The general purpose of the sensorial area is to allow the child the opportunity to interpret the world intelligently. Between three and six years of age, children have a natural inclination to perfect their senses due to a sensitive period for the refinement of senses. This enables children to distinguish and classify his impressions through the mediation of specially designed materials.

The sensorial area may be defined as a series of exercises with scientifically designed objects that are grouped together according to some physical quality they possess, such as color, shape, size, sound, texture, weight, temperature and so forth. The grouping allows children to rediscover their environment by way of their senses in a clear and meaningful way.

There are two outstanding features that define the sensorial material; materialized abstractions and keys to the universe. Materialized abstraction means that abstract concepts are materialized or made concrete. This enables children to come into physical contact with an idea or concept. The key to the universe refers to the essence of the qualities or attributes found in the world and they will be presented to children through sensorial material. The sensorial material gives children the essence of the universal concepts allowing them to apply this understanding to the infinite variety of expressions of these concepts in the world.

Through sensorial material the child starts classifying and categorizing the physical qualities of the world. The sensorial materials make it possible for the child to distinguish and classify. We can thus conclude that order is the basis for the development of intelligence as it empowers the mind with the ability to distinguish. Intelligence, according to Maria Montessori, is to be able to distinguish, classify and catalog external things on the basis of a secure order already established in the mind, this is at once intelligence and culture. The characteristics of development are therefore, orderliness and the power of discrimination or ability to see different and similar.

Young children are innately curious about the world around them and have a strong desire to find about world for themselves. The Science curriculum is an integral part of the Primary Montessori classroom and it helps to cultivate this curiosity. Children begin to understand about their environment first by observing and then experimenting with hands-on activities in the classroom. Some of the Science materials the child works with are magnetism, objects that sink and float, weights, vertebrate and invertebrates, living and non-living, and the classification and care of plants and animals. The child begins to expand his/her knowledge of nature through participating in outdoor activities such as going on nature walks, feeding the birds, planting seeds and flowers, investigating insects and spiders and observing plants and wildlife. As the child continues to ask questions about his/her observations, the desire to find out more information increases. Through the experience of nature studies, the child develops a sense of eager curiosity and the wonder of the world around him/her. This in turns helps him/her develop a lifelong interest and appreciation of nature and the Universe.

Primary Reading Curriculum

"I learned to read and nobody taught me how." These are familiar words in the Montessori classroom. The ability to read develops during that long sensitive period for the acquisition of language. A key element to all Montessori classrooms is placing non-readers in with children who are already reading creating that natural lure to emulate their peers.

Montessori educators have long recognized the phonetic approach as the single most effective way to guide children toward reading. While reading requires decoding what others have written, in the Montessori classroom the child first becomes familiar with encoding words, thoughts and ideas that come from within themselves. The Vocabulary Cards and sound games are the first in a series of Montessori works that begin this process. Lessons are given in which the child learns to recognize the beginning, ending, and finally, the middle sound within a word. When introducing the Sandpaper Letters, the young child sees the letter, hears the sound of the letter clearly articulated, and, lastly, feels the letter by tracing it in sandpaper with two fingers of their dominant hand. As the child acquires more knowledge of sounds, the Moveable Alphabet material enables them to compose words and stories on their own. When they begin working with the Moveable Alphabet material the young child is comfortable using a phonetic approach to word building, but their natural curiosity soon has them composing complex words, opening the door for lessons on consonant blends, phonograms and sight words.

It is when this groundwork is laid that reading very naturally follows these word building exercises and the child makes the leap from composing words (encoding) to reading single words, phrases and sentences (decoding). This is known as the "explosion into reading". As these lessons move forward in the Montessori classroom, the child is becoming a more competent and confident reader. The child enjoys subsequent lessons where they can use their new reading skill to label objects in the classroom, carry out actions read on cards, and begin their journey of reading books.

Geography is included in the Montessori primary environment to give the child a simple foundation of understanding the world in which he lives.

The concepts of geography are presented starting with the whole and moving to the parts, beginning with the earth as a whole sphere using the Globe of Land and Water and the Globe of Continents. This is followed by parallel presentations in the political, physical and cultural aspects of geography also approached from the whole to the parts. As in all other areas, the child is first given the concrete experience, then the accompanying language orally, and then the same language in writing.

The beginning lessons of geography are sensorial in their nature. It begins with the concrete presentation of constructed landforms depicting the concept of land and water. This concept of land and water is followed by the relationship of a continent and an ocean. At a later date the child learns the names of the continents and oceans. Thus the child progresses from the concrete representation of land and water to the abstract line on a map which means an island, lake or other form.

The further use of the continent maps, the colored control charts, and later, maps printed in black and white, will take the child to the realm of the abstract. Printed labels of countries and other parts of maps lead to indirect sight reading.

The use of concrete materials in geography should bring the child to a level of understanding which will foster in him a desire to create his own materials of his own making, such as making land forms of clay, making his own maps with watercolor and pin-pricking the continent and country shapes. A full understanding of these concrete materials which then leads to a full understanding of the abstract concepts prepares the child for a life-time of interest in time, space, places and people.