Our Primary Program is focused on the total development of each child's cognitive, social, emotional, and physical well-being. The program is designed to encourage thinking and to develop an appreciation of the world.
 
Each spacious classroom is filled with natural light and offers both large, open areas and small, quiet nooks. In this setting, children are free to work through the Montessori developmental areas of Practical Life, Sensorial, Mathematics, Language, Sciences, Geography, Cultural and the Arts. Our carefully prepared, mixed-age classrooms contain the many materials scientifically developed by Dr. Maria Montessori.
 
The teacher guides the children’s work and allow them to move forward at their own pace. The students become self-confident, enthusiastic, and joyful learners with phenomenal focus and concentration. Our multi-age classrooms offer plenty of opportunities for social interaction and children learn to cooperate and respect each other.

Developmental Areas

Practical Life

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Practical life exercises include important tasks of needed in daily life, such as washing dishes, flower arranging, and learning to button and snap. Other exercises are specifically intended to foster “grace and courtesy, ” through which children develop understanding of themselves in relation to others. Through the Practical Life exercises, children establish their ability to concentrate, coordinate their movements, and achieve self-confidence by experiencing the joy of “I did it myself.”

Sensorial

Natalie with Red Rod maze

Sensorial materials involve training and developing children’s sense of touch, sight, hearing, smell, and taste. By practicing, children sharpen their ability to differentiate between various shapes, sounds, smells, colors, textures, and tastes. The result is a heightened awareness of the physical environment and deepened powers of observation that are highly useful for future academic explorations.

Language

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Montessori builds on children’s remarkable natural capacity for language development. Students are exposed to rich language in all areas of the classroom. This phonetic approach leads to reading words, phrases and sentences, and ultimately to reading books. The language materials appeal to all styles of learners: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Children are also exposed to the mechanics of both manuscript and cursive writing, parts of speech, and grammatical concepts.

Sciences/Cultural

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Cultural subjects, such as geography, history, biology, botany, zoology, art, and music are an important part of the Montessori classroom. Children use the Montessori materials to gain understanding and appreciation of the world around them. Throughout the school year, the seven continents are introduced through hands-on artifacts cultural celebrations, and culinary traditions.

Mathematics

Fiona hanging teens with paper extension

The Montessori math program ranges from simply learning to count and recognize numerals to hands-on work with the decimal system and place value (units, tens, hundreds, thousands, etc.). By working with these lessons, children also learn the process of each mathematical operation: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Concrete materials help children develop a deep level of understanding of mathematical concepts.