Kindergarten: Exploring the World from a Montessori Classroom

“I’ve been to California, Texas, and North Carolina,” comments one child as he looks over the map of The United States. Another child remarks that they live in Maine and points out that particular puzzle piece. “Where is Wyoming?” the third child wonders aloud. This scene is just business as usual in the Montessori classroom where young children have access to many different puzzle maps of the world. These maps not only help children develop spatial skills as they put a puzzle together, the work also provides children with the opportunity to have many conversations about the world in which they live. We further the child’s education in geography with many extension works like booklet making, map coloring, and creating their very own map of the world. By giving the child these experiences at a young age, they begin to see their place in such a large world as citizens and caretakers of our Earth.