Summary      Teachers       Curriculum       Daily Schedule

In addition to monthly individual learning plans, our teachers plan a themed curriculum each month. Themes might include topics such as music, the human body, dinosaurs, and the solar system. However, the basics of our classroom curriculum include the learning areas of sensorial, practical life, language, math, science, geography, history, art and culture. Below is a summary of each learning area.

PRACTICAL LIFE

In a Montessori environment, children are encouraged to learn practical life skills such as pouring, cleaning and setting places for mealtimes. These activities not only have practical purposes but they also help to establish a strong sense of independence and self-confidence. These two characteristics are part of the foundation for success in learning and in life!

 “The exercises of practical life are formative activities. They involve inspiration, repetition, and concentration on precise details. They take into account the natural impulses of special periods of childhood. Though for the moment the exercises have no merely practical aims, they are a work of adaptation to the environment. Such adaptation to the environment and the efficient functioning therein is the very essence of a useful education.” Maria Montessori

SENSORIAL

The sensorial area of the classroom is designed to heighten the child’s senses by isolating each sense and exploring it to the fullest, This helps the child with observation, comparison, judgment, reasoning, and decision making skills needed for later academic areas. The sensorial area helps a student to order his sensory impressions and the senses are the keys to knowledge. The practical life area is the foundation of the Montessori experience and the sensorial area is the heart.

 LANGUAGE

Language is a huge part of the Montessori classroom. The classroom is buzzing with conversations, questions and comments from both children and teachers. Children learn about language through these day-to-day interactions and through the use of special language materials. These materials include things like the sandpaper letters where the children trace the shape of each letter with there finger and then say it’s sound. This connection between hand and brain helps form lasting  impressions in the brain which in turn allows the child to learn about sounds and words much younger than most would expect.

MATH

In a Montessori classroom, the math materials aim to bring abstract mathematical concepts into a more concrete light. The child is introduced to math ideas through her senses. For example, in the Numeral Rods Lesson, the “one” rod is short and the “ten” rod is very long (one meter). As the child carries each rod to their work space and then counts each red and blue space of the rod, she gets a strong sense of the difference between one and ten. Visual and tactile aids such is this, are given to the child in every math lesson. These lessons can range from counting to ten to learning how to multiply with four digit numerals, depending on the child’s interest and ability.

 

CULTURAL

Cultural lessons in the Montessori classroom include areas like science, geography, history and art. Children begin learning about the types of plants and animals that they see in their everyday life. Our preschool classroom is rich with life including plants, fish and guinea pigs. Exposing children to plants and animals and including them in their care is a great way to begin lessons in science for young children.

Geography and History lessons can range from learning that our earth contains land and water by feeling the land and water globe (water is a shiny blue and land is brown sandpaper) to learning the history of the earth’s creation. All lessons in geography and history are meant to be hands-on for child-lead learning.

The focus of our Art area is always on process over product. Children learn to enjoy painting or coloring for their own enjoyment rather than to produce a craft-like project. The children learn to follow a sequence of steps and to put away and clean up their work space when they are finished. Following a sequence of events from start to finish, helps the child build concentration and thinking skills that will aid them in later academics and in life.