Waikato Montessori Journal

Welcome all!

What you are previewing is a photo journal of the Montessori environment which will change and develop over the next year.

It is important to note that as the children grow and develop in confidence and skill so must the environment. A Montessori classroom should be rich, enticing, challenging and attractive.

I will posts over the coarse of the year more photos to show the subtle and distinct changes I have made.

Enjoy what you see and feel free to ask question.

This is a birds eye view of Waikato Montessori School Hamilton New Zealand. This school is situated out of the city of Hamilton in the country. There is little sound and plenty outdoor space that the children have access to. The head of school owns the land and her home is at the back of the section. Due to the location of the school we are privileged to have two alpaca's and lavender rows which we use for running relay races. The layout of the classroom is specific to the children at the time. At the start of the term we have many new children starting and therefore the practical life area work is quite simple, however this will progress in difficulty and change over the course of the year. An example is the pouring activities are with two basic jugs, as the children master this skill it will be replaced with perhaps three or four jugs that will hold different amounts of water.

We are so lucky to have those amount of outdoor space and a relatively warm climate which enables us to grow our own vegetables. The children were able to then cook their own vegetable soup and eat it during morning tea time...this was so lovely. In New Zealand it is quite common to grow vegetables at home or at a community garden so therefore this is a familiar and purposeful activity for the children to do at outside time.

This photo shows the circular peace garden in which they must walk around (It is the only area outside where the children must walk) This is not a restriction but a joy for the children. At our
school we have set outside time in which we provide many purposeful activities.
I have not yet experienced a Montessori school that allows free inside and out time however the way we structure the day seems to work for our children. The structure and routine builds security.

This is our school as you enter from the road

This is the sandpit where children spend much of their outside time, we select different resources daily to use in the sandpit such as digger or conveyor belt

We have many animals at our school including two friendly alpacas.........

....and our hungry rabbits

Sensorial area

sensorial area

Cultural/continent maps

Language and literacy

Language and literacy...including insets and consonant boxes

Practical life shelf including pouring, transfer with tongs, bean sweeping. Basic pouring exercises have been chosen so far as it is the beginning of the year and we have many new children,

Practical life area including scrubbing tables, washing clothes, cleaning windows, polishing silver, and transferring water.

Practical life including knobbed puzzles, sorting, matching, threading and pegging

Practical life area including collage, poking on the line, cutting and pasting and cutting on the line

This is our cultural area

Continent booklets

Puzzle work, matching and pegging found in practical life

This is a view of the classroom, the children and the teacher are standing
in front of some practical life shelf's (pouring and food activities)

Language area

This child is transferring with tongs...at this time of the year we have sunflowers going to seed. We have made the most of our environment and the children love this work.