These exercises are designed to teach the child to function in their environment by teaching them how to cope with the things around them. Activities such as dressing frames and washing tables teach personal care and care for the environment. Grace and Courtesy exercises instill good manners. The child refines their muscular coordination through movement and exploration of their surroundings. They learn to work at a task from beginning to end, developing powers of concentration.

A child loves to touch. So much of the world comes to them through their hands as they investigate everything in their environment. The sensorial materials, “the keys to the universe,” present the child with a solid basis for intellectual growth and preparation for complex learning. 

The activities in this area are designed to:   

• Develop visual perception 
• Refine the tactile senses 
• Educate the child’s sense of smell, feeling, hearing, and tasting 
• Give opportunities for the child to compare, contrast, reason, classify and categorize physical properties in the world.  

The sensorial exercises provide an intense preparation for the Math area.

The young child has a natural sensitivity to language development. Therefore, the Montessori language program begins immediately and is continuously woven into the life and work of the class. The Language materials aid the development of all three aspects of a child’s language: speaking, writing, and reading. The child is exposed to tremendous vocabulary enrichment in the class. The child is encouraged to master the skills necessary to unite the operations of writing and reading. The language area includes grammar and creative writing. 

The idea of quantity is inherent in all the Montessori arithmetic materials. Dr. Montessori designed materials that help the child concretely grasp the abstract concepts of numbers, quantity, and numeric sense. The child learns how to develop an understanding of numbers through the use of tangible objects. A stable foundation in the numbers 1 to 10 leads to the exercises in the Decimal System. Operations, in Addition, Multiplication, Subtraction, and Division, are made realistic using specially designed materials. These exercises help bring numbers to come alive. 

Science, Art, Music, Geography, Botany, and History are some subjects covered in the cultural area. The child learns about the world – past and present. Every child enjoys learning about children from other parts of the world and what life is like. They also love to learn about animals and their habitats. Care and observation of plants and animals develop their relationship with other living things.