MONTESSORI WAY

The Montessori materials designed for the Sensorial,

Math, Language curriculum areas and the respective

exercises can provide the child with the basic elements

of art awareness and mental development

towards creativity and self expression through art.

Exercises and work with Montessori materials that prepare and inspire

art projects for preschoolers and young children

cover the three curriculum area of Sensorial, Math, Language :
cylinder blocks, pink tower, tangrams, binomial cube, broad stairs,

red rods, geometric solids, geometric cards, color tablets,

dot exercise, fraction circles, stamp exercise, bead material,

snake game, metal insets, colored pencils, etc.

Age 1-3 years Art

It is safe to say that the scientific method of education founded by Dr.Montessori offers useful orientation for any art program
(homeschooling, public, private ) for young children.

A Montessori approach to art for young children can range

from art and craft projects complementary to exercises with the materials 

to simply using the philosophy of education and

training of the senses developed by Maria Montessori .

"As a matter of fact we have a two-fold aim in education.

One is biological and the other is social.

The biological objective is to assist the natural development of the individual;

the social objective consists in preparing the individual for his environment,

and this also embraces professional education,

which teaches an individual how to make use of his surroundings.

The training of the senses is, in fact, of utmost importance on both counts.

The development of the senses actually precedes that of the higher intellectual faculties,

and in a child between the ages of three and six it constitutes

his formative period. We can therefore assist the development

of the senses during this very period by graduating and adapting the stimuli to which a child is exposed...
Aesthetic and moral education are also closely connected with the training of the senses."
Maria Montessori, The Discovery of the Child, ch. 9, Generalizations on the Training of the Senses.

Thus variations/extensions of Montessori exercises through

art and craft projects could be a paper pink tower,

a snake art project, a paper binomial cube, fabric tangrams,

a bead ornament craft, a maize art project among others.

The Montessori materials can prepare for art,

and art lessons also can be taught the Montessori way:
take for instance the many geometric shapes

obtained by creating a paper cup in a folding project.

From square to rhombus, triangle, quadrilateral, pentagon, trapezoid.

PAPER CUP CRAFT IDEAS