Children discover the answers to their “why” questions at KWMS

The Montessori curriculum seeks to cultivate children’s natural curiosity and to allow them to discover the answers to their “why” questions. To answer these questions, students at King’s Wood Montessori have been learning about the Human Body!

Students use body models and puzzles, a small skeleton to connect the bones inside our bodies, some real bones to look at, and a 3-dimensional torso model that has removable organs to learn about the human body.

The Kindergarten class does an in-depth study about the various organs of the human body by using organ system puzzles that separate into circulation, digestion, muscles, bones, and skin. They also create a skeleton by tracing the outline of their body and cutting and labeling the organs.

This year the students did an in-depth study of their senses by experimenting with what it's like to have to use other senses when one of them is impaired. For example, children took turns wearing blindfolds and having to rely on feeling their way or being guided by listening to their friends' voices. They learned how to sign the words love, eat, no, stop, and cat.

The teachers introduce students to books and literature that provide them with even more detail about the working of a human body. This year they read a wonderful story about Temple Grandin who, if you don't know, is famous for both having autism, and her work with animals! The class discussed how autism impacts the senses and one's perception of the world. Students also took a closer look at their fingerprints to determine if they had whorls, loops, or arches!

Aside from the anecdote it provides, studying bodies is more than just curriculum. The enthusiasm that the children have for making their body pictures is different than they have for animals and their habitat or weighing or measuring. For one thing, they are all interested; for another, the conversation is specific and animated, and good-natured. Most notable, however, is the sense of relaxed, but intense concertation that settles over the room.