MODULE 2 ASSIGNMENT

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KIRAN FATIMA
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Q# 01: Write a comprehensive note on the importance of

practical life exercise?

EXERCISE OF PRACTICAL LIFE (EPL):

EPL are things adult are doing in everyday life that your child is now becoming more
and more aware of and wants to take part in.
Montessori said prime time to start EPL is when they walking confidently and having
an active engagement in their environment. It is a purposeful activity not just playing
with toys, but it’s a real life experience.
➢ It develops their motor control and coordination.
➢ It will also develop independence and concentration
➢ Really important it gives them a sense of responsibility and ownership over
their environment.
Through these EPL activities they become a fully-fledged member of family that
participates in daily chores.

IMPORTANCE OF EPL
Early years are very important in child’s development, they are learning very fast so
they should be exposed to variety of EPL in prepared and home environment.
Following are some common reasons for these activities.

For independence:
When our little ones are growing older they don’t need us as much and it is time for
us to take that step and encourage them to become independent
“To give children freedom and be watchful and ready is not easy. But we
must be prepared to do all this.”
Maria Montessori
Some time as adults we need to do things quickly and it takes too long to get your
children to do it and that might be the reason why we don’t encourage them. When
the right time is there ,mothers and adults in the family do almost everything for the
children and that dependence becomes a personality trait of a child .By doing these
EPL exercise we should encourage them to take responsibility and helping them to
become that independent child .
“Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.”

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For happiness, self-satisfaction and self-respect:

Self-satisfaction is important for every age group .If a work is done with honesty and
sincerity it will give a man inner happiness and high self-esteem.
During 0-6 years child observe and learn to
do work at home. If this time is used
properly and all the activities are taught
seriously, he may be a good and well-
mannered person in future.
Every child wants to do practical life
exercises as he sees his family and
community doing these activities on daily
basis. If the child is allowed to do these
activities he will feel responsible and
worthwhile.
At this stage he works really hard and
passionately, little bit of support and praise
give him motivation and develop high self-respect.

For Making World Better Organized and Tidier Place:

The principle in Montessori Schools is
“There is a place for everything, and everything has a place.”
Internalization of this rule is possible if we practice putting things away at the right
places at home or at school at the right age, and cle an up any kind of mess that we
have made while working.
Through these EPL activities we should help child to learn how to put things on their
proper places .for example
➢ Instead of leaving utensil at table, put them back in kitchen
➢ Keep all there toys on proper place after playing
➢ Throw garbage on dustbin etc

For Learning to Give and Take Help Gracefully:

Exercises of practical life help the
child to give and take help
gracefully from younger and older
students by pleasure at school
and home. For example, the
statement of saying “go and clean
your room” should be spoken in a
very good way. The tone should
be polite. Rather than saying “go
and clean your room” should be

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said “let us all clean the room”. By doing this by adults, the child feels good and his
self-esteem will raised up. The child who receives help would later be the first
helper.

For Passing Good Work Habits to the Next Generation:

Most of the time adults complain about their work, at this stage child is continuously
learn and imitating adults. Those habits of avoiding work will automatically develops
in child too. Therefore, in order to avoid mess, practical life exercises are helpful for
passing good habits to the next generation.

For perfection of Movements:

There are a lot of exercises in Montessori classroom that engage the whole body of
child, work out muscles and refine his movement .For example
➢ Rolling up a carpet, polishing up the shoes
➢ Washing the basin and floor
➢ Setting table, opening and closing boxes etc
Through these good work habits children develop more
control over their movement and strengthen muscles.
In grace and courtesy, he learns how to move in a
society gracefully. He learns to control body
movements which make him to walk, stand and sit
excellently.
“More developed a child is, the more obedient are his instruments of
motion to his will”

For Normalization of the child:

During sensitive period (0-6 years) children acquire certain abilities, such as
language discrimination of sensory stimuli and mental modelling of environment
.Every child has a strong urge to work for development. If the child couldn’t get
opportunity to fulfill his urges, it may result in deviation. That’s why, practical life
exercises help children to fulfill their strong inner urges which lead them to
normality.

.For Avoiding Personality Disorder:

Children who are introvert and have lack of confidence are those who are not
encouraged by their adults during their sensitive periods. As Dr. Montessori stated
“Sensitive Periods” are those peak times when nature allows a person to learn
something the best way. This time is temporary and once it is lost it does not come
back again.

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In order to avoid any personality disorder ,as a guardian it is over responsibility to

give child those activities and made those opportunities available in which child show
interest and his inner urges are full filled.

Q#02 Explain the different groups of exercises of

practical life. How do you think this group is
helpful?

Exercises of practical life are categorized in four main groups.

1. Elementary exercises
2. Exercises of personal care
3. Grace and courtesy exercises
4. Care of environment exercises

ELEMENTARY EXERCISES:
These exercises assist in creating routine and order in the environment and are
necessary for other activities.
It is further sub divided into three groups:
1. Basic elementary exercises
2. Elementary exercises
3. Higher elementary exercises

Basic Elementary Exercises:

These activities involve very basic movements, such as holding and placing objects
.These kinds of exercises are very helpful for a child. They help him to coordinate,
balance, and make him to be perfect in his movements. For example,
• Holding a jug, tray, spoon
• Carrying a glass of water

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Elementary Exercise:
The movements involved in this category are a bit more complex and advanced than
basic elementary exercises, but altogether they are also done within a short period of
time. Examples:
• Rolling and unrolling of mats
• Folding and unfolding mats
• Opening and closing bottle tops,
• Pouring rice from one jug to another jug,
etc.
Elementary exercises indirectly help Montessori
students to learn for geometry. They help student
to be independent, for writing and exercise of
hands and coordination of movements. These
exercises help the child to concentrate keenly.

Higher Elementary Exercises:

This group of exercises is more logical and slightly more complex than
the previous group of exercises. Examples:
• Cutting along a line,
• Spooning beans into a number of
containers,
• Use of dropper, etc

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EXERCISE OF PERSONAL CARE:

These exercises help the child to take care of himself, gain
confidence and groom himself. Examples:
• Combing hair,
• Brushing teeth,
• Dressing frames, etc

GRACE AND COURTESY EXERCISE:

Through these activities the child learns to be polite, use basic manners and how to
go around the society. It also help child to learn different situation and how to behave
and react in different situations. Examples:
• Table manners, how to carry a chair
• How to be silent,
• Use of thank you, sorry, please, etc

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CARE OF ENVIORNMENT EXERCISE:
Exercises of care of both outdoor and indoor environments are components of this
category. The child learns to take care of the environment, how to keep it clean and
how to restore and maintain proper living conditions. Example:
Polishing brass, washing dishes, dusting, flower arrangement, etc. picking up dried
leaves, watering plants, etc.

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Q#03: What are the essential points that we

should keep in mind while presenting EPL?

The child can only develop by means of experience in his

environment. We call such experience work.
DR MARIA MONTESSORI
Children are naturally interested in activities they have witnessed. It
is therefore the directress’s task to demonstrate the correct way of doing these
exercises in a way that allows the child to fully observe the movement. Correctness of
the technique of the directresses' presentation is of high value in the learning process
of the child. The first basic is that the directress, before she attempts a presentation
in front of a child, must practice the activity as many times as possible so that the
possibility for any sort of errors is as less as possible.
The presentations for EPL can be collective or individual depending on the child’s
needs and the nature of the activity. It can be direct or indirect.

Direct Presentation:
Direct presentations are where the
activity is introduced to the child and explanation
of movement is necessary to help the child
understand the necessary movements and their
sequence

Indirect Presentation:
The indirect presentations are defined
as when a child is watching the teacher make a presentation and paying attention to
the lesson without the teacher being aware of it. This can be more important than the
direct presentation, for the teacher is the biggest piece of Montessori material.

Essential points:
While presenting any EPL in front of a child teacher or elder should know these
basic principles:
• Let the child to decide which activity he wants to do, let him pick between the
two and that he has to wait for the other activity, as the result of this the
activity become more valued.

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• The use of non-toxic materials is recommended, sharps objects need to have

rounded ends.
• Enable your child the freedom to
investigate indoors and outdoors, as
long as your kid is safe and using the
freedom in a positive manner..
• Don’t interrupt your kids work cycle. Let
your kid devel op an ever increasing
ability to concentrate.
• Make appealing environment for your
child and as orderly as possible. Your
child needs orderly environment and
developing mental wisdom.
• Supply child size stuff whenever
possible. Put stuff on trays on low
shelves, letting the child to select to
select their own work and to repeat
activities as frequently as needed.
• Present just how to do an action. Don’t anticipate your kid to automatically
understand just how to do something without having it demonstrated first.
• Give your kid as many opportunities for hands
on learning as possible. It’s important your kid
has hands-on experience.
• Encourage and respect your child observation.
• For the child every material must be present.
All the things should be within easy access of
the child.
• The activities need to be based on reality like
wash hands with real water, clean hands with
real soap.
• It is big mistake to think practical life activities are limited by what you have
learnt in your training. Parents should allow child to do limitless things.

As adults working and caring for children it is our duty to provide an

environment in which the child can fully, happily actively participate in daily
life.

The adult must acquire the sensitivity to recognize all the child’s
Needs, only thus can he give the child all the help that is
necessary, child cannot learn well if he does not know how
attractive Objects invite the child to touch them and then to learn
and use them.

Dr Maria Montessori

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Q#04: Try to explain “Formal setting of a Table” and “Making a

Chicken Spread Sandwich” in the same way EPL have been
explained in this book for you.

FORMAL TABLE SETTING:

MATERIAL:

Table mat /placemat Forks

Napkin Glasses
Spoons Plates
Knives
PRESENTATION:

• Table and chair should be child sized and all the materials must be kept at
child’s eye level.
• Invite the child by asking him/her whether they would like to learn to set up a
formal table.
• Bring the appropriate material to the workplace with the help of the child.
• Lay the placemat on the table with child’s help.
• Place dinner plate in the middle of place mat .Put salad plate and soup bowl
on top of dinner plate.

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• The bread plate goes up in the left corner and butter knife goes at an angle
with the handle facing right for easy reach.
• Place a dinner fork on the left and a dinner knife on the right.
• Add the salad fork outside of dinner fork because you have salad before main
course.
• If you are serving soup it comes first so the soup spoon goes outside of knife
on the right side
• For dessert, dessert spoon goes above the dinner plate with the handle
pointing to the right.
• Glasses will be placed in the upper right corner
• There is a variation in napkins placement, traditionally it goes to the left
of fork, it can also be placed under the forks or on plate.
• Set out any candles and decoration you like.
• Invite the child to use the material to practice the activity himself.

Points of Interest:

➢ Remembering where and how to place the various items

➢ Keeping the items in balance with each other
➢ Maintaining balance while holding and carrying different utensils
➢ Concentration

Control of Error:

➢ Dropping glass, plate or other utensils

➢ Making sound while placing different utensils on the table

Direct Aim:

➢ Learn to set up table independently

Indirect Aim:

• Hand eye coordination

• Balance

• Perfection of movement

• Concentration

Age Group: 3 years and onwards

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Making A Chicken Spread Sandwich:

Material:
▪ Bread slices
▪ Chicken spread
▪ Plate
▪ Butter knife
▪ Salad leaf

Presentation:
1. Place all the required material in front of child and let the child perform all
steps.
2. Put one piece of slice on plate and open chicken spread bottle.
3. Pick up the butter knife and dip it in chicken spread bottle and take the
appropriate amount.
4. Gently spread on one piece of slice and put some salad leaf on it.
5. Place the other piece of bread on top of it.
6. Cut in desired shape and its ready to serve.

Q#05 write just the names of as many EPL as

possible (that you thing a child can do) and which
are not mentioned in the book.

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“Respect all the reasonable forms of activity in which the child engages
and try to understand them.”
Dr. Maria Montessori

NAMES OF EPL:
Pouring liquids without spilling
Opening and closing lids
Matching socks
Folding socks
Tie the shoes by themselves
Help mother is setting bed sheets
Put things and toys on proper places
Clean up their mess
Turning lights on and off
Dish washing
Do mopping
Vacuuming
painting and polishing furniture
Dusting is their favorite work
Put wet cloths in dryer
Folding cloths and towels
Help in kitchen chores
Try to make round roti
Baking (cake, muffins, cookie) with
elder
Peeling fruits and vegetables
Wash hands and face
Dry with towel and hang on proper
place
Brush teeth
Put lotions on face
Get dressed and comb hair

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Choose their own cloths

Polishing shoes

Watering plants
Sow seeds, give water and excited to see growth of plant
Flower arranging
Pick fruits and vegetables from home garden
Care of pets

Feed animals and birds

Pour water for birds
How to greet someone
Answer phone and say hello
How to sit properly on chair
Table manners
How to open and shut door quietly
Knocking on door
Walking on line
There are so many more EPL exercises that child is learning from time to time.

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The purpose and aim of Practical Life is to help the child gain control in the
coordination of his movement, and help the child to gain independence and adapt to
his society
“We discovered that education is not something which the teacher does,
But that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the
human being.”
Maria Montessori

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