HUDSON COUNTRY MONTESSORI SCHOOL

The Primary curriculum of a Montessori school has four basic components, which include Practical Life, Sensorial, Language, and Math. In addition to this, there are cultural extensions consisting of geography, history, botany, zoology, and the arts. Music and Movement are also included in the curriculum.

Practical Life

The Practical Life is the corner stone area and provides a wide opportunity for children to concentrate on the details of the lesson at hand, which is so important for their future educational endeavors. Practical Life activities refine the skills that are integral not only in the other areas of the Montessori classroom, but also in life. Practical Life is divided into four areas: Care of Self, Care of the Environment, Grace and Courtesy, and Small Muscle Development.

The lessons in theses areas allow the children to develop independence by refining their ability to take care of themselves and the environment. These lessons also address their sensitive periods and the domains of physical, emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual well being. In addition, they assist with the developmental aims of Order, Control, Coordination, and Independence. (A detailed listing of Practical Life lessons can be found in the Appendix – Program).

Sensorial

The Sensorial lessons help children learn about the world around them through the use of their senses. The Sensorial areas include Visual, Tactile, Auditory, Gustatory, Olfactory, Thermic, Baric, Stereognostic, and Visual Stereognostic.

“The Montessori Sensorial Materials help the child to distinguish, to categorize, and to relate new information to what she already knows. Dr. Montessori believed that this process is the beginning of conscious knowledge. It is brought about by the intelligence working in a concentrated way on the impressions given by the senses.” (Wolf, Aline D. ( 1995) pg. 16, A Parents’ Guide to the Montessori Classroom, Pennsylvania, Parent Child Press)

Refining the senses leads to increased success later in life because it helps develop a foundation that supports higher learning and a finer appreciation of sensorial impressions in the world around them. The children become eager to experience the tastes, smells, and sounds that eventually lead them to the enjoyment of new cuisine and fine arts. Later in life these sensitivities can not be developed to their full potential.

The children look at and handle materials which are specially graded by size, shape, color, or density. The subtle differences in these materials and the ability to classify theses materials according to different criteria are discovered by the children because they are given the opportunity to form visual and muscular impressions of the materials. These impressions are assimilated by children and lead to knowledge that is eventually applied in the areas of math, language, and science. (A detailed listing of Sensorial lessons can be found in the Appendix – Program).

Math

The Math lessons allow the children to indulge their natural curiosity for numbers by manipulating concrete materials. The Math area includes lessons that teach the concept of 0-10, linear counting, decimal system, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Also included in the Math area are lessons that teach time, measurement, money, and fractions.

We expose the children to math because “Articles of mathematical precision do not occur in the little child’s ordinary environment. Nature provides him with trees, flowers, and animals, but not with these. Hence the child’s mathematical tendencies may suffer from lack of opportunity, with detriment to his later progress.” (Absorbent Mind, pg. 186)

In Math, activities are performed with specific Montessori math manipulatives that children count, sort, and use for basic concepts. They begin working with counters and beads and other manipulatives in order to gain a concrete understanding of one-to-one correspondence.

Montessori believed that “number concepts can be spontaneously learned and abstracted through manipulating the didactic materials in the preschool classroom.” (Arithmetic Teacher, pg. 9) After the children have successfully internalized the math concept of 0 – 10, they can begin to explore the decimal system, linear counting or addition, depending on their individual interests.

“In the math area, materials such as the numerical rods enable the child to get a physical sense of quantity. The spindle box gives them a chance to reinforce this skill, counting from zero to nine, and introduces the concept of sets. The decimal beads let them build up to the quantity of 1,000 in a visible way and to learn the value of place.” Montessori, pg. 75 (picture inset) The Secret of Childhood.

Language

The Language lessons help promote the children’s enjoyment of reading, writing. The Language area includes lessons that help develop oral communication, increase vocabulary, auditory discrimination, understanding the concept of a word, associating sound and symbols, left to right movement, lightness of touch, fine motor coordination, phonetic building of words, and the ability to read.

“In writing, the child expresses his own thoughts through symbols; in reading he must comprehend the thoughts of another. Writing is a known to him, for he is giving his own language to another. In reading, he must deal with an unknown – the thoughts of another. The latter is obviously a far more complicated procedure.” (Lillard, 1972, pg. 123)

The Montessori Language curriculum introduces writing before reading. Since construction comes easily to children, it is important for them to hear the sounds and have the ability to “create a written visual” even if their small motor skills are not up to the challenge. The sandpaper letters provide a foundation for associating the letter sound with its respective symbol. Once children have formed this link, the moveable alphabet opens up a whole new world of building words regardless of their handwriting skills. Through the moveable alphabet, they begin to create words, and soon graduate to the creation of phrases, sentences, and stories.

Children develop a lightness of touch and fine motor coordination needed for handwriting through their use of the Metal Insets, Sand Tray and Chalkboards. Children develop pre-writing abilities by learning to trace individual sandpaper letters and then forming these same letters in sand trays. The growth of these skills leads to the development of more sophisticated skills such as the pincer grip that is needed to hold a pencil. (A detailed listing of Language lessons can be found in the Appendix – Program).

Writing Program for the Primary Ages

According to a joint position statement by the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the International Reading Association, “Learning to read and write is critical to a child’s success in school and later in life.” We, at Hudson, support this statement and believe that children benefit when they are introduced to these concepts at an early age.

Once a week, the kindergarten children attend a creative writing class (based on Lucy Calkins’ Primary Writing Program), during which they are introduced to techniques that help them build creative writing skills. During the first few weeks of the class, the children learn to think of ideas and put their ideas on paper. As the weeks progress, children begin writing one, two, and three page stories. As their skills develop, they learn some of the rules of conventional writing, such as spacing, capitalization, and punctuation, and they begin to write books with beginnings, middles, and ends. The children learn how to write drafts and edit and revise their work. In addition to small moment non-fiction books, the children learn how to write many moments books, how-to books, and poetry.

At the end of the school year, the children’s efforts are acknowledged with an authors’ celebration, during which they have the opportunity to read their last book of the year to their friends and families.

Foreign Language

In Montessori, the Arts are not set apart from the rest of the curriculum. They are modes of exploring and expanding lessons that have been introduced in science, history, geography, English, foreign languages and mathematics.

For example, students sculpt dinosaurs in science, create dioramas for history, construct geometric designs and solids for math, and express their feelings about a musical composition through painting.

Art history and appreciation are woven throughout our history and geography curriculums. Traditional folk-arts are used to extend the curriculum as well. A few examples of popular art projects include painting, sculpture, pottery, weaving, photography and woodworking.

Primary and Lower School classrooms include their own art center in which students can work on projects during the day.

Our Primary and Lower School music program focuses on developing basic music theory, primarily using the voice and percussion instruments, integrated with dance. At every level, we stress appreciation for all types of music, from international folk music to the classics.

All students participate in dramatic performances that are performed for the parents. Older students may also participate in performances that are performed only for the younger children. Once again, the performing arts weave in other subject areas. For example, each year the elementary students stage a science fair that integrates science and formal presentation to the parents and younger children. As you can guess by now, all costumes and staging are prepared by the students.

Cultural

The Culture lessons provide the children with a vast array of materials that spark curiosity, invite exploration, awaken their imaginations, and promote interest in diverse cultures. The Culture area includes lessons in the areas of physical science, zoology, botany, history and geography, along with lessons that expose children to the richness of many different cultures.

In physical science, the children learn to predict reactions of objects within a specially planned environment by experimenting with magnetism, buoyancy, simple machines, rocks and minerals, etc. In zoology and botany, the children learn to classify and group animals and plants by their external parts. This helps build their visual discrimination and helps them to begin to understand how things are classified. The children also study various biomes and look at the interrelationship of plants and animals within an environment. This type of self exploration is at the center of all the Montessori cultural lessons.

The focal points of the geography lessons are the globes, the flat map of the world and the puzzle maps of the seven continents. By their manipulation of these lessons, children begin to understand global concepts and diversity. They soon realize that they are only a small part of a very huge world, and that this world is inhabited by many other people who are just like them. Children’s understanding and respect for people of other cultures is fostered by their exposure to the stories, pictures, music, clothing, and food of various cultures. Students and parents of diverse cultures are encouraged to share their holidays and traditions with the rest of the school.