3 to 6 years old

The Primary classroom accommodates children from ages three to six.

On a typical day in the Primary classroom, the children are permitted to choose their own ‘work’ based on the activities/lessons that have been presented to them. They may work with the material for as long as they’d like, and as often as they wish, provided no one else has already selected that work. With the freedom to choose their own work comes the responsibility of handling and putting it away correctly. This implies that there is a realistic respect for the materials and the other preschool children, as well as the environment.

The children are free to work, to rest and walk around the room, to talk to a friend, or observe another child at work. They are not free to touch or disturb another child’s work, run or use loud voices, display bad manners, misuse the materials, or hurt another child. This helps the growth of inner discipline.

The main purpose of the materials in the Primary classroom is to attract the child’s will to do the exercise that we call work. A secondary aim is the sensorial or conceptual knowledge the child acquires. Each child builds up his own involvement in his work and is his own timekeeper with no bells, alienating time blocks, or teacher imposed activities.  This freedom allows the child to develop qualities of initiative, independence, persistence and concentration. These qualities cannot be taught, but learned by experience in the Montessori classroom.

Guide: MaryJo Alshab