discover our primary studio
“only through freedom and environmental experience is it practically possible for human development to occur.”
– Maria montessori
Curriculum
Practical Life
Materials in the Practical Life area center around the child’s daily life. In this area, one might pursue activities such as setting the table, flower arranging, dusting a shelf, sweeping the floor, polishing a mirror, sewing, or learning to use screws and screwdrivers. The goal is to assist the child in acquiring the ability to care for self, others, and the environment and develop independence, concentration, and a sense of order. This is also the area where children learn about food. Preparation and serving others is a daily occurrence.
Sensorial
The Sensorial area has manipulative materials to help the child learn through his or her senses. Each Sensory material isolates one quality, such as color, weight, shape, texture, size, sound, and smell. The materials help children refine their senses to sort out their many different impressions and better understand and adapt to the physical world. After working through the Practical Life and Sensorial areas, children move to the other areas but continue to return to these areas throughout the three years spent in the Montessori Early Childhood studio to reinforce their learning, feel competent, explore in greater depth, or teach a younger child.
Mathematics
The Mathematics area is designed to help children develop logically ordered minds. The materials have been developed to teach children abstraction, numeration, place value, problem-solving, and other math functions.
Like the decimal system, most of the materials used in the Montessori studio are based on units of ten. By working with the materials, children learn our numeral system. For example, the child might begin by working with ten numbered rods of graduating length. The child learns to order the rods according to their size. This exercise teaches the child the concept of quantity. Once this basic concept is established, sandpaper numbers are introduced. By tracing the numbers, the child learns how they are formed. Soon, the child can link the concepts together. As the child’s understanding grows, the math materials used in the studio become increasingly more complex, and eventually, the child can work with abstractions into the thousands.
Language
The Language area of the studio is designed to help a child learn to communicate effectively. We start with pre-reading and pre-writing activities and then move into the Cathy Peroleman system of initial sound acquisition. The activities and materials on the language shelves promote oral and written expression. Children are introduced to letter forms and their sounds through tools like our sandpaper letters. They learn to combine sounds to form words and then combine words to form sentences. Eventually, the child develops the skills necessary to express his or her thoughts in writing. The child also learns to speak eloquently and clearly with refined grammar and vocabulary.
Cultural
Our cultural area offers a sound introduction to Geography, Botany, Zoology, Chemistry, Physics, Geology and Astronomy. These activities provide a logical approach to gathering information and problem-solving. Materials the children encounter include world maps, historic timelines, plant and animal life, culturally significant landmarks, biomes, magnets, and gemstones.
Art & Music
Our art area contains materials for studying the masters and for studying color, color theory, blending color, grading color, and using various tools and media to create. We sing, chant, listen to all genres of music, dance, play instruments, and celebrate sound with dance parties and games.
Let’s dive deeper…
The most intense period of neuronal development occurs in early childhood. During this time, the brain undergoes rapid growth and development, forming and refining neural connections at an extraordinary rate, and this peaks around the age of three. No longer toddlers, Primary children are consciously absorbing, interacting, manipulating, connecting, experimenting, and socializing in a new way. The environment for this new phase, which we prefer to call a studio instead of a classroom, is intentionally designed for children as young as two-and-a-half and through Kindergarten to maximize this incredible phase of development. Down to the specific shades of colored pencils to the one-centimeter progression of a tower of pink blocks, there is a science, genius, and purpose behind everything. Children are self-directed artists, scientists, storytellers, engineers, mathematicians, and writers using materials that span the simplest of pre-school activities all the way through activities that cover standards usually associated with second and third grades. With a sense of agency, our Primary friends grow into expressive, courageous, just, intentional, kind, and curious people.
Daily routine
A trained Montessori guide and two assistants collaborate with up to 31 children. Children are greeted by their guides at the door and invited to stow their belongings. We start our day with movement and fresh air (it’s essential children get early morning light to regulate hormones and sleep, and we learn better and are more emotionally regulated when we move our bodies. Then, it’s uninterrupted studio work time. We adhere to a two to three-hour work cycle. After our work cycle, we eat lunch together and then go back outside for more play. Everyone who is still a napper or wants to rest is invited in around 12:45 to wash up and use the toilet, and then everyone is tucked in by 1:00. Those who do not nap have another hour to enjoy unstructured outdoor time. Non-nappers come in around 1:45 for a second work cycle, and we convene and say goodbye at 2:45 for the 3:00 dismissal. Our extended day program for children who stay after 3:00 is a mixture of indoor and outdoor activities.