The Practical Life area of the primary Montessori classroom serves a developmental need for the child. It provides the opportunity for the child to care for herself and for the classroom environment engaging in a broad array of activities such as table washing, polishing, preparing and eating snack, arranging flowers. The 3-6 year old child yearns to participate in the world around him and to learn to "do things for himself." The child is attracted to these activities because they demand collaboration between body and mind. They are attracted to the logical sequence of events involved in the work. Children do this work with great joy, fully engaged in body, mind, and spirit.

Through Practical Life, the child experiences and develops skills needed for independence. The coordination and control needed for the activities helps the child to perfect movement, both fine and gross motor control. By fully engaging in the activity, practical life gives the child the experience of concentration, which is necessary to establish an independent cycle of work in the classroom. Furthermore, the child begins to adapt to their culture, learning skills that are important for their environment and time. Also, the child gains a particular skill necessary for everyday life, such as learning to button. Children come to understand the importance of sequence, logical order, and accuracy which support—important early math skills. Practical life is often the first area presented to a child. It is the foundation for everything to come and is a prerequisite for much of the other work in the classroom.

To succeed in reading and writing, the child must first become a more skilled talker, able to express what they are thinking and feeling. Facility in writing and reading is based on spoken language.

The Primary Montessori Language curriculum encompasses Spoken Language, Written Language (both self-expression and the mechanics of writing), and Reading. Each of these distinct, yet interrelated areas is supported with a myriad of concrete materials and experiences which are tools the child uses to "teach himself" to read and write. Examples of Spoken Language work include stories, poems, vocabulary enrichment cards, and conversations. Written Language distinguishes the skills of expressive writing and mechanical writing and employs materials and activities such as sandpaper letters, metal insets, and movable alphabets to develop each separate skill.

In the Montessori classroom, reading is not so much taught as discovered. The child's prior work of sound analysis and self-expression through writing leads to the discovery that they can read the words that others have written. Once this "discovery" is made, numerous tools in the form of materials and exercises are available to the child. These include phonetic reading cards, phonogram work, puzzle words and simple books. As the child progresses as a total reader, additional work follows on the Function of Words, grammar and syntax, sentence analysis and word study follows.

The movement aspect of these lessons helps the child gain confidence and competence in the physical environment of the classroom. The social aspect of these lessons focuses on the goal of establishing and maintaining satisfying relationships in the classroom, allowing a means for each individual to be satisfied within the group. Grace and Courtesy lessons are presented so there is an atmosphere of peace and communication in the classroom. During individual lessons a child focuses on one specific way of moving such as how to carry a chair or what to say in a certain specific social situation such as asking another child to join you at the snack table. In this way the child becomes more at ease with herself and with other people. Children also become better aware of ways to effectively communicate their needs. Grace and Courtesy lessons are given in small or large groups, with children role playing in a specific situation.