Classes

A Montessori class is composed of students whose ages typically span 3 years. Ideally, members stay with the class, and teacher, for the entire cycle, forging a stable community and meaningful bonds.

Our Four classrooms are as follows:

• Ages 2 -3  | Pre-Primary |  1/2 Day  | 8:30 – 11:30 am
• Ages 3 – 4 |  Primary |  1/2 Day  | 8:30 – 11:30 am
• Ages 5 + |  Primary |  Full Day  | 8:30 – 2:30 am
• Ages 6 + | Elementary | Full Day  | 8:30 – 2:30 am

It is common to see students of different ages working together. Older students enjoy mentoring their younger classmates—sometimes the best teacher is someone who has recently mastered the task at hand. Younger students look up to their big “brothers” and “sisters,” and get a preview of the alluring work to come. Montessori classrooms are arranged so that younger children benefit from having older peers as role models and tutors. This helps assure that each child learns at his/her own pace even though it is the teacher who sets each child’s agenda. In the mixed age classroom, children are always able to find a peer who is working at their level. Montessori teachers observe how commonly new students at all levels quickly become accustomed to the Montessori classroom mainly because of how the older children mentor the younger ones.

In the Montessori classroom, the teacher is not the primary focus of the classroom; the child is. Who better to learn from than your own peers? They have already had the presentations and had individual practice with the material. They are truly the ‘experts’ in the classroom.

The design and flow of the Montessori classroom create a learning environment that accommodates choice.

There are spaces suited to group activity, and areas where a student can settle in alone. Parts of the room are open and spacious, allowing a preschooler to lay out strands of beads for counting, or an elementary student to ponder a 10-foot-long Timeline of Life.

Here you won’t see  the traditional rows of school desks; children work at tables or on the floor, rolling out mats on which to work and define their work space and decide where and how they want to work best.

There are well-defined spaces for each part of the curriculum, such as Language Arts, Math, and Culture. Each of these areas features shelves or display tables with a variety of inviting materials from which students can choose to immerse themselves.

 Preschool rooms feature low sinks, chairs, and tables; a reading corner with a small couch (or comfy floor cushions); reachable shelves; and child-sized kitchen tools—elements that allow independence and help develop small motor skills. In upper-level classrooms you’re likely to see large tables for group work, computers, interactive whiteboards, and areas for science labs.

Above all, each classroom is warm, well-organized, and inviting, with couches, rugs, and flowers to help children and youth feel calm, at home, and at ease.