219 East Blvd |
Monday - Friday 7:30 am - 5:45 pm |
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Primary Class - Ages 15 months to 3 ½ years (top) | ||
After going through the important Sensitive Period of learning how to walk, our Primary children are encouraged to explore their world. This new found freedom of movement is balanced with emphasis on the respect of others and the environment, verbalization of needs and the practical life skill of caring for themselves. Challenging tasks are gradually introduced that will enable them to master basic movement, develop vocabulary, acquire social skills, and to gain independence. It is here that the child begins to learn many of the pre-Language and pre-Math skills that they will need throughout their lives. Practical life skills continue to be an important part of their day, as they improve social skills and interaction with the classroom environment. This is the age when they begin to develop more awareness of others in their environment and begin to experience the ideas of community and responsibility. Toilet training is an important developmental step for these children, as they must have this mastered prior to moving to the TK/Kindergarten class. We work with parents in making this process a natural part of development. At this stage of their lives, children are realizing that they are capable of doing many things by themselves, and they are encouraged to use this realization to learn new skills. As Dr. Montessori said, "The hand is the prehensile organ of the mind", and the prepared environment of the Montessori classroom offers them many opportunities to use their hands to greet each new phenomena that they encounter. Reading and writing skills are expanded through use of sandpaper letters and learning to sort and differentiate. The children are taught a proper pencil grip, and engage in exercises that strengthen the muscles used in writing. Phonetics begins here with exercises in rhyming sounds, tonal recognition and the use of an interactive learning program called "Letter Land". This is when their ability to communicate verbally explodes, and the teacher directs them to lessons that will challenge and expand their vocabulary. At the same time, they are beginning to learn how to map these verbal skills to written skills through the use of Montessori materials. Math skills begin with concrete concepts such as proportion, sorting, seriating, and size. Logic is not a characteristic of a child of this age, so the use of Montessori materials that offer concrete examples are needed to lead them to the more abstract aspects of numbers and number operations.
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Transitional Kindergarten/Kindergarten - Ages 3 to 6 years (top) |
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The ages of the children in this class are from 3 to 6, and they must be potty trained prior to entering the class. TK children generally stop napping at age 4, or shortly thereafter. The range of lessons that are offered to these children is exceptional, and their success is now based on the high degree of self-confidence that they have in their abilities. More and more they learn how to work and play with each other, whereas before they had only worked and played around each other. Gradually they learn to reflect on their actions rather than react to the stimulus of the moment. The children begin to be able to plan what they will do for the day, and this self-regulation is the prelude to the explosion in learning that occurs between ages 4 and 6. Our Transitional Kindergarten program focuses on developing socialization skills, emotional growth, physical awareness and academic readiness. Like building the foundation of a building, we start with the basic phonetic sounds and let them construct their own language skills at a pace that expands as each new concept is learned, practiced and mastered. Many of these children are beginning to read by the time they begin their Kindergarten year. In the area of math, the teachers focus on actively involving the child with materials that contain pattern recognition, numeral recognition, shape identification, classification, estimation and number concept development. Mathematics concepts are taught sequentially, from the most concrete to the more abstract ideas and operations. In addition, the TK children are involved in creative works in drama, singing, storytelling, and numerous art projects. As their skills improve, they are better able to expand their ideas of the environment through experimentation. The creative nature of the child is nurtured by the active nature of the classroom and the freedom that the child has to explore, conceptualize and to create. They go on a variety of field trips to help in expanding that knowledge of the world, and are exposed to geography and the wonder of other places and cultures. |
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Enrichment Activities (top) |
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Music and Art: An essential part of a good education is a diversified program, and music and art are keys to this goal. Each class participates in a weekly Music Around Program, which incorporates all areas of music. We imbue in the children an interest and love of music by encouraging them to actively participate at their own pace. It is important to remember that tonal recognition is an important part of language development. Dr. Montessori said that children who could not differentiate between musical tones would likely have a problem discerning tonal differences in language. By actively adding music to our program we seek to circumvent language challenges. Art is also an integral part of each classroom, and each child is encouraged to develop his or her own creativity. Spanish: Children in all classes are exposed to Spanish through a weekly class. These classes are lead by a trained teacher from the local organization, Play Spanish. Lessons from these classes are incorporated into the regular curriculum. |
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Extra Curricular Activities (top) | ||
Stretch-n-Grow: Stretch-n-Grow is a pre-school fitness program. Their curriculum includes learning about nutrition, exercise, and parts of the body. The weekly classes, starting at age 2, consist of a warm-up, a cardiovascular period, and a cool-down period. Fun activities and equipment play a big part of the program. Computer Explorers: Computer Explorers focuses on educational and technical skills while introducing the children to computer terminology and software. This weekly class starts at age 2 ½ and includes four or fewer students at a time. |
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Field Trips (top) | ||
Children ages 3-5 participate in a number of fields trips at little or no extra cost. Some field trip destinations have included: |
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