Early Childhood Curriculum
(The Conscious Absorbent Mind- Ages 5 & 7)
+ Practical Life
The Practical Life area is filled with everyday reality-based activities that help give children a sense of being and belonging. These activities are found in all aspects of life, and gifted by four qualities that Maria Montessori saw as the direct aim of a child’s development: Order, Concentration, Coordination, and Independence. Practical Life materials are child-sized, sequential, functional, made from natural materials such as wood, glass or ceramic, and purposefully arranged from left to right, then top to bottom, habitually preparing children for later reading and writing. Maria Montessori recognized children’s innate desire to help out in their household, and by giving children the space and opportunity to learn how to independently care for themselves and their environment, we pave the way for success through purposeful, fulfilling work. It’s no secret that lessons in Practical Life give children great pleasure, tranquility, and discipline. In all of these applied exercises, the child feels independent, confident, and overall successful.
Some Practical Life activites include:
Rolling & Unrolling a mat
Pouring & Transferring
Washing & Cleaning
Polishing
Cutting
Sewing & Weaving
Woodwork
Food preparation
Gardening
+ Sensorial
Dr. Montessori designed and created sensorial materials to help the child broaden, refine, and stimulate their five senses; taste, touch, smell, sight, and hearing. Through the manipulation of materials, the Sensorial activities assist children to develop order, concentration, visual discrimination, mathematical concepts, cognitive, motor, and vocabulary skills. With a built-in “control of error,” these materials also help children to problem solve and develop the habit of working independently, through self-correction.
Montessori Sensorial Learning is very much experiential learning; enhancing students’ ability to retain lessons by using physical movement and experiences.
Some Sensorial materials include:
The Pink Tower
Knobbed Cylinder Blocks
Baric Tablets
Trinomial Cube
Color Tablet
Sound Cylinders
Red Rods
Geometric Cabinet
+ Mathematics
In a Montessori environment, shapes, dimensions, relationships of number quantities and symbols are all represented through concrete material that prepare a child’s mind for a deeper understanding of mathematics. By the time children form an interest in mathematical concepts, they will have already built a good foundation for perceptual and spatial relationships in Practical Life and Sensorial materials. These exercises have guided children’s development for concrete manipulative experiences, forming the foundation in preparing the child to develop a mathematical mind.
Our Math curriculum begins with activities to teach sequence, recognition and quantity of numbers through sensorial and concrete materials. Sandpaper numbers, for example, teach the numerical symbols of quantities and makes the process of tracing out the number both more interesting for the child and more effective when learning number formation. Math, in Early Childhood, is taught by addressing three separate concepts: number, quantity, and the relationship of the two together. There is a smooth sequential progression from small to larger number quanitities, to then, more complex concepts. Concrete, color-coded, tactile materials helps children isolate and understand abstract lessons.
Some Math materials include:
Number Rods
Spindle box
Sandpaper numbers
Cards & Counters
Colored Beads
Teen & Ten Board
One Hundred Board
Golden Beads
+ Language
The Montessori Language curriculum and materials are designed and purposefully arranged to teach children the intricacies of written and spoken language beginning with a phonics-based approach to learning. In our prepared Montessori environments and throughout our curriculum, children are consistently absorbing and learning language through songs, stories, vocabulary from lessons, and open conversations with peers. This sensitive period for language is respected and taught by observing and following the child’s interests and development first.
In the Montessori environment, Language is sequentially taught through the help of tactile materials, such as the sandpaper letters and the letter sand tray, to help children sensorially acquire letter formation in relation to its sound. Having sensorial experiences that develop children’s fine motor skills and understanding of letter formation, for example, comes long before writing. Children learn practical tools for encoding and decoding words through color-coded and playful materials that make learning enjoyable and fulfilling.
Some Language materials include:
Metal Insets
Sandpaper Letters
Sounds Boxes with Letters & Objects
I Spy Games
Matching Word Sounds to Pictures
Rhyming Objects
Alphabet Strip & Cards
Moveable Alphabet
Pink, Blue, & Green Series
+ Science
Some Science lessons and topics include:
Astrology
Earth Science
Ecology
Botany
Zoology
Oceanography
Biology
Physical Science
+ Geography & History
Geography and History in the Early Childhood program begins by giving children the whole picture, and the gradually introducing parts. For example, the children learn that we live in a universe, in a galaxy, that we are part of a solar system, our planet is Earth, we live on a continent, in a country, a state, a city, and finally a neighborhood. Our curriculum begins with a simple foundation by helping children understand the world in which they live. Teaching macro to micro concepts helps children to understand about other countries or cultures, by first understanding themselves and their place in the world first. Within the environment, carefully placed materials are displayed and changed throughout the year, as we go through monthly themes and projects. Children learn about our world, continents, and countries through music and vibrant lessons, presenting the importance of diversity and other cultures.
History, as with Geography, is taught with the picture of the whole through creation stories and stories of man that tell of the past, helping children to understand concepts of time. Birthday celebrations in our environment are a fun and great way to introduce Time Lines when it relates to the child’s own growth. Personal Time Lines are encouraged to represent a child’s life from birth to their present age with visuals and marked periods of time in years. Through the use of such daily exercises, like morning circle, children begin to develop a better sense for time when going over days of the week, dates, months, and into the hours of the clock.
Some Geography and History materials include:
Classroom Calendar
World & Continent Puzzle Maps
Continent Boxes
Clocks & Time Cards
Timelines