Ground Rules for Children in Montessori Environment

Classroom ground rules are rules for human behavior that provide limits for the group and for the individual.  The are all based upon respect for oneself, each other and the environment.  By showing the children how to follow the ground rules, a secure and peaceful environment evolves.  Classroom ground rules allow each child the freedom to choose, concentrate and create.  

The Montessori classroom ground rules:

• Children are free to work with any material displayed in the environment as long as they use it respectfully and have been given a “presentation”.  They may not harm the material, themselves or others.  They may not use the material in any way that disturbs the activities of others.  They may not take home any material or part of any activity.

• The children may work on either a rug or a table - whichever is suitable to the work they have chosen.  Children do not work at or on shelves since their presence there would obstruct  other children’s access to materials.

• The children restore the environment during and after the exercise.  They are responsible for mopping their own spills (after a demonstration from a teacher).  They put their own rugs away after rolling them neatly.  The children push their chairs under the table and put mats away if they have been working at a table.

• No child may touch the work of another or interfere with an another’s activity.  This provides security for the child involved in an exercise to continue it to completion.  Another child may ask to join the activity but must respect the answer.  A child’s right to initiate, complete or repeat an exercise is protected by this ground rule.  If the child must leave her exercise temporarily, she is confident that her work will remain as she left it.

• Children are not coerced into joining group activities.  It is the child’s right to stand as an observer of any group activity without becoming a participant.  Children are not permitted to interfere or disrupt an activity in which they have chosen not to participate.

• A child is not obligated, or even encouraged, to share with another child, an exercise that she has chosen to work on by herself.  Generosity develops as a child matures from within.  She will become more generous as she gains self-security.  If materials are adequate and ground rules are effective, sharing will come naturally in cases where sharing is appropriate or necessary.