The practical life area is considered the link to the child's home environment. Children naturally seek independence in ordered and purposeful activities. Use of the practical life materials involves precise movements that encourage repetition, concentration, and self-control. The practical life materials fulfill specific purposes in the real world, such as buttoning, tying shoes, and washing hands.
Children care for the environment by polishing wood, scrubbing floors, and dusting shelves.
The materials are designed to help children gain self confidence, coordination, and a sense of order. This area provides the foundation for all other areas of the curriculum. Through sight, touch, sound, taste, and smell the sensorial materials isolate specific qualities that lead to refinement of the senses. These materials help the child order and classify the impressions around him. The sensorial materials are the keys to the world and the basis for abstraction.