Curriculum
Fun & Creativity
Peace & Art
The art area is where children can feel free to express themselves in a simple way and relieve any stress or worries. In fact, many tend to spend some time here after a more complex academic lesson, completing a work of art. The Peace Corner is a specially designated area of the classroom. Students are free to visit the Peace Corner when they need to calm down. They may also use this space to have some alone time or work out a conflict with a peer. The Peace Corner is introduced on the first day of school and includes opportunities for yoga, activities based in mindfulness, community values. Peace Education aims to equip students with the interpersonal skills needed to be a good member of a thriving community. Teachers encourage self-reflection, conflict resolution, and problem solving. They model ways to communicate, offer positive language choices, and steer children in the direction they need to go in order to reach the best conclusion. As children learn to navigate conflict, they also discover their innate capability to lead themselves and others through hardship.
Practical Life
Practical Life activities are the doings of everyday life that you would see around the house. For example: sweeping, mopping, washing dishes, scrubbing tables or the floor, spooning pantry goods, pouring liquids or solids, hammering & woodworking, basic to intricate sewing, blowing your nose and sanitizing afterwards, washing hands, getting dressed (taking your own shoes/jacket off and on), preparing food and much more. Practical life in the Montessori environment is purposeful activity that develops motor control and coordination. It develops independence, concentration, and a sense of responsibility. The exercises in practical life cover two main areas of development: care of oneself, and care of the environment.
Sensorial
The Sensorial area of the Montessori classroom is likely what made Dr. Maria Montessori most famous. This content area is where we can determine the child’s ability to discriminate size, width, length, color, shape, smell through their use of the senses. The Sensorial area in a Montessori classroom focuses on lessons and activities that help develop the five senses: seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling. The lessons and activities provided in the sensorial area of the classroom help children clarify, classify, and understand the world around them.
Culture
The Cultural area of the classroom encompasses a variety of subjects that are supplementary to the Montessori method. Cultural subjects include: Geography, Zoology, Botany, Science, Art, Music and Spanish. Studying these subjects provide children an opportunity to explore their curiosity of different and worldly ideas. Studying Geography allows the children the opportunity to understand their own culture as well as many others. The children can relate and understand cultural diversity and ultimately come to appreciate differences between humankind. Science in the Montessori classroom allows the children to observe and work with hands-on experiments that will cultivate a lifelong interest in nature and discovering more about our unique world. Through the study of Botany, the children learn about plants (what they look like, how to take care of them, how they grow, etc.) so that they may appreciate nature in a more organic way. The study of Zoology shows children animals from all around the world (where they live, their unique Ecosystems, what they eat, how they grow, etc.)
Math
The Math area of the Montessori classroom encompasses the use of concrete materials for the recognition of numbers and association of quantity as well. Through these activities, children learn exactly how much a symbolic number stands for (i.e. the number 5 means counting the correct number of objects to make the number 5). Mathematics activities are divided into six categories that include: counting and the decimal system, memory work, concrete abstraction, arithmetic tables and geometry. Children are introduced to more complex mathematical procedures and concepts as they are individually ready. Oftentimes a child will complete a mathematical activity a few times until they feel ready to attempt a concept that is more difficult. Montessori math could be one of the most well-known parts of the Montessori philosophy.
Language
The Language area of the Montessori classroom encourages development of early-literacy skills through the use of phonetic sounds. Montessori Language activities are designed to improve a child’s vocabulary, develop listening skills for common sounds and the ability to differentiate between objects and pictures. Language activities include learning the shapes and sounds of letters, practicing fine motor skills by writing, vocabulary development, matching words and pictures, reading development with word lists, practicing parts of grammar (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) and creating sentences and reading silently. The early stages of reading include the ability to recognize matches and decode properly. Accordingly, we have lessons for object to object, picture to picture and object to picture matching on the shelves. We also use story sequence picture cards, increasing in difficulty from 3-card, 4-card to 6-card stories. In Montessori classrooms, we place the work on the table or rug from top to bottom and left to right, just like we would read a book, to get the child accustomed to the patterns for reading.