Montessori Education live at Mall

People visiting Westfield Queensgate Mall in Lower Hutt will have the unique opportunity to learn about Montessori Education this week. From 6th until 10th September, 2010, the children from Wa Ora Montessori School will take their Montessori classroom to the mall.
It will be the first time a Montessori classroom will be placed in a public location in NZ. The idea to create a public classroom came from an exposition held in San Francisco in 1915, where a glass-walled classroom created by founder Maria Montessori, was the major attraction.
The Montessori classroom will include children aged three to 12. Under the guidance of teacher Cathy Wilson, the three to five year olds will work with activities taken from a Montessori classroom.
Children in Montessori are exposed to many complex concepts at an early age. “It will be very different for the children to be in a public place, under the gaze of the visitors to Queensgate. However, Montessori activities are designed to engage and our children are used to becoming deeply focused on their chosen activity”, says Cathy.
The older primary-aged children will interact with onlookers by explaining how they work in their Montessori classroom. They will demonstrate specifically designed Montessori materials and explain what they are learning.
The children will be in the mall classroom from Monday to Friday, 10am-12.30pm and 1pm-2.30pm.
Wa Ora Montessori School is the only state-integrated primary school and largest Montessori school in NZ. The country holds currently 82 Montessori early childhood centres, 27 primary classes and one high school programme. Nearly 4,000 NZ families choose the educational philosophy of Montessori for their children.  
For more information about the Montessori philosophy, please visit www.montessori.org.nz