What you will find in every Montessori Classroom
Every classroom will be slightly different because teachers and cultures are different but there are some things that are included in every Montessori classroom around the world.
The general sense of the classroom should be clean, tidy, airy and pleasant. Walls should not be too busy with posters and colours: the focus should be on the lessons. Materials, furniture & decorations should be real, not toy replicas. There will only some plastic. You will see glass, china, wood, silver, real vegetation, and, hopefully, an animal of some sort.
The classroom should have low, accessible shelves made of wood. Lessons will be neatly set upon the shelves in their respective learning area (see below). The lessons within an educational area will be placed upon the shelves in such a way that they grow in complexity from left to right taking into account room and shelving constraints. The photos below are from 4 different schools.
The typical Montessori classroom is divided into 5 educational areas: Practical Life, Sensorial, Language, Arithmetic, and Culture/Science.
Practical Life Area - this area is filled with lessons that have a practical component to them. Each lesson will help to teach the child how to interact and care for the environment and those in it. Typical lessons include: Bottles & Boxes, Spooning, Pouring, Spill clean-up, Table Washing, Polishing, Sweeping, Buttons, Bows, Setting a Table and Sewing on a Button. Water use will be involved. Many of the lessons in this area will have been made by the teachers of the school; only some lessons will have been purchased. (The empty shelf means a student is using that lesson. There is only one of each lesson per classroom)
Sensorial Area - this area will be filled with specific Montessori materials that are used throughout the world. Lessons focus on the development of discernment and the refinement of the senses. There will only be a few hand-made lessons. Lessons will include: Pink Tower, Broad Stairs, Red Rods, Colour Boxes, Sound Cylinders, Cylinder Blocks, Knobless Cylinders, Bells, Smelling Bottles, Touch Tablets, and Binomial Cube.The photo (found at http://mymontessorijourney.typepad.com/photos) shows part of a Sensorial area. You can see the Pink Tower at the extreme right, Red Rods, Broad Stairs, Sound Cylinders, and the three Colour Tablet boxes at the bottom left. The two baskets at the bottom right are extensions to the Colour Tablet lessons (the baskets at the very top are on the shelves of another section.)
Language Area - The Language area will have a mix of school-made and purchased materials but most will be the same from classroom to classroom. Lessons focus on the development of reading and writing. Typical lessons include: Sandpaper Letters, Metal Insets, Chalkboards, Classified Cards, Moveable Alphabet, Pink Material, Blue Material, Green Material.
The photo shows the Sandpaper Letters (just at the top left), Moveable alphabet (top right), as well as the Pink, Blue, and Green materials.
Arithmetic Area - This area will have mostly purchased materials. Lessons focus on the development of numeracy and mathematical understanding. Typical lessons will include: Long Rods, Sandpaper Numbers, Cards and Counters, Spindle Boxes, Golden Bead materials, Coloured Bead materials (Short Bead Stair, Bead Chains) and the Stamp Game.
In the photo above, you can see the blue and red Long Rods, the Spindle Boxed (middle) and the Bead Chain Cabinet along with other lessons.Culture/Science Area - This area teaches about culture, history, geography, zoology, botany, and some basic science. Many lessons will be school-made but there will be a set of puzzle maps like the one shown, two globes (sandpaper and coloured continent) Other lessons will include "Parts of" cards (tree, flower, frog, turtle, fish, horse, bird), Clock, Life-cycle, Magnets, Colour mixing.
You can see better photos of individual Montessori lessons at this Montessori materials supplier (this is not an endorsement) http://ca.montessorioutlet.com/cgi-bin/category/5105
