The Spark environment draws its inspiration from the Montessori prepared environment. The Montessori prepared environment encourages learners to develop agency and to seek out opportunities and resources. This freedom helps young people develop positive relationships with “work,” which leads to motivated, independent learners. Freedom and boundaries in the studio have a direct relationship with the prepared environment. The environment is prepared on six basic principles. They are- 

1. Freedom – The freedom for movement and choice. 
2. Structure and Order – Each area, as well as each material, has a meticulous order and structure for the child’s eyes and mind. The materials are scientific and step-by-step. Their scope and sequence are of utmost importance during the introduction of a lesson. 
3. Beauty – There is beauty in the way we present materials on a shelf, or even as a lesson. We use natural materials to house these works. 
4. Nature and Reality– We use natural material to connect the child to Nature and the environment is very real in the way it works. Everything that the child would see and experience in their daily life is also what they see in their prepared environment. 
5. Social Environment – The mixed-age group, and the individuality combined with the cohesiveness of this environment, form the social environment. 
6. Intellectual Environment – If the above aspects are not recognized, the intellectual environment will not reach its purpose. The purpose of the Montessori environment is to develop the whole personality of the child, not merely their intellect. By guiding the child through the five areas of the Montessori curriculum (Practical Life, Sensorial, Language, Mathematics, and Cultural subjects), the child has the structure which is at the forefront of the creative work in a Montessori classroom.

A lot of thought and intention is involved in creating a prepared Montessori studio that is designed to meet the individual needs of all children. Through developmentally appropriate, sensorial material that moves hierarchically from simple to complex and concrete to abstract, children are given the freedom to fully develop their unique potential through a carefully prepared learning environment. Modern research shows that a prepared environment works wonders not just for the children, but also, for adults with regards to daily habits and the use of precious mental energy each day. It ultimately all ties to identity and character, and we are so grateful to Dr. Maria Montessori for leaving us with a gem in this principle decades ago.

One of the beloved activities from the Spark Studio is Flower Arrangement, a powerful piece of the Practical Life learning design. Along with imparting the attribute of ‘care of the environment as its direct focus, it also caters to the important skills of order, concentration, coordination, independence, and appreciation of beauty as an indirect focus of the lesson.

Montessori practical life activities can be adapted to be as simple or as complex as needed. We can increase the number of steps and skills involved in an activity like flower arranging. Enjoy some photos from the studio!

“Joy, feeling one’s own value, being appreciated and loved by others, feeling useful and capable of production are all factors of enormous value for the human soul.”
Maria Montessori.

Social-emotional growth in relation to relationships in a studio environment is a process that we witness and guide, but not control, just as much as their academic development. As children grow and mature they learn what relationships are all about and in their time they learn how to make, include and exclude others in their circle.
Through extensive observation, Montessori discerned that children within the first plane, birth to age six are working on the development of their entire being. As guides, we use this opportunity to help them learn how to move through this phase effectively and guide them through life skills on how to develop inclusive and meaningful relationships through the use of books, mindfulness exercises, discussions, Socratic questions, and oftentimes by simply witnessing a challenging situation work itself out with the courage to be vulnerable and sharing of feelings by using of words and calming strategies they were introduced to during those very moments. Sometimes, we hear them saying “are you being a peace-maker, a problem solver, or, remember we are filling buckets and not dipping from them (the analogy being that we all carry an invisible bucket that we can fill with kindness or dip from with unkindness- from the book Have You Filled A Bucket Today? which we read multiple times to bring in thought, insight, and language).
The blessing of a multi-aged studio is also that the children are able to forge relations that last longer. Older children are thrilled that they are able to mentor the younger children of their studio and the little ones look up in awe at their confident and knowledgeable older fellow travelers.
These skills are an in-built life lesson in their day and life and we watch them unfold just as is.

Diving into the Spark Play further in this journal entry, we introduce you to the tail end of Spark Play, when everything comes together. 

• Clean Up- The children are notified with a bell five minutes prior to clean-up to signal them that they have 5 more minutes of playtime. The second bell then helps them get into the cleaning mode. The children, at the beginning of each week, have designated areas that they are in charge of. During the process, the guides play the freeze game, throwing in a “freeze” as they are cleaning up to make clean-up fun. Once the areas are clean and ready; they wash their hands and go into the studio.
• Play Stories- In the studio, the children find their play journals and bring their outdoor experiences on paper. They illustrate and use words to share their experiences from the outside onto paper. They also draw emotions on faces – like a smile, frown, pointing down eyebrows (for anger). This “journaling” works allows the learners to practice communicating their thoughts and feelings on paper. 
• Reflection Circle- This is the last part of their Spark Play experience and brings everything together. Led Socratically, the questions posed help them narrate their play stories and expand on their experiences and is also the only time in their day when technology is used. Their play journals and photos/videos of their Play activities taken outside are screen-shared on the television as the basis of reflection. Aside from building vocabulary and narration/storytelling skills, they also learn to share their biggest feelings and ideas and solutions to their experiences outdoors. 

 In addition to complimenting our Montessori environment, Spark Play prepares our learners for the next stage of our learners’ journey in the Discovery Studio. 

The Spark Play learning design involves communication development through reflection.  Looking ahead to Discovery for a moment, our aim through our Writers’ Workshops is for learners to see themselves as writers and to be confident getting their thoughts on paper. The precursor to this stage is for learners to develop the confidence to simply get their thoughts out and be confident in their communication.  This practice is built into the Spark Play model, as guides take photos and videos of the children at play, to be reflected upon after clean-up to end the day together. Play-stories and play-reflections, and sometimes play-plans created with drawings and writing help the learners begin to piece together the sequence of their choices, supporting their communication development. 

Observing our mix of kind helpers and keen observers on a daily is a heartwarming experience. Witnessing an older child (often a veteran) showing a younger one how to complete an activity, as the younger child is fascinated by watching his older friend accomplish what s/he can’t yet do.

Older learners having a sense of studio ownership, find opportunities to become mentors to their younger friends, while learning and practicing important leadership skills. A young learner watching an older learner exploring and focusing on their work, builds the growth mindset muscle, thinking to him/herself, “If they can do that, someday I will as well!” They find many incredible chances to absorb new information around them. 

More so, spending three years in the same environment also helps the learners to not rush through the process of learning, as, this setting perfectly provides the learners more time to follow their growth trajectory in the studio before moving onto the next adventure in their journey; the Discovery studio, which only furthers this experience by providing a realistic representation of the world beyond the studio walls. A mixed-aged environment truly offers so many wonderful moments of growth, learning, and change.