u read the info in the link it will give u all the exercises possible with the 3 colour boxes
I would not start colour box 2 unless i know the child has mastered box1, likewise I will not start doing any of the extension exercises for colour box 2 unless i know he has mastered the basic of it
sounds complicated but really isnt as if I had 3 children I knew were ready for Colour Box 2, I would invite them (they r never forced or told they HAVE to) come and watch if they wanted, usually they will all come out of interest of something new...so I would present the material to them as a group.
If when a child chose that work and i saw them doing it incorrectly i would not correct them but at a later stage invite them once again to watch how i did, without saying they had done it wrong or anything. you just re-present the materials they do not use correctly until they do
Phew lol hope that has explained something of it there.....hard to explain so easy to do when u know how!
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