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Primary Montessori Program

Primary Program (includes Kindergarten)

(Ages 3 to 6)

The Primary Program is a mixed age community of children ages 3 to 6. It supports the whole child academically, developmentally and socio-emotionally by encouraging a love of learning, a sense of community, respect, accountability and responsibility. Our teacher-child ratio in the Primary environment is 1:10. We strive to provide consistency by having the same teachers work with your child throughout their entire time in the Montessori Primary Program.

Montessori Pedagogy

Primary Program: Encourage a love of learning by adhering to the Montessori pedagogy of “follow the child.”

Kindergarten Program: Excelling at and often exceeding the Virginia Standards of Learning concepts.

Primary Montessori Program
Primary Montessori Program

Process

Primary Program: Introduce, practice and master lessons that support a child’s academic prowess, their fine and gross motor skills, sense of independence, concentration, and self-confidence.

Kindergarten Program: Deeper focus and understanding in the acquisition of Math, Language, Reading, Science, Geography and Cultural Studies.

Natural Consequences

Primary Program: Creates an independent, self-confident and intrinsically motivated learner with empathy and respect for their peers.

Kindergarten Program: Creates a leader who is academically advanced and a confident, capable and caring citizen of the world ready for first grade and beyond.

Practical Life

The Practical Life curriculum area is an essential part of every authentic Montessori community. It teaches children to care for themselves and care for their environment. As Dr. Maria Montessori said, children thrive when we follow the mantra: “help me do it by myself.”

Practical Life

Subject Concepts

  • Pouring
  • Scooping
  • Washing
  • Wiping
  • Food Prep
  • Dressing
  • Sequencing

Goals

  • Gross motor skills
  • Fine motor skills
  • Spatial awareness
  • Sense of Order
  • Focus
  • Self-confidence

Outcomes

  • Dressing self independently
  • Making small snacks for self
  • Folding small laundry clothes
  • Washing small dishes
  • Cleaning up after themselves
  • Improves Executive functioning
  • To be a contributing member of the community

Sensorial

Sensorial is another vital component of the Montessori environment. Here is where your child really learns to make sense of their world. Each of the five senses becomes strengthened through Montessori materials that support skills for gradation, matching, sorting, smelling, tasting and touching.

Subject Concepts

  • Sorting based on size, shape, color, sound, touch, smell, weight
  • Grading based on size and color
  • Geometric shapes
  • Geometric solids
  • Creating patterns with/without a model

Goals

  • Sense of order
  • Learning names of colors
  • Learning names of geometric shapes/solids
  • Developing the pincer grip
  • Compare and contrast

Outcomes

  • Organizational skills
  • Masters colors and understands gradation
  • Head start on Algebra and Geometry
  • Uses appropriate metrics and language for differentiation and gradation
  • Correlate the geometric shapes and solids to real life objects
  • Enhances Cognitive Functions

Language

Dr. Montessori believed that children have a natural thirst for language. This area is where your child learns the essential tools for reading, reading comprehension, communication, writing and spelling success.

Language

Subject Concepts

  • Phoneme Awareness
  • Phoneme Isolation
  • Phoneme Integration
  • Phonograms
  • Basic Grammar
  • Sentence construction
  • Reading
  • Reading Comprehension
  • Writing

Goals

  • Understanding that words are made up of sounds
  • Isolating beginning, middle and ending sounds of a word
  • Digraphs/Blends/Phonograms
  • Putting sounds together to read
  • Develop a strong pincer grip
  • Write with the correct letter formations
  • Reading fluently
  • Understanding and retaining content when reading

Outcomes

  • Strong spelling skills
  • Fluent readers
  • Excellent reading comprehension
  • Firm pincer grip/neat handwriting
  • Capitalization/punctuation
  • Story writing with beginning, middle and end
  • Excellent command over the language

Math

Montessori is known around the world around for its outstanding math curriculum. Children in Primary are taught the visual and tactile representations of number quantities and symbols – always starting with quantities first and then symbols. Maria Montessori believed “what the hand does, the mind remembers.” All Montessori materials are built with a self-correcting component that allows the child to explore and learn independently.

Primary Montessori Program

Subject Concepts

  • Association of numeral to quantity
  • Numeral recognition
  • Rote Counting
  • Linear Counting
  • Skip Counting/Square/Cube
  • Simple operations of Addition, Multiplication, Subtraction, Division
  • Place Value
  • 4-digit operations of Addition, Multiplication, Subtraction, Division
  • Step from concrete to abstract with operations
  • Time

Goals

  • Understand quantity to match with numeral
  • Compute one or two more or less than any given number
  • Ordinal numbers
  • Rote counting from 1 to 1000
  • Squaring and cubing of numbers
  • Operations of Addition, Multiplication, Subtraction, Division with concrete materials
  • Operations of Addition, Multiplication, Subtraction, Division with a few steps towards abstraction
  • Understanding place value and related mathematical operations
  • Comprehend passage of time

Outcomes

  • Strong understanding of numbers and quantities
  • Can complete static and dynamic mathematical operations
  • Can correlate each numbers’ squares and cubes
  • Can tell time on an analog face
  • Complete understanding of place value in 4-digit numbers

Cosmic Education

Dr. Montessori felt that Cosmic Education is integral to early childhood education. It gives children the framework for understanding the world and their place in it. Children learn how people, places, plants, animals, the Earth and planets are all connected. From science lessons on Botany and Zoology to Geography and Cultural lessons, Cosmic Education shows the child the opportunities they have to improve their communities and the world as a whole.

Cosmic Education

Subject Concepts

  • Science
  • Zoology
  • Botany
  • Geography
  • History
  • Culture

Goals

  • Principles of surface tension
  • Principles of Magnets
  • Concept of Land/Water
  • Land/Water Forms
  • Cartography through puzzle maps
  • Nomenclature throughout Cosmic Education
  • Study of Solar System
  • World flags study

Outcomes

  • Understanding simple scientific concepts
  • Understanding classification of animals/plants
  • Understanding their place on Earth
  • Knowledge of the world and its hierarchy of components
  • Associate flags to their countries
  • Understanding parts of a whole in Zoology/Botany
  • Knowledge of the Solar System