|
"Introducing the children to the joy of learning at an early age."
Maria Montessori
Practical Life Exercises
The exercises increase self-control, concentration span, self motivation, and independence.
Pouring, spooning, sorting household objects, mirror polishing, shoe polishing, table wiping and many others are daily activities scaled sown to the child's size.
Sensorial
These activities refine the various senses
Color tables are used to develop the chromatic sense. Sound boxes and bells refine the auditory sense and music appreciation. Solid shapes develop stereognostic sense, knobbed and knobless cylinders, brown stairs and the pink tower teach children to discriminate among various sizes and shapes and indirectly prepare the children to learn mathematics and the concept of quantity. These and many other activities are available in each preschool classroom.
Language
The Montessori classroom environment promotes reading at a young age.
Sandpaper letters, the movable alphabet, ending sounds, beginning sounds, reading boxes, short vowels and puzzle words all enhance the child's language skills. Tracing, coloring, and painting letters and shapes enhance these developing skills. Vocabulary increases as the child learns new words while performing various classroom activities.
Mathematics
The Montessori classroom environment prepares the child to develop math skills at a young age.
Sandpaper numerals and colored beads developed of quantity and symbols. The spindle box teaches the child the concept of zero as a placeholder. "Golden Bead Material" introduces the child, in a wonderfully simple way, to the concept of units of tens, hundreds, and thousands. Using the apparatus, and many others, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and fractions are simple operations performed and comprehended by busy children in the Montessori classroom.
Social Studies
The social and academic development of the child is promoted through social studies.
Specially designed geography maps teach the child to recognize the world's continents and oceans. The child is introduced to different people and cultures and the great variety of animals and insects that inhabit our planet. The child learns various parts of a flower, fish, bird, butterfly, turtle, grasshopper, and other flora and fauna. Music, songs, poetry, nursery rhymes are integral parts of the daily routine. The class is introduced to foreign language (usually Spanish) with tapes, booklets, words and other fun activities.
|