President Obama and the Montessori Materials

Posted by on March 25, 2013 in In The World | Comments Off on President Obama and the Montessori Materials

President Obama and the Montessori Materials

President Barack Obama visited an the College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center in Decatur, Georgia, in February. This school visit follwed his State of the Union Address, which included his intention to support public funding to make early childhood education more available to four-year-old children across the nation.

While it is clear from the photograph that the College Heights Learning Center is not a traditional Montessori classroom, Montessori educators noticed that President Obama had an opportunity to explore with Montessori sensorial materials on his classroom visit.  At The Montessori Toddler, you can read educator Ryan Bell’s take on Obama’s experience and some ways that the pink tower and brown stair are used in Montessori toddler classrooms.

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These sensorial materials are present in the Early Childhood (3-6) classroom, as well. Often children will work collaboratively with the pink tower and brown stair to come up with extensions on how to build with these materials. Both the brown stair and pink tower are a set of 10 blocks that vary incrementally in size. These materials provide children with a strong visual and kinesthetic sense of height, width and weight. Carrying these materials from the shelf is an experience that builds motor control, a sense or order and a sense of sequence. The sequence of 10 blocks prepares the mind and hand for work with sets of 1-10 while using math materials. Working together with a peer to create extensions (like the ones shared with President Obama) allow the child to experience team work, shared problem solving and practice in communicating ideas verbally.