3-6 Refresher Course

2025–2026 Topic: Practical Life
Online • October 14, 2026 – May 12, 2027
Monthly • 6:00–8:00 pm CT

Rediscover how Sensorial shapes the whole child— and the whole community.

Status: Page under construction

Apply [Need link]

Welcome to Refresh with MINT

Refresh with MINT is a yearlong refresher for AMI Primary guides who want to revisit the essential work of the 3–6 environment with fresh attention.

This year’s focus is Sensorial. Through monthly online sessions, guides will examine the purpose of Sensorial activities, their relationship to independence and concentration, and how these exercises support the child’s development in daily classroom life.

Between sessions, participants will have time to observe, reflect, and bring questions from their own environments back to the group. The course is designed for guides at any stage of practice who want to strengthen their understanding, refine their environments, and return to the work with renewed clarity.

A middle-aged woman with blonde, wavy hair smiling outdoors, wearing a red turtleneck sweater and a necklace with a cross pendant, standing in front of green bushes.

Meet the Trainer

BethAnn Slater, M.Ed.

BethAnn Slater has been the Head of School and the 3 to 6 Directress at Middleburg Montessori in Virginia, USA since 2003. BethAnn earned her AMI International diploma at the 3 to 6 level at OMTI in Cleveland, OH, a B.S. in Family and Child Development from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and a M.Ed. in Montessori Education from Loyola University, Maryland. BethAnn has taught in both the Montessori Primary classroom as well as in the public sector. She is an AMI 3 to 6 Trainer. She currently is working on AMI 3 to 6 diploma courses in South Africa and Dallas, TX, and has conducted numerous Montessori workshops

Four women are gathered around Sensorial Materials in a Montessori Training Center, MINT

  • Over seven live sessions, you will:

    • Revisit the developmental purpose of the Sensorial Area and its place within the Montessori curriculum.

    • Explore the preparation of the adult for Sensorial presentations through observation, precision, and purposeful practice.

    • Refresh your understanding of the complete Sensorial sequence, including the organization and logic of the materials.

    • Examine each of the senses in depth, from the visual, tactile, thermic, and baric senses to the auditory, stereognostic, gustatory, and olfactory senses.

    • Consider how the Sensorial materials support classification, discrimination, abstraction, and the child’s construction of intelligence.

    • Reflect on the relationship between the prepared environment, the educated hand, and the child’s growing independence.

    • Connect with fellow AMI Primary guides as you revisit familiar materials with fresh questions and shared experience.

    Between sessions, you will have access to an asynchronous prepared environment with opportunities for further study, practice, and reflection.

  • Refresh with MINT is offered as a series of seven live online sessions. Each session is 120 minutes and meets once a month on Zoom.

    The monthly format gives participants time between sessions to revisit the materials, observe in their own environments, and bring questions back to the group.

    Live attendance is encouraged. Recordings will be available for participants who are unable to attend a session.

    No special software is required beyond Zoom.

  • Monthly • 6:00–8:00 pm Central Time
    Online via Zoom

    October 14, 2026 — The Child’s Developmental Needs & the Foundations of Sensory Education
    Why the senses? Sensitive periods, creative self-construction, and the Casa context.

    November 11, 2026 — The Adult’s Role
    Preparation of self, presentation, observation, responsibilities, attitudes, and the inner preparation of the Montessori guide.

    December 9, 2026 — Sensorial Exercises & the Organization of the Casa Sensorial Area
    Overview of the exercises, classification, and the logic of the Sensorial Area.

    January 13, 2027 — The Visual Sense
    Dimensions, color, form, and the refinement of visual discrimination.

    February 10, 2027 — The Tactile, Thermic & Baric Senses
    Refining the sense of touch through texture, temperature, and weight.

    April 14, 2027 — The Auditory & Stereognostic Senses
    Sound, silence, listening with precision, and knowing without seeing.

    May 12, 2027 — The Gustatory & Olfactory Senses
    Taste, smell, mixed impressions, and bringing the full curriculum together.

  • N/A