Practical Life

In the Second Plane, practical life activities are purposeful and have a clear and defined outcome for the individual, group or community. In early years, the purpose of practical life was to develop skills such as concentration, focus, gross and fine motor skills, coordination. It also fulfilled the child’s needs for order and repetition. In contrast, for the elementary aged child, practical life activities fulfill a need and have a purpose. It often takes them outside the classroom and into the community. This is called ‘Going Out’.

Here are some examples of practical life activities in the Second Plane:

  • care of the environment - dusting, wiping, sweeping

  • care of plants or animals

  • food preparation

  • making phone calls to gather information

  • writing letter of request

  • writing ‘thank you’ notes

  • planning a trip to the museum, library, supermarket

  • planning a route (walking or public transport)

  • running class meetings

  • initiating, developing and refining class systems, routines, responsibilities

  • organising activities for a group (outings, games, clubs)

  • taking action to solve a problem or address a need

Going Out

 

Elementary aged children are essentially preparing to become adults.  They need real opportunities to try, to refine and to develop skills they will use later on as adults.  Their perception that they can do things, solve problems and have meaningful purpose in their community helps them become independent and develop confidence.  

Children of this age require supportive adults who trust and love them, allowing them to make mistakes and be there to help them through when needed.  The Montessori curriculum has this built into the programme and it is known as “going out”.  This means simply having the opportunity to take the learning outside the classroom.  Just like we don’t like our lives confined in our homes, neither should their learning stay confined to the classroom.  The elementary aged child is learning about big ideas that encompass the universe so they should have the ability to step out into the world whenever it is possible.  

What does going out look like?

The elementary classroom has a limited amount of resources and generally the existing resources are there to trigger curiosity and imagination.  The materials serve as starting points, keys to opening up different aspects of the curriculum.  But it is the child’s imagination that takes that learning further and often outside the classroom.  

Here is an example:

A zoology lesson on habitat led a group of children to want to feed the wild birds that live in the neighbouring reserve.  They had to research the kind of food and the type of bird feeder they needed (seed or nectar).  They also needed to source the materials to build a feeder and ask the handyman to install it.  A phone call to the pet shop revealed the kind of seed needed and also the recipe for nectar.  The children had to find out the phone number and come up with a list of questions to ask and how to record the answers.  Then they decided on the kind of feeder they wanted to have first (the seed).  They looked at some designs and then designed their own that fit a budget. After that, they made a list of materials and tools they needed to build one.  Letters were written to parents asking for volunteers to take them to the hardware shop and also lend us some tools we did not have.  We also invited a grandfather who is a carpenter to overlook the project.  When the feeder was ready, the children wrote a letter to the school handyman to ask that he helps install it so that it does not get blown down by the wind.  When the project was finished, the children took a photo of the completed feeder being used by the birds.  They wrote thank you cards to everyone who came helped.  

To conclude, going out really means solving problems by accessing resources available in our communities.  An elementary classroom can be described as the launching pad for learning and our community which includes parents, friends, the environment, the shops are part of our prepared environment – a further link to the universe.  We are teaching the children how to fish instead of simply giving them the fish ready to eat.