Arts and Craft – We introduce child-safe scissors, watercolours, gluing activities, clay, play dough and kinetic sand. We do this all without being prescriptive but while still providing feedback, as our educators co-create with the children side by side.
Language – We integrate rich language into our learning environment. We go beyond the everyday basics of learning names such as fruits into the exotic territory by learning about different birds like flamingo or toucan. We have vocabulary baskets with real objects that children can touch and explore as we name them. We also have replica objects since we cant have a real elephant in the classroom we find these 3D replicas are a great way to learn language. We play games like “Can you find me” and test children on their knowledge so that their development progresses steadily. We also have a diverse book collection that we share with Guiding Light Academy (our sister private school) and take regular field trips to the Streetsville Library in the summer.
We also encourage our parents to continue the Montessori way at home by allowing their children to help in the following ways: Peel and slice bananas and oranges, make beds, help throw out recycling, wipe down the dining table, set up and help clear the table, put away toys, turn the light switch on an off, help unpack groceries etc.
Most skills require repetition to gain mastery. Our Casa program involves refinement of fine motor skills and language development. The Montessori Casa program for children ages, 2.5 years up to 6 years encourages children to explore, discover and build on their foundational years at their own pace by engaging in five different areas of study:
Children learn self- help skills like dressing themselves, setting the table for meals, cleaning the tables and chairs, cutting vegetables and fruits, caring for the plants and animals. They learn grace and courtesy by learning to say please and thank you, being kind and listening without interrupting, knocking before entering, closing the doors gently, holding the door for others and many day-to-day routines. These exercises promote independence, concentration, and development of fine and gross motor skills.
Conflict resolution is taught through the “Peace Table” where children are provided opportunity to take turns to express themselves and resolve conflict among themselves.
The Multi-age classroom provides opportunity for leadership and mentoring skills enhancing the confidence of the child.
Montessori has a very large collection of sensorial materials to refine the senses of the child through the use of the materials. These are self- correcting exercises enabling the child to independently learn and correct themselves, enhancing the self -esteem of the child. Discrimination of dimension, classification and sorting activities develop foundation for geometry, mathematics, language, and science activities.
Montessori Math material clears the concept of numbers through the use of the materials, from concrete to abstract and the child fully comprehends the concept. Step by step progression of material and concepts prepare the child for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
During the use of all of the Montessori materials language is being taught to students. Specialized materials are used to learn the sounds of each alphabet and combination of sounds to form words and finally sentences. Children learn to write and then reading also follows. We integrate rich language into our learning environment. We go beyond the everyday basics of learning names of regular fruits into the exotic territory like learning about mangoes and dragon fruits. We have vocabulary baskets with real objects that children can touch and explore as we name them. We also have replica objects since we can’t have a real elephant in the classroom, we find these 3D replicas are a great way to learn language. We play games like “Can you find me” and test children on their knowledge so that their development progresses steadily. We also have a diverse book collection that we share with Guiding Light Academy (our sister private school) and take regular field trips to the Streetsville Library in the summer.
Science, Art, History, geography, Drama, Music are all integrated in the arts and culture segment of Montessori teaching. Children learn about themselves, their community, and the world at large. We introduce child-safe scissors, watercolours, gluing activities, clay, play dough and kinetic sand. We do this all without being prescriptive but while still providing feedback, as our educators co-create with the children side by side
Other than the five Montessori areas of hands on learning the children are introduced to technology and explore S.T.E.M (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) as a part of our curriculum goals.
