Dr. Montessori’s Own Handbook

nother part of the working-room’s equipment is seen in the pieces of carpet of various colors––red, blue, pink, green and b

They hang their clothes on little hooks, placed very low so as to be within reach of a little child, or else they fold up such articles of

nd, above all, each child should have a little flower-pot, in which he may 13 sow the seed of some indoor plant, to tend and cultivate it as

In the sitting-room, or “club-room,” a kind of parlor in which the children amuse themselves by conversation, games, or music, etc., the furnishings should be especially tasteful.

rnamental plants and flowering plants ought always to be placed in the room where the children are at work.

Round the walls of the room are fixed blackboards at a low level, so that the children can write or draw on them, and pleasing, artistic pictures, which are changed from time to time as circumstances direct.

right handle (or a handle of some color to con

n the working-room there are two indispensable pieces of furniture. One of these is a very long cupboard with large doors. (Fig. 1.) It is very low so that a small child can set on the top of it small objects such as mats, flowers, etc. Inside this cupboard is kept the didactic material which is the common property of all the children.
The other is a chest of drawers containing two or three columns of little drawers, each

The functions to be established by the child fall into two groups: (1) the motor functions by which he is to secure his balance and learn to walk, and to coordinate his movements; (2) the sensory functions through which, receiving sensations from his environment, he lays the foundations of his intelligence by a continual exercise of observation, 7 comparison and judgment.

As the child’s body must draw nourishment and oxygen from its external environment, in order to accomplish a great physiological work, the work of growth, so also the spirit must take from its environment the nourishment which it needs to develop according to its own “laws of growth.”