Mentorship in our classrooms: Why Mixed Ages Work

Have you ever noticed the mixed-age classrooms in a Montessori school and wondered why? This is a specific design that allows younger children to benefit from having older peers as role models and mentors and enables older children to step into leadership roles. This model mirrors real-world experiences where people of different ages work together and learn from each other.

In our IMSP classrooms, older students relish and value the opportunity to be leaders, sometimes stepping into a teaching role. Mentoring their younger friends increases the independence and competence of the older students. This model is also beneficial to the younger children as they look to older students to be role models and helpers. They know that they can count on them for help and, because of this, they can accomplish tasks they may not be able to do independently yet.

As a whole, children can cooperate rather than compete, creating an environment of learners who support and care for each other. Check out this video to see Montessori mentorship in action!

Want to learn more? Read our next article:

STARTING PRESCHOOL: HOW TO HANDLE SAYING GOODBYES?

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Learning Mathematics in our Primary Classrooms

Maria Montessori often stated that not only does every human being have an innate drive to understand the environment around them, we all also naturally have what she called a “Mathematical Mind”. In the Montessori classroom, mathematical learning begins through indirect preparation long before a child is ever introduced to any Math materials.

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There are a few things typical to Montessori classrooms worldwide that might give the casual observer a pause. Picture it: you walk into a beautiful Casa environment, full of children working, many of them on mats rolled out on the floor. The students moving through the room know to step between mats, never on them. Of course, in the beginning of the school year it took many presentations, repetitions and reminders to instill this routine in the students.

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Maria Montessori used to walk through the forests in India pulling leaves from trees to teach about their function and structure, digging in the soil to demonstrate the ubiquitousness of life, examining root systems and connecting them to academic ideas.

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If you visit the Upper Elementary at IMSP on any school day in the late morning, you would hear a gentle bell ring at around 11:20. The students clean-up, and by 11:30, they gather on the classroom carpet and light a candle. A teacher sets a timer. At the sound of a bell, they begin their 5-minute awareness/mindfulness practice.