To the young child, everything in nature is new - and endlessly fascinating. It is a major leap of knowledge to be able to name things - the first important step in "scientific" observation and classification. Almost everything in the Montessori classroom encourages children to see what is common and what is different among groups of tings. For instance, in other areas they sample and name tastes - salty, sweet, sour ,bitter - learning to discriminate by degrees. In the science area they might classify leaves, or observe different varieties of fish. They examine the results of experiments mixing water with oil, salt, sugar, or soda. The work carefully to learn what sinks and what floats. They love the way magnets behave. They are fascinated by weather. On nature walks they pause to study whatever interests them - the subtle shades of grass or the colored patterns of flower petals, the sizes and shapes of trees, and what the wind does to leaves. Young children are endlessly curious about their world. The Montessori approach encourages them to learn as much about it through their own senses as they can manage by experiencing it first hand.

Music is part science and part art. Music is also an instinctive pleasure. It draws on the natural rhythms of nature and the body itself. Music is a sensuous metaphor for beauty and order. Children begin to appreciate music through their own experience of it, by listening to good music and singing songs that tell stories or have meaning for them. Children experience the rhythms of music by moving or dancing to it, They learn about the rhythmic notes - quarter, half, whole, etc. by pacing off comparable steps in timing. They experience the musical scales on tuned bell chimes and various other instruments. They listen to great works of music and learn about the artists who composed them. They begin toe appreciate that music expresses in a dynamic wordless language of its won their feelings and emotions. How well it does so is the measure of its quality.

The young child sees visual art first of all as color. Color is fascinating, Mixing colors is a revelation Yellow and blue make green, Who would have imagined? Different colored materials produce different kinds of colors and different effects when applied to paper. oil, water, crayon, pencils, each have distinctive looks. Montessori art projects exercise children's own creative expression and encourage practical experimentation with the look and feel of designing and arranging their own creations. Children love to cut and paste shapes, pictures, designs, or simply colors to devise something new that pleases them, The Montessori classroom provides the materials and the freedom for their artistic expressions to blossom.