Seedlings: Establishing Order in the Seedlings Classroom
“The child making use of all that he finds around him, shapes himself
for the future.”
-Maria Montessori
Matching and sorting are some of the skills that children are practicing with the materials in the classroom. Over the course of the day children practice matching with shoes, socks and mittens while getting dressed or undressed. The group has been matching colors in the Sensorial area. In the Practical Life area there are groups of like objects that can be sorted into sets. This interest in sorting and need to establish order can be observed in children from the ages of 2 to 3 years. It is this habit of finding order that helps a child to gain the concentration needed for counting. The skill of arranging objects into a line will help a child to see the physical difference in amounts.
In the math area children can begin to sort groups into sets working with the sets basket materials. Currently there is a jar of colored plastic bears that can used to practice the skill sorting objects into groups. Working with this material along with a teacher, children can practice rote counting and counting with 1:1 correspondence.
