Montessori Education
Practical Life
Language Arts
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Language is woven into each area of our Kindergarten curriculum. There is formal time devoted to discussion of rhymes, poetry, fiction, and nonfiction books. The language materials aid in increased reading, written and verbal vocabulary development. Reading is presented with a phonics base and includes pre-reading and reading activities (comprehension, main idea, oral and shared reading); adding a sight word vocabulary and extending into word families and word blends, syllable segmentation and compound words. The Kindergarten writing curriculum includes manuscript handwriting exercises, sentence development, journal writing, acrostic poetry and beginning grammar lessons.
Mathematics
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Our Montessori Kindergarten has a rigorous problem-based math curriculum and places a strong emphasis on the use of manipulatives. Our mathematics program is designed to help our children become good problem solvers as well as develop good computation skills. Emphasis is placed on experience with order, sequence, exactness, manipulations, repetition and finally precision. The teacher assists the student in developing a mathematical mind by helping them start with concrete ideas such as counting, cardinality, comparing numbers, number and operation in base ten, and then progressing to more abstract concepts such as addition and subtraction, estimation, graphing and exploring money and time.
Sensorial
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The Sensorial area of the room gives the students the opportunity to match, grade, and further develop their perceptual skills through more advanced extension materials.
Cultural Studies
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Kindergarten children are naturally curious about their world and the topics covered in the culture curriculum support their enthusiasm for learning. The cultural studies cover science, geography, and current events. The robust science curriculum includes the study of nature, the five classes of animals and places a strong emphasis on botany. The greenhouse and exploring the nature trail enhance the student’s knowledge. Earth science consists of a study of the seasons, biomes, maps and the geography of North America. The history of life on Earth is presented with the Montessori Time Line of Life. Critical language and thinking skills along with communication skills are developed through other themed units designed around holidays and the diversity of our student population.
Religion
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The Montessori Kindergarten student will begin a more formal study of Religion. Using the I Am Special religion series, the child is introduced to the concepts that God gave us self, family, friends, the world around us, our senses and feelings. Following the church calendar, the student is exposed to various activities for All Saints Day, Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter. After learning about the sacrament of Baptism, each child is given a special week during the school year to celebrate their Baptismal day. Formal prayer is introduced with the Sign of the Cross and Grace before meals. The children continue to participate in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program. This allows them to further understand the foundation of the Catholic Faith. The Kindergarten children practice fuller participation in Mass by attending all school Liturgies.