Pewaukee Lake Montessori Academy
Primary/Kindergarten
But eating the fruits of our labor is the best part!
A Three Year Cycle for Children Ages 3 - 6
The Montessori primary classroom is a "living room" for children. Children choose their work from among the self-correcting materials displayed on open shelves, and they work in specific work areas. Over a period of time, the children begin working with high concentration and few interruptions. Through the work in the environment the child moves from being undisciplined to self disciplined, from disordered to ordered, from distracted to focused. The process occurs through repeated work with materials that captivate the child's attention. Preschoolers ages 3 -5 years may attend 4, or 5 half or full day programs.
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In the Montessori Preschool, five distinct areas constitute the prepared environment.
PRACTICAL
This area of the curriculum is designed to invite the young learner to act and work on real life tasks that foster independence, coordination, order and concentration. It is the doorway to the Montessori curriculum. The practical life area contains many attractively displayed objects familiar to the children that help them accomplish daily tasks like tying, brushing their teeth, scrubbing tables, sweeping and washing floors, preparing food, setting tables grinding coffee beans, caring for plants, class pets and much more.
SENSORIAL
Dr. Montessori saw the senses as the "doorway to the mind." She considered sensory and manipulation not only an aid to the development of maturing sense organs (eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin) but a starting point for the intellectual growth. She believed that by helping children to order, compare and classify sensory stimulation, their intellectual development would be greatly assisted and future learning would be more meaningful and useful. The basic sensorial exercise inspires careful observation and calls attention to specific qualities requiring identification of similarities and contrasts. The mind must judge, compare, classify and draw conclusions. These exercises tend to fascinate children because they are difficult enough to represent a real and meaningful challenge. They are then better prepared for future learning in math, language, and science and making sense of life's experiences and information in general. Some materials used include red rods, broad stairs, geometric shapes, textured boards, sound cylinders, smelling bottles and the all favorite mystery bag.The student also meets a rich vocabulary in the process and learns to discriminate perceptually, using the senses.
The central purpose of the Math materials in the early years is to lay the foundation for later cognitive development and to prepare for the gradual transition to abstract thinking. The primary value of these earlier activities in mathematics are found in the way they transform ideas into actions on concrete materials. Students use hands-on learning materials that make abstract concepts clear and concrete. Counters, beads, and other manipulative's are used in the activities to create logical thinking and develop an understanding of numeration, problem solving and math functions such as addition subtraction, multiplication and division.
LANGUAGE
Language development is a central focus of the Montessori classroom. Many activities in other areas, foster vocabulary development, communication skills, writing and reading readiness. In the language area you will find a large variety of reading readiness materials as well as materials for the refinement of motor control for writing. In the Montessori Method, writing precedes reading, as the children explore with drawing and forming letters. The child begins by exploring the sounds that compose words and by using materials such as sand paper letters and playing games like I Spy. He can soon produce words and sentences by putting together
sounds using a movable alphabet to make words
and then sentences.
CULTURAL INCLUDES SCIENCE, GEOGRAPHY
Science is an integral element of the Montessori curriculum. Among other things, it represents a way of life: a clear thinking approach to gathering information and problem solving. The scope of the Montessori science curriculum includes a sound introduction to botany, zoology, chemistry, physics, geology and astronomy. The Montessori approach to science cultivates children's fascination with the universe and helps them develop a lifelong interest in observing nature and discovering more about the world in which we live. The directress introduces history and geography as early as age three. The youngest students work with specially designed maps learn the names of the world's continents and countries. Music and movement education will also be important parts of the curriculum as well as the Arts. They offer children ways to express themselves, their feelings, experiences and ideas. Montessori schools are very interested in helping children develop control of their fine and gross-motor movement.
SPANISH
The primary, kindergarten and older pre-primary students will be presented with a comprehensive Spanish language curriculum by a trained and experienced Spanish instructor. The Spanish program will begin January 2012.
The church we rent space from has a community garden and they let us use two plots. In the spring the children each plant one vegetable that they take care of througout the summer. We plant vegetables and herbs that we can use in a salad or to make salsa. Before the ground thaws we get ready to plant by studying the life cycle of a bean plant. Each child puts a bean in a plastic bag with a moistened paper towel for it to sprout. When it is ready to plant we transer the seedling into a small pot. Then when the garden is ready for planting we go out and plant our bean plants in the ground. We plant and harvest tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, green peppers, onions, zuchini, cucumbers, rosemary, oregano and basil.
Children love to garden and so do we!
