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|  Primary Program 3-6 Years Fostering a lifelong love of learning Our Primary Program maximizes the development of young children through a thoughtfully prepared environment. The Montessori-trained teacher conducts carefully planned activities which lead the child to build sensory-motor skills, master concrete academic concepts, develop the ability to concentrate deeply, practice socialization skills, and acquire high self-esteem and inner security. The mixed age grouping of the Primary classroom corresponds to Maria Montessori's theory of child development, which is based on three-year cycles. Because of their constant interaction in the classroom, Primary children learn to get along with children of different ages and abilities, to respect eachother's workspace, and to treat each other with courtesy.
The Primary Montessori Curriculum
One World Montessori School's broad-based curriculum includes Language Arts (elements of reading, spelling, and handwriting), Mathematics, Geometry, History, Cooking, Science, and Art. Enrichment classes in Foreign Languages, Yoga, and Music are given weekly. The main areas of the Montessori curriculum are: Practical Life, Sensorial, Mathematics, Language, Science, and Cultural Studies. The Montessori materials you will see in the classroom are not toys, but tools, scientifically designed to enhance these skills.
The Practical Life section lays the foundation for all other work to be done in the classroom. The activities are made up of everyday tasks that a child needs to learn to master a care of self and care of the environment. Practical Life activities include: pouring, sweeping, cooking, serving others, buttoning and tying, as well as grace and courtesy. The activities are presented to the child in such a way that concentration, coordination, independence and order are developed.
The Sensorial area's goal is to educate the child's senses. This curriculum area contains Montessori-specific materials that help the child refine his or her experience of sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. In addition, the materials of this section are modeled on scientifically-based concepts, such as metric system dimensions or algebraic formulas. Sensory experience with materials such as these are the child's first step toward understanding the abstract concepts they represent.
 Mathematics in the Montessori classroom can be separated into a few major categories: beginning counting, advanced counting, the decimal system, rational numbers (fractions), and the operations of addition, multiplication, subtraction and division. Concepts are presented in a very concrete way so that children 3-6 are not only able to count, but skip count, square numbers and work with numbers in the thousands. Once the child has a firm foundation in the operations of addition, multiplication, subtraction and division, the memorization of facts is introduced.
Our Language curriculum is an integrated approach that combines phonetics and whole language. The child is first introduced to letters and sounds. After several sounds are mastered, he can begin to encode (spell) and decode (read) words by linking these sounds together. Words that do not follow the patterns or rules of the English language are presented as sight words. Once the child has gained confidence with his language skills, he can use it to enhance his studies in other areas of the classroom. He can read to research science, geography and history. He can write reports, sharing his learning with his peers. He can follow written recipes and instructions, and record his observations and results.
 The Science materials present certain aspects of the world, in such a way that the child can observe, experiment, demonstrate and record what he has learned. The focus here is that the child learns how to be a scientist: objective, organized, able to perform tasks in a predetermined order, and record the results. He learns to classify, label and differentiate. Science is a hands-on activity that includes biology, botany, zoology, and physical science.
Cultural Studies are an integral part of One World Montessori School's curriculum. The cultural studies integrate and emphasize a region or population's geography, history, music, art, etc. The children study different areas of the world, and get to experience concrete examples of that area's language, literature, dress, food, artwork and music, both past and present. This increasingly important area introduces the child to our planet's great diversity of people.
"If the idea of the universe is presented to the child in the right way, it will do more for him than just arouse his interest, for it will create in him admiration and wonder, a feeling loftier than any interest and more satisfying." -Dr. Maria Montessori | |
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