Montessori Prepared Environment

Maria Montessori: "The first aim of the prepared environment is, as far as it is possible, to render the growing child independent of the adult."


The Montessori prepared environment is created to meet the specific learning and emotional needs of the children in that class. There are generally six aspects, or principles, to the Prepared Environment:


  1. Freedom

  2. Structure and Order

  3. Beauty

  4. Nature and Reality

  5. Social Environment

  6. Intellectual Environment.


It includes:

  • the layout of the room. (In a Montessori prepared environment you will see shelves prepared with equipment for children to use once they have had a lesson on that piece of equipment. The room will be laid out in a way to facilitate easy movement of the child and teacher.)

  • Montessori equipment

  • protocols or rules (Rules may look different from class to class but they always centre on being helpful, kind, respectful of the environment, and respectful towards adults and children.)


“Montessori is a way of being − it does not stop and start at specific times or only occur indoors! Indoor and outdoor environments provide rich learning experiences for the child - activities are purposeful, real, explorative and have a cycle of activity.

The Montessori environment is orderly and structured to simply to enable the child to make independent choices for their learning.”

www.montessori.org.nz/learning-environment