How many children do you know that love to move?
Especially when spring has sprung, and everything outside is starting to green up and grow! It’s likely that all of the children you know have difficulty not moving! Maria Montessori promoted the revolutionary idea that movement is necessary for personality to form, believing that freedom of movement is essential to all children.
In the Montessori classroom, children have this freedom of movement as they choose their work from anywhere in the classroom and where they will work: at a table (sitting or standing) or on a rug. As a medically trained doctor, Maria Montessori also spoke about how children needed to move with an intelligible purpose to connect their brain, body, and senses throughout their daily activities - not just outside on the playground or in gym class. This means moving makes learning easier! Movement is built into many activities in a Montessori classroom, such as walking to the sink to fill a pitcher of water and carefully bringing it back to their table for scrubbing work.
With the weather getting nicer, the children are naturally gravitating outside, and our teachers are also giving them chances to move their bodies outside!
“Watching a child makes it obvious that the development of his mind comes through his movements.” -Maria Montessori
