Pre-K & Kindergarten Program

We find that the best way to describe our academic program for the Pre-K and Kindergarten classrooms, also known as Children's House, is with an overview of the various elements that make up the Montessori experience.

The core of the program is separated into the areas of: Life Skills, Sensory and Discovery Activities, Language Arts, Foundational Geometry, Mathematics, History, Geography, Botany, and Science.

All lessons are introduced to students individually at their level of capability. Whole class instructions are given as well to help with "group" mindfulness.

Self-Independent Activities

• Though seemingly unsophisticated and easy, these lessons help students develop logical and sequential thought patterns.
• This includes understanding of mathematical concepts.
• Developing independence, self-discipline, focus, positive learning habits, self-confidence, and responsibility.

Language Activities

The Language materials have some essential points in common with the Sensory/Discovery materials; most outstanding is their simplicity, together with its captivating features that provides a key for the Discovery of what lies beyond the surface.

• Montessori Education teaches all basic language skills phonetically, through letter sounds (as opposed to letter names) with the use of “Sandpaper Letters”.
• This hands-on material gives each child a muscular memory of the shape of each letter, accomplished through tracing which enables each child to acquire correctly formatted letters in their future writing skills.
• Once basic letter sounds are learned, they compose their own words and sentences using the “Movable Alphabet”.
• Students are also introduced to a wide range of pre-reading exercises, sound consciousness activities, dialect, and vocabulary enrichment.
• The children then advance towards developing methodical written expression.

Mathematics and Geometry

Perhaps of all the Montessori materials, the Math material is the most fascinating. It gives students a concrete and tangible experience of the abstract structure in Math. Students are well prepared to work with Math through practice of Life Skills, Sensory materials, and Discovery activities.

• The entire Math curriculum offers a clear and logical method to help children understand and develop a strong foundation in all three domains of mathematics.
• The core of the Math curriculum for this age group includes manipulative materials to learn numerals, quantities, sequences, computation, and comprehension of complex numbers into the thousands.
• Math materials also offer a tangible understanding of each operation; addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division including an early introduction to simple fractions.

Global Cultures, Botany, History, and Sciences

Global Culture Studies, History, Zoology, and Botany form the cornerstone of the Montessori curriculum.

• Global studies encourage students to observe, analyze, predict, and discover their surroundings. From a very young age students explore maps, learn names of continents, varying land formations, study of plants, anatomy of animals, life cycles, weather patterns etc. With this solid foundation, every student is ready to investigate the world around them.
• Zoology and Botany are initially introduced in the classrooms. Students also receive an enhanced, concrete, hands on experience at the Montessori Acres. During their rotating visits to the farm, students are exposed to the natural environments, growing seasons, and animal life.
• History is gradually introduced and presented through family trees, historical figures, and timelines for clearer understanding.

Discovery Activities

• Children interact with their physical world through their senses. The Sensory/Discovery Curriculum is designed to help children focus their attention more carefully on the physical world.
• Students begin by simply sorting among a prepared series of objects that vary by only one aspect, such as height, length, or width. 
• They challenge themselves by discovering and focusing on weight, color, sound, temperature, etc. 
• Children understand that Sensory materials are mathematically graded, towards a solid foundation for Mathematics and Geometry activities.

Reviews

If you think your child would thrive in a Montessori environment, give us a call or schedule a tour. We would love for you to visit our school and learn more.