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Mathematics
Montessori math materials help children approach math with hands-on, visual, and physical learning aids. These materials allow students to attach concrete knowledge to the often abstract concepts in math. As children progress through the Montessori math framework, the materials become more abstract, as students internalize more of the knowledge scaffolded by the materials.
The Montessori mathematics curriculum is a comprehensive, multidimensional system for learning mathematical concepts based on the needs and developmental characteristics of preschool and elementary aged children.
Designed as a means for assisting children in their total mental development, the method focuses on fostering depth of understanding and the discovery of mathematical ideas rather than the memorisation of isolated facts and procedures.
Instruction is individualised and manipulative materials, each isolating a single idea, are used to help lead the child from sensorial exploration to an abstract understanding of mathematical concepts.
Students move through the curriculum at their own pace and are able to discover and correct their own mistakes through the built-in control of error incorporated in many of the mathematical material.
A wide range of activities, differing in depth, complexity, and scope, are introduced to provide the child with repetition of basic skills in a variety of contexts.
The materials used in the Montessori mathematics curriculum present ideas in concrete form and are sequenced to gradually move the student toward abstract comprehension.
A material itself may offer various levels of difficulty to help the child reach an internalised understanding of a concept or the child may be moved toward abstraction by working through a series of materials that become increasingly abstract.
In addition to directly preparing the child for the next material in a series of exercises, each material also provides a foundation for further mathematical activities by incorporating concepts that are absorbed by the child at a sensorial level.
For example, while the direct aim for a set of numerals cut from sandpaper is to introduce the symbols for the quantities from one to nine, the indirect aim is physically prepare the child for writing the numerals at a later time. It is the accumulation of sensorial knowledge, as well as the child’s direct experience with sequential materials, that lays the foundation for an abstract understanding of mathematical concepts in the Montessori system of education.
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