Early Years Goals

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Early Years Goals and Montessori Practices

We believe at our Montessori school we go the extra mile working with you and your child to achieve more than the standard early learning goals.

This developmental progress is documented in the child’s Record of Achievement. It is important to note that children’s progress is recorded from the moment the child enters a setting, be it at the age of six, twelve or twenty-four months. All recorded routines, activities and games contribute towards the child’s holistic development.

The following tables should serve as a guide and an overview of activities which might help children develop and contribute towards the achievement of the early learning goals at the end of the reception year in Montessori settings.

There are five main sections which need to be taken under consideration, Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication, Language and Literacy, Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy, Knowledge and understanding of the world, Physical development and Creative Development

Personal, Social and Emotional Development


Early learning goals as identified in statutory guidance	Examples of Montessori practice
Children should:	Children:
Continue to be interested, excited and motivated to learn.	Are helped to settle into the routines. Undertake accessible activities. Are encouraged to make choices. Are given an explanation of ‘how the room or classroom works’.
Are confident to try new activities, initiate ideas and speak in a familiar group.	Select activities spontaneously. Are curious about new activities being undertaken by older peers and being introduced by teachers and are ready to try them. Contribute to discussions with teachers and other children around the nature table or in the book corner when sharing activities with the group.

Communication, Language and Literacy


Early learning goals as identified in statutory guidance	Examples of Montessori practice
Children should:	Children:
Interact with others, negotiating plans and activities and taking turns in conversation.	Are encouraged to express their ideas and contribute to conversations. Participate in sharing of ideas and experiences in the book corner and art area. Can choose to play group games such as animal lotto. Can participate in block play, role-play and outdoor play.
Enjoy listening to and using spoken and written language, and readily turn to it in their play and learning.	Share books either on one-to-one basis or in a group. Listen to guidance on how to use materials, participate in cooking and other activities. Have extensive one-to-one conversations with each other and adults.
Sustain attentive listening, responding to what they have heard with relevant comments, questions or actions.	Participate in story time, during group activities, engage in attentive listening. Listen to instructions given by adults. Participate in the ‘Silence game’. Participate in ‘I Spy’ and ‘Odd One Out’. Respond to science experiments and observations of the environment.
Listen with enjoyment and respond to stories, songs and other music, rhymes and poems and make up their own stories, songs, rhymes and poems.	Participate and enjoy listening to stories. Freedom of choice encourages enjoyment and creative use of language during book reading, role-play and music time.

Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy


Early learning goals as identified in statutory guidance	Examples of Montessori practice
Children should:	Children:
Say and use number names in order in a familiar context.	Join in rhymes, use counting books and count, for example, the number of children present, days of the week, spoons of ingredients when cooking.
Count reliably up to ten everyday objects.	Count number rods, pegs, spindles, counters and other objects in the environment.
Recognise numerals 1 to 9.	Use sandpaper numerals and a spindle box, number cards, the birthday display and calendar.
Find one more or one less than a number from one to ten.	Use a number line, short bead stairs and the addition and subtraction strip board to count and explore numbers.
Use language such as ‘greater’, ‘smaller’, ‘heavier’, or ‘lighter’ to compare quantities.	Use all sensorial activities, especially the geometric solid, the geometric cabinet and the binomial and trinomial cubes.

Knowledge and Understanding of the World


Early learning goals as identified in statutory guidance	Examples of Montessori practice
Children should:	Children:
Investigate objects and materials by using all of their senses as appropriate.	Participate in project work. Investigate the nature table displays, gardening and plant activities.
Find out about, and identify, some features of living things, objects and events they observe.	Participate in project work. Have discussions in relation to activities available in the cultural area.
Look closely at similarities, differences, patterns and change.	Observe nature. Find out about life cycles and the needs of plants and people. Learn about the consequences of science activities.
Ask questions about why things happen and how things work.	Have opportunities for asking questions which relate to displays on the nature table and to individual and group work with activities presented within projects.

Physical development


Early learning goals as identified in statutory guidance	Examples of Montessori practice
Children should:	Children:
Move with confidence, imagination and in safety.	Participate in music and movement. Use outdoor equipment in the garden or regularly visit the playground.
Move with control and coordination.	Do yoga or play ‘Who’s Afraid of Mr Wolf’. Participate in the circle game. Use bicycles, tunnels and obstacle courses. Use the snack and art areas.
Travel around, under, over and through balancing and climbing equipment.	Use bicycles and the tunnel for climbing and crawling. Dance. Play walk-on-the-line games. Use the climbing apparatus and balance beams.
Handle tools, objects, construction and malleable materials safely and with increasing control.	Use the Practical life materials. Use the art and craft area. Use carpentry sets and other materials.
Use a range of small and large equipment.	Use the Practical life and outdoor areas to do gardening, carpentry, art activities and cooking.

Creative Development


Early learning goals as identified in statutory guidance	Examples of Montessori practice
Children should:	Children:
Respond in a variety of ways to what they see, hear, smell, touch and feel.	Have opportunities to make stories, draw, paint, sing songs and dance.
Explore colour, texture, shape, form and space in two and three dimensions.	Explore sensorial activities. Participate in a range of art and craft activities. Play with blocks. Do spontaneous and planned activities.
Recognise and explore how sounds can be changed, sing simple songs from memory, recognise repeated sounds and sound patterns and match movement to music.	Participate in organised and spontaneous singing. Participate in music and movement sessions. Play music games.