Academic Curriculum

Montessori students are encouraged to express their feelings, experiences, and creativity through music and movement. This helps to refine fine motor, gross motor, auditory discrimination, and self expression skills.
Our curriculum offers children a carefully prepared environment, rich in learning materials and experiences.
Students are grouped in mixed-age classrooms, which allow them to interact with each other on a variety of levels.
Teachers are referred to as “guides” and are facilitators in the learning process. Through careful observation and guidance, children are directed toward meaningful activity, which helps them discover and develop their own interests and abilities.

Cosmic Studies lessons and units of exploration are designed to give students a sense of the story of the universe, how life developed, and the story of our history. These lessons and experiences are introduced in the hope that they will inspire in students a sense of wonder and awaken interest, appreciation, and understanding. This is what Dr. Montessori had in mind when she wrote: “The secret of good teaching is to regard the child’s intelligence as a fertile field in which seeds may be sown, to grow under the heat of flaming imagination. Our aim is not only to make the child understand, and still less to force them to memorize, but so to touch their imagination as to enthuse him to his innermost core. We do not want complacent pupils, but eager ones. We seek to sow life in the child rather than theories, to help him in his growth, mental and emotional as well as physical, and for that we must offer grand and lofty ideas to the human mind.”

Geography is important both as a necessary conceptual framework and spatial orientation, and as a bridge to the development of the child’s understanding and appreciation of the story of humankind and nature. As in other areas of the Montessori curriculum, the children first experience the big picture, then move gradually to the details (ex. names of countries, landscapes, and cultures).

The History Scope and Sequence provides students with opportunities to explore a variety of concepts including how the world began, the story of life on Earth, and the development of civilizations.

Beginning with lessons intended for the youngest child in oral language development and extending all the way to lessons in formal debate.

Competence, independence, willingness to embrace the challenges of change are, quite possibly, the most important building blocks of the Montessori Method. We provide opportunities to help our children learn these vital skills at the most basic level: Practical Life. Beginning with lessons on using a mat or rug intended for the youngest child and extending all the way to learning how to run a small business.
The Practical Life Scope and Sequence provides students with many opportunities to feel independence and competence, and develop their fine and gross motor skills, as they engage in real world activities. 

The Sensorial Scope and Sequence is designed to help children focus their attention more carefully on the physical world, exploring with each of their senses the subtle variations in the properties of objects. Through experiences with sensorial lessons and materials, children refine the use of their senses. These experiences help children to pay attention, to focus their awareness, and to learn how to observe and consider what comes into their experience. 

Our curriculum offers children a carefully prepared environment, rich in learning materials and experiences.
Students are grouped in mixed-age classrooms, which allow them to interact with each other on a variety of levels.
Teachers are referred to as “guides” and are facilitators in the learning process. Through careful observation and guidance, children are directed toward meaningful activity, which helps them discover and develop their own interests and abilities.
There are eight basic principles that provide a foundation for the Montessori classroom experience:

• Movement and Cognition: Movement and cognition are closely entwined in children; movement can enhance thinking and learning.
• Choice: Learning and well-being are improved when children have a sense of control over their decisions.
• Interest: Children learn better when they are interested in what they are learning!
• Avoidance of Extrinsic Rewards: When a child is motivated by rewards, the absence of them can have a negative effect. We show children that successful mastery of a task is the motivation and the reward.
• Learning From and with Peers: Collaboration with other children at school is used to help children learn.
• Learning in Context: Learning within a meaningful context provides deeper and richer understanding than learning in the abstract.
• Respectful Teacher-Child Interaction: Teachers show the highest level of respect for children and their work.
• Order in Environment and Mind: Order in the classroom provides clarity and focus for children is beneficial to learning.

Source: Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius, by Angeline Lillard (Oxford University Press, 2005)