“Language is related to the development of intelligence, but moral development is very important too. Intellectual education and moral and social education are the two sides of development. The first is concerned with intellectual development and the second with the individual’s active life in society. ”
-Maria Montessori
Working Together
One of the biggest challenges in a young child's life is learning how to work with others in their environment. Whether this is asking a friend to play, or asking a friend for space, social development is a core part of the Montessori classroom curriculum.
A great way to establish friendships and promote social interactions is to provide children with a multitude of opportunities in which they can have successful interactions with other members in their classroom. Matching games are a great way to pair children up to practice their social skills. A matching game can be a great addition to the fall shelf with a set of leaf matching tiles or the sensorial shelf with the color matching or touch and match activity.
Animal tracks are another great way to incorporate a collaborative memory game into the cultural section of the classroom. These animal tracks wood tiles pair perfectly with the animals and footprint sensory stones set, for an easy way to switch up your shelf.
Number matching tiles are a wonderful way to encourage numerical and counting practice while children work in a duo to find the pairs.
Emotional Intelligence
Through these lessons, it is not only important to teach collaboration, turn taking, and the successful rules of play, but also emotional intelligence. A child must learn how to understand the range of emotions they feel, as well as gain an understanding as to how to navigate the emotions of others.
A fun way to incorporated emotional intelligence is through this emotions memory game. Children see examples of others demonstrating a variety of emotions on the cards as they try to successfully match all pairs.
This week's worksheet is a fun October matching game!
