The Children's House (Primary)

The Montessori Community School has five primary, or Children's House, classes with students between the ages of 3 and 6 years old.

There are several program options available. Early care is available beginning at 7:30am. Normal arrival is between 8:15 and 8:30. Students may leave, before lunch, at 11:45, stay the traditional school day until 3:00pm, or be enrolled in one of our all-day classes that run until 5:45.

Our primary classes average 25 students, 2 Montessori teachers and 1 part-time assistant. The all-day classes have an additional assistant.

Each day there is individual work time, group time, and time to play outside. 3- and 4-year old children who stay all day have a rest time between 12:45 and 1:30. Weekly, all primary children experience Spanish with a Spanish teacher, and most classes have additional music within their classroom setting. Kindergarten children also participate in PE, Spanish, and music once a week. Kindergarten children participate in Art twice a month.

The Primary Curriculum
The exercises of Practical Life help Primary students develop concentration, independence, and order. The practical life area contains exercises involving care of the environment, care of oneself, physical skills, and Grace and Courtesy. The practical life area of the classroom is most essential in the Montessori environment because it helps the child develop their own natural rhythm. In turn, the area of practical life provides indirect preparation for all other areas of the classroom.

Within the Sensorial area the child is able to develop and refine their senses through the use of didactic materials. These activities help primary children develop not only their sense of touch, taste, smell and hearing, but also their stereognostic sense. This is the capacity to perceive forms by the movement of muscles of the hand as it follows the outline of solid objects. These didactic materials help the child develop sensory powers in order to observe and make comparisons between objects. They begin to experience relationships and recognize patterns. The child is then able to form judgments, reason, and make decisions. It is through the use of these materials that the child is introduced to preparatory math skills, such as pairing, recognizing contrast, and gradation of objects. These materials are particularly attractive to children, as they are simple and beautiful.

Through the above experiences in practical life and sensorial, the child develops the ability to concentrate. As the child reaches a sensitive period for order, they are ready to further develop their math skills. The materials in the math curriculum are concrete and provide the child with visual manipulative representations of mathemetical concepts. The child is first introduced to the quantity, then to the symbol. This is followed by the association of contrete quantity and its numerical representation. These materials aid in building the foundation that later leads the child to abstraction. Once the child has this facility, he or she is introduced to the 4 mathematical operations, again using concrete materials.

Language development in children is natural and spontaneous. Speech is considered to be the greatest human achievement; it is learned through direct awareness and models given to us. By speaking, children are relating and being heard, which indirectly leads to order, organization, and enrichment of vocabulary. In the language area some materials are direct preparations for writing such as the sandpaper letters, moveable alphabet, and metal insets, which are introduced to three and four year olds. It is at this point that the children are in the sensitive period for sounds, writing, and work composition. The use of language provides a link to the world both written and spoken. Language is an effective tool for self-expression and communication.

Work with language also exposes students to the concept that words are made up of sounds, then that each sound is represented by a symbol. With this knowledge, students are able to compose words using a moveable alphabet, before a child has the ability to control a pencil. Teachers read aloud to children regularly and each classroom has a quiet library area where the love of reading and books is nurtured.

A Primary Late Day program is availalbe to provide activities for 3 and 4 year olds from 11:45 - 3:00 and from 3:00 - 5:45, and provide activities and additional extensions for elders from 3:00 - 5:45.

To view the Primary Program Overview on a web page; or the Primary Program Overview document in .pdf format may be viewed or printed here.

"I value socialization and the encouragement for independent exploration of
surroundings and new ideas." -
a current parent, February 2009.

"I value the flexibility - [name - an elder] is doing
1st grade math with appropriate
materials."