Planning a Week of Montessori Work for a Mixed-Age Class

Plan in layers, not in subjects

A mixed-age room does not need three separate curricula. It needs one material with three entry points. The same number rods can be a matching task for a three year old and a place-value conversation for a six year old.

One anchor per day

Choose a single material as the day's anchor and plan its presentation, an extension and a simplification. Write those three lines down. That is the whole plan for that material.

Build in a fallback

Every day needs one activity that needs no help: pouring, sorting, sewing a card. When the room gets loud or a lesson runs long, the fallback keeps children working instead of waiting.

Protect the long block

Do not fill the morning with short rotations. Children need one uninterrupted stretch to get deep into something. Protect it in your own planning first, and the rest of the day is easier.

Review on Friday

Three questions: what was never chosen, what was chosen and abandoned, what ran out of material. Rotate based on those answers rather than on what looks tidy.

Share the plan

A one-page plan visible to assistants and room parents means fewer interruptions during lessons. If someone can read it and answer a child's question, you have built capacity.