The Red Corolla, Montessori Cosmic Education for ages 3-6+
This book contains the lectures delivered at the first AMI primary course given in Morocco. The Montessori culture lessons presented in this book lay the foundation for the young child’s love for the world thorough activities that give motor/sensorial experience of physics, biology, history, geography, and the arts. With such a foundation, the Montessori elementary student, ages 6-12, comes to understand these subjects at a very deep level, becoming aware of the fact that each of us has a unique cosmic task, or purpose in life.
Also included are personal “filling in the gaps” assignments for the parent or teacher, and two republished AMI and NAMTA articles, one on Cosmic Education and the second on music for all ages.
—Adele Diamond, PhD, Developmental Neuroscientist, University of British Colombia, Canada
—Rita Zener, PhD, AMI Montessori Teacher Trainer
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
COSMIC EDUCATION (NAMTA article)
THE WORK OF THE ADULT
Mind the Gaps Introduction
General Knowledge Album
Leaf Collection
Formal Language Album
THE WORK OF THE CHILD
Culture Album Introduction
Culture, Physics
Culture, Botany
Culture, Zoology
Culture, History and Geography
Culture, Music
Culture, Art
Balance
The Language of Culture
CULTURE FROM BIRTH TO AGE 12+
THE MUSIC ENVIRONMENT (also available as a small book used in AMI teacher training CLICK: The Music Environment for All Ages)
GLOSSARY
I love all of your books and “The Red Corolla” is no exception. Whenever I read one of your books I feel like I have both my mom and a teacher guiding me (I lost my mom long before becoming a parent, so this is a precious feeling). Your writing style is therapeutic for me. This is a valuable resource for anyone who wants to deeply understand the Montessori approach.
—Claudia Dumitrascu, Romania
A must read for anyone in education looking towards moving away from the compartmentalising of education into “subjects”. Literacy and numeracy skills are important but they are a toolkit to access so much more and this books helps to illustrate how to do that.
—Esma Al-Samarrai, Cardiff, Wales
Note: a few of the following color pictures are in the book, but in black and white to keep the book at a lower price.
From the chapter “The Work of the Adult— Gaps, Leaf Collection”
Recently I gave a presentation of leaves similar to what you find in this chapter and then led a nature walk with the students in the AMI primary course in Casablanca, in a beautiful garden in the home of my hosts. The students were hesitant at first, but very quickly found themselves as excited as children as they discovered the ways that the leaves were attached to the stems—alternately, oppositely, or whorled or in a group of leaves all attached at the same point. As we prepared to leave the garden and headed down the path toward the vehicles, I noticed several of the students walking slowly, looking carefully, and taking pictures. This is just the kind of involvement we will see in our children when we share the desire to explore and learn more with them.
From the chapter “The Work of the Child— Culture, Physics”
The reason we give this work to the young child is to give experience with isolated examples of the natural principles of physics in everyday life. Physical laws apply everywhere and every time. This is an introduction to real life, to truth, rather than opinion and belief. The experiments introduce experiences with buoyancy (an object sinking or floating), the movement of water, surface tension of water, movement of air, heat, sound, magnetism, electricity, gravity, weight combined with movement, and weight affected by shape.
From the chapter “The Work of the Child— Culture, Art”
The main work in the art area of the classroom is to give the child the tools to express his feelings and his ever-expanding interest in and understanding of the whole world. Of course it follows that, just as all of the other work in the Montessori primary environment, this work will give opportunity for deeper and longer periods of concentration, improved visual discrimination and eye-hand control, and more concepts and a richer vocabulary for verbal communication, and skills in writing and reading.
To see more details of the ART day of the first AMI primary course in Morocco CLICK: ART
From the chapter “The Music Environment” (AMI Journal article The Music Environment from the Beginning to the End)
The natural urge to sing, dance, make and listen to music wells up from the depths of each person, from birth to death. It can be stamped out at an early age or it can be fostered to enrich all of life. This article describes how important music is to us at every time in our life, from birth to death.
CLICK: A Montessori classroom experience based on The Red Corolla
The Red Corolla can be ordered from the Nienhuis Montessori suppliers, CLICK: Nienhuis
From Amazon: CLICK: Amazon
From the Michael Olaf Montessori Publishers, CLICK: Michael Olaf
Blessings,
Susan
Home page, CLICK: Susan
To see other books in this series, CLICK: Books