Kindergarten & Elementary Programs at Children of the Earth Montessori School
Kindergarten Program
A child nearing six or seven years old is passing beyond the stage when movement and exploration through the senses is a basic need in all learning. The child moves to a more cerebral exploration: he or she wants to explore society and the world, to learn what is right and wrong, to think about a meaningful role in society. The child wants to know how everything came to be, the history of the universe, the world, humans and why people behave the way they do. The child asks the big questions and wants answers.
Kindergarten at Children of the Earth Montessori School is a full day program. Children attending kindergarten spend part of their morning in a regular elementary Montessori classroom where they receive lessons from the core curriculum areas (Language Arts, Mathematics, Geography, History, Science, Art, and Sensory-Motor). In the afternoon, the Kindergarten students have time to work with their peers and practice their independent thinking and learning skills.
The Kindergarten program at Children of the Earth Montessori school offers a wealth of extensions to Montessori curriculum as well as opportunities to experience more in-depth and advanced study from designated work books, social studies, and science experimentation.
The Kindergarten year is the culmination of the Montessori Primary two/three year cycle. It is in this year that the child is able to make concrete all of the information that they have been absorbing from the previous two years. During the Kindergarten year, children have the opportunity to be role models for the younger children and finally become class leaders. It is during this year that the children truly blossom and reap the rewards of all that they have been working so hard to achieve.
Montessori children pursue their own projects. They get lessons across across their curriculum. Books become more important as tools for learning. At this stage, a Montessori school seems more like a miniature and eclectic university research laboratory than a factory.
Elementary Program
Discover the power of learning
Children of the Earth Montessori students ground their understanding in concrete representations, models, and kinesthetic learning activities. From storyboarding to written and multimedia narratives, to math rack and other manipulatives to construct and communicate strategies for authentic problem solving, kindergarteners, first, second, and third graders build meaning by working with both, hands and minds allowing the child to acquire a higher order of thinking and greater organization. Working together, teachers create an enriched academic program for our Kindergarten and elementary students.
Guiding a thoughtful exploration of the world
From hatching insects and planting vegetables to researching and presenting at science fairs, students engage in extended learning projects that require sustained inquiry. Science and social study units are build around big ideas and important concepts, allowing students to investigate these in depth rather than merely covering a topic or memorizing a set of facts. Sharing ideas and giving each other critical feedback teaches students to interact and think like mathematicians, scientists and artists do in real-world communities of practice.
Developing a high performing learner
Our classrooms are designed to allow individuals, partners, or small groups to work together on a variety of activities in different subjects simultaneously. In some cases, students have assigned activities while in others they are welcome to choose for themselves. Students learn to organize their time and complete academic assignments and projects responsibly. The collaborative critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills they learn in this process prepares students to participate in the intellectual and social environment of our face paced and quickly changing world.