Health and Physical Education (HPE)

The Montessori curriculum provides opportunities for students to gain an understanding of their personal development and health while providing opportunities for physical education and fitness.

Dr Montessori was a physician keenly interested in the health of the human body. She incorporated physical activity into her approach to education, devising gymnastic equipment, open-air games and outdoor adventure education for older children. The development of coordinated movement from birth is central to the Montessori approach.

Dr Montessori also observed how children’s ability to self-regulate, a phenomenon she termed the will, develops gradually from infancy through the childhood years if children are supported to become physically and socially independent. The will is developed during early childhood, in the Montessori view, when children can choose purposeful activities they find interesting and which involve manipulation, and then are given the freedom to work with those activities for as long they wish. Through such activity, in which the mind and the hand come under voluntary control, children learn how to make appropriate choices, how to accept the consequences of their actions and how to preserve, and how to work towards achievable goals and expectations.

The Montessori PDHPE programme, as in all other areas of the Montessori curriculum, allows children the freedom to choose their own activity and to complete that activity in their own time.

Jump to section:

1.PE.010 Personal and Social Development
1.PE.020 Health Awareness and Safety
1.PE.030 Physical Education

Personal Development, Incorporating the Lessons of Grace and Courtesy

Personal development in Montessori early childhood settings revolves around the lessons of grace and courtesy, the Montessori lessons designed to ensure the needs of everyone in the setting are respected and to promote social harmony.

These lessons are given to individual children, small groups or to the whole group. The lessons can be given:

• at point of need

• to prepare children for social situations they will experience in the future

• in response to children demonstrating they need more knowledge about how to manage a social situation, but at a later time so not to embarrass the children or make them feel self-conscious

Sometimes grace and courtesy lessons take the form of mini-dramas that highlight behaviour and model more effective ways of managing social encounters and interactions. Many grace and courtesy lessons are how to lessons that model for children how to, for example:

• put a chair under a table without disturbing others

• interrupt politely

• introduce one person to another.

The lessons include information about:

• how to move and use objects with care and control without causing disturbance or harm

• how to gesture appropriately, for example, indicate, smile or shake hands

• what language to use in each situation, for example, politeness terms such as please, thank you and excuse me.

Because there is only one of each set of materials in the environment, children in Montessori settings learn to take turns and consider others. In addition, they learn to respect the time and space others need to complete their work undisturbed.

Health Awareness

Montessori environments recognise the importance of psychological security and wellbeing, encouraging children to become independent, curious, courageous and considered risk takers.

Dr Montessori was an early advocate for improving children’s health. She emphasised the importance of fresh air, exercise, hygiene and good nutrition for children at a time when these concerns were not yet commonplace. This tradition is maintained in Montessori early childhood settings to this day.

Montessori settings are kept meticulously clean. In the practical life area of the curriculum children learn to care for themselves and their surroundings. These lessons begin in the Infant Community and continue into the Children’s House. For example, children learn how to:

• wash their hands, blow their nose, use the toilet, care for their clothes, put on a hat, dress themselves appropriately for the weather, prepare food, eat and clean up after themselves

• keep their surroundings clean, put dirty cloths and clothing into the laundry and ensure equipment, surfaces and work areas are tidy, clean and ready for the next person.

Children are encouraged to plant and care for healthy foods in the school garden and to harvest, prepare and/or cook them, and then serve them to other children and/or family and friends.

Children are engaged in conversations and lessons relating to topics such as nutrition and safety, including sun and road safety.

Children are encouraged to participate in regular physical activity, both indoors and outdoors.

Physical Education

Regular physical activity is an essential component of Montessori early childhood settings. Young children move constantly and need movement in order to learn.

Montessori settings are prepared to allow children freedom of movement while, at the same time, activities are designed to enable children to develop control of their physical movement. Daily free play outdoors extends opportunities for regular physical activity.

Children also need activities that are challenging and require ‘maximum effort’, and these are provided in the setting, for example, opportunities to move heavy objects in safe ways. These activities are extended in the Children’s House to help children develop, strengthen and refine their movement further.