A+ Montessori Programs

Preschool

Our Preschool program is great way to prepare kids for Kindergarten and First grade. It focuses on developing socialization skills, emotional growth, physical awareness and academic readiness. Like building the foundation of a building, we start with the basic phonetic sounds and let them construct their own language skills at a pace that expands as each new concept is learned, practiced and mastered. Many of these children are beginning to read by the time they begin their Kindergarten year. In the area of math, the teachers focus on actively involving the child with materials that contain pattern recognition, numeral recognition, shape identification, classification, estimation and number concept development. Mathematics concepts are taught sequentially, from the most concrete to the more abstract ideas and operations.

In addition, the Preschool children are involved in creative works in singing, storytelling, cooking, yoga and numerous art projects. As their skills improve, they are better able to expand their ideas of the environment through experimentation. The creative nature of the child is nurtured by the active nature of the classroom and the freedom that the child has to explore, conceptualize and to create.

In the Montessori preschool environment, five distinct areas constitute the prepared environment:

• Practical Life enhances the development of task organization and cognitive order through care of self, care of the environment, exercises of grace and courtesy, and coordination of physical movement.
• The Sensorial area enables the child to order, classify, and describe sensory impressions in relation to length, width, temperature, mass, color, pitch, etc.
• Mathematics makes use of manipulative materials to enable the child to internalize concepts of number, symbol, sequence, operations, and memorization of basic facts.
• Language Arts includes oral language development, written expression, reading, the study of grammar, creative dramatics, and children’s literature. Basic skills in writing and reading are developed through the use of sandpaper letters, alphabet cut-outs, and various presentations allowing children to link sounds and letter symbols effortlessly and to express their thoughts through writing.
• Science The materials in the science area are presented in a way to promote self-discovery. The child is encouraged to observe, discover and learn about his environment. The units of science that are covered include: Weather, Animals, Opposites (with large part on magnets), Trees/leaves, Seasons, Land, Air, Sea, Earth (layers)/Volcanos, Sea Life, Dinosaurs, Life Cycles, and Space.
• Geography The works in the cultural area are created to help the child become aware of the world around them. Through visual pictures, stories and maps, the child is introduced to other cultures. Each of the seven continents is studied with a focus on puzzle maps, flags and animals from that continent. This study is cross-curricular by incorporating dishes into the practical life, matching pictures from various countries, and counting small object specific to the continent.
• Cultural Activities expose the child to basics in  Music, art, and movement education are part of the integrated cultural curriculum.