The Curriculum at Montessori Beginnings

Young children need not only love and emotional nurturance and a healthy physical environment, but also an environment which promotes their very
real need to learn. The Montessori teaching method provides a basis for individualised learning activities, appropriate for even the earliest stages of a
child's development.
The purpose of the program at Montessori Beginnings is to encourage, assist, and protect the normal development of each child. Children in the
program will flourish in prepared environments which respect, support, and respond to their basic needs for independence, exploration, and the building
of trust and self-esteem.
During the early years of life, Dr. Maria Montessori felt that “the first thing the child's education demands is the provision of an environment in which he
or she can develop the powers given by nature". Quite literally, the school environment is the curriculum.  Dr. Maria Montessori emphasised the need for
a rich environment, and noted the speed at which children can develop: "If our own adult ability were to be compared with the child's, we should need
sixty years of hard work to do what he or she does in three”.

While providing a structured and thus familiar environment, the needs of individual children are met. These different areas of interest introduce them to
the whole reality:

Practical Life











Sensorial








Math








Language










Geography and Cultural Studies









The Arts








Physical Education

Activities in this area provide an opportunity to practice everyday life skills such as dishwashing, polishing, and the care of the environment including
the care of plants and animals. Food preparation may consist of cutting fruit for snacks or measuring and following the sequence of a recipe. Basic
exercises like pouring and spooning provide an opportunity to develop eye-hand coordination as well as control of balance. Lessons and modeling of
grace and courtesy are an integral part of the daily routine.

Children practice table manners and social conversation over snacks. Whether tying or buttoning frames or by actually wiping up spills or cleaning an
easel, the child expands his/her independence and self-esteem.

The tasks of hand and body produce a strong sense of self for the child.

Activities in this area provide the means for the young child to explore the world through their senses. The world as a whole is compromised of
patterns, symmetry and order. The child may learn to discriminate and match sounds, smells, textures, or colors. The pre-primary child may grade a
series of ten cubes into a pink tower or discover that two triangles combine to form a square.

Such exercises introduce the child to the greater order of the world and provide a necessary base for further study in math and science.

The young child sees numbers all around him/her and is introduced to rote counting through songs and finger plays during group line activities.
Participating in such activities as setting a table for lunch or placing one snack by each chair introduces the pre-primary child to the relationship of
number and quantity.

Daily activities present opportunities for simple problem solving.

The very young child is developing language and vocabulary skills at a rate faster than any other time of his/her life. Names are given for all the objects
in the classroom as well as vocabulary for the characteristics they are learning through their senses. Story reading and group songs develop listening
skills and self-confidence with verbal expressions.

The pre-primary child is offered the opportunity to use his/her ever-expanding vocabulary and language in small group discussions, large group
sharing, and interaction with peers. Children follow the sequence of reading by learning individual sounds associated with the alphabet, learning each
sound's relationship t others in words, and finally reading short labels. Isolating the difficulty between phonetic spelling and the ability to print allows
a young child to construct sentences and even stories with the use of the moveable alphabet.

The goal is to introduce the child to the idea that they are uniquely connected to every other human being both by differences and similarities; that
they live in a special time that is but a part of the whole history of mankind. The idea that all life and all things are interconnected and part of a cosmic
plan is brought to the child through cosmic education.

From the beginning, children are introduced to the riches of culture through posters, artwork, and food. The world is brought to them through such
objects as an African drum, chopsticks, or a Mexican hat. Later, they will analyze continents and their own country through puzzle maps, landforms,
dances and songs, and research.

Classroom environments are natural and homelike. The use of both professional and children's art hang at their eye level and stimulates interest.
Various forms of painting, drawing, and collage materials are available for free expression.

Holiday projects or activities such as weaving, knitting, or needlework may be introduced.

The goal of the school is to develop the physical as well as the emotional, and academic child.  Gross motor movement for children 3 months
through 5 years is critical to their development. Purposeful activities such as walking up and down stairs, walking on a balance beam, or simply
climbing a small hill, encourages coordination, grace, balance and self-confidence.

Coordination and balance is further refined through line activities such as walking, heel-to-toe, or slowly carrying objects. Large motor activities
such as skipping, climbing, ball catching, and throwing is practiced indoors and outdoors in the playgrounds. Simple group games with rules are
also introduced.