Overview
The Montessori classroom provides a setting that optimizes a
child’s growth and development. Characteristics such as ability to
concentrate, an interest and pleasure in meaningful work,
self-discipline, and social skills do not develop in a single
occurrence - they happen anew at each stage of development. This is
one reason the Montessori method does not need a separate program
for gifted children – it is designed to respond to each child’s
individual needs and pace of development.
Curriculum and environment play a vital role in supporting this
development. The curriculum must be a skillful blend of content that
meets educational needs and is presented in a way that supports the
development of these four characteristics.
The classroom setup should encourage work and cooperation, and
this should be coupled with materials that support the child’s
growing understanding of key concepts and goals. This combination
creates a learning environment that supports both intellectual and
emotional development.
The Montessori curriculum enhances knowledge and understanding,
as well as emotional and social development. These must be balanced
to allow both to flourish – since we know the ability of students to
be successful academically is closely tied to their emotional and
social well-being.
Maria Montessori said children learn best by touch and
manipulation, not by repeating what they are told. The Montessori
method is structured around and promotes the child’s natural,
self-initiated impulse to become absorbed in an environment and to
learn from it. Montessori uses specific materials, techniques and
curriculum areas that assist each child in reaching his or her full
potential. Each material isolates one concept or skill that has been
specially designed with children’s natural interests in mind – so
little or no nudging is needed from adults. These materials are
designed to be tools that help children work and learn at their own
pace, see abstract ideas in a concrete way, and help them understand
the concepts they are working on.
The Montessori curriculum is organized into the following key
areas:
Practical Life
Practical Life lays the foundation for all other work to be done
in the classroom. It:
- Invites the child to act and work on real life tasks that
foster independence, coordination, order and concentration.
- Contains objects familiar to the child, including everyday
tasks to master the care of self and care of the environment -
eating, dressing, pouring, sweeping and tying, as well as grace
and courtesy.
- Encourages responsibility, autonomy, and self-esteem.
Sensorial
The Sensorial aspect of the curriculum is the starting point for
intellectual growth. It:
- Stimulates intellectual development helping children order,
compare and classify things that involve all the senses.
- Makes future learning more meaningful and useful.
- Inspires careful observation and identification of
similarities and contrasts.
- Helps the child refine his or her experience of sight, sound,
touch, taste and smell.
- Is modeled on scientifically based concepts, such as metric
system dimensions or algebraic formulas.
Math
Introducing math at an early age lays the foundation for later
cognitive development. Our math curriculum:
- Prepares for the gradual transition to abstract thinking.
- Transforms ideas into actions with hands-on learning that
makes abstract concepts clear and concrete.
- Introduces elementary students to the study of the
fundamentals of algebra, geometry, logic and statistics, in
addition to the basic arithmetic principles.
Language
Activities across the curriculum foster vocabulary development,
communication skills, writing, and reading readiness.
Specifically:
- Reading readiness materials address phonemic awareness and
word decoding skills.
- Writing precedes reading, as the children experiment with
drawing and forming letters while developing motor control for
writing.
- Reading skills normally develop so smoothly in Montessori
classrooms that students tend to exhibit a sudden “explosion” in
their ability to read.
- Includes reading for research, writing for reports, following
written instructions and recipes, and recording observations and
results.
Reading
Reading is an integral part of the academic program at
AGBMS.
- Young children work on phonemic awareness and phonics using
the classic Montessori materials which allow the child to
understand that words are composed of sounds.
- Once a child learns some consonant and vowels sounds, they
start to put these sounds together to make words.
- All 5 year-olds-and elementary students work in small groups
and one-on-one to:
- expand their knowledge of phonemic awareness
- work with digraphs and blends
- practice reading phonetic books
- learn the Dolch Words- 220 of the most common words used in
reading
- Older children work in small groups or a one-on-one situation
based on their ability.
- Small reading groups meet together during the week to read and
discuss award winning Children’s Literature. The discussions
center on:
- comprehension, new vocabulary, setting and theme
- comparing or contrasting books
- ideas of what can be learned from the book
- projects, summaries, or book reports
Cultural
The cultural portion of our curriculum provides a sound
introduction to botany, zoology, chemistry, physics, geology,
history, geography, and astronomy. Specifically:
- It cultivates children’s natural fascination with the universe
and helps them develop a lifelong interest in observing nature and
discovering more about the world in which we live.
- Specially designed maps are used to learn names of the world’s
continents and countries.
- Elementary students complete in-depth studies of the world’s
culture, including language, literature, dress, food, artwork and
music - both past and present.
- Elementary students participate in a science fair every
spring.
