Serving children 3 to 6 years of age
Learning in our Primary classrooms is “hands-on.” All activities support children in choosing meaningful and challenging work at their own interest and ability level. This child-directed engagement strengthens motivation, supports attention, and encourages responsibility.
Our environments feel more like a home than a school. You won’t see desks, nor will a teacher stand at the front of the room delivering a lesson to the whole class. Instead, you’ll see children happily working individually or in small groups, at tables or on the floor with small work rugs that delineate their own space.
Uninterrupted blocks of work time allow children to work at their own pace and fully immerse themselves in an activity without interruption. Your child’s work cycle involves selecting an activity, performing it for as long as it remains interesting, cleaning up the activity and returning it to the shelf, and making another work choice. This cycle respects individual variations in the learning process, facilitates the development of coordination, concentration, independence, and a sense of order, while facilitating your child’s assimilation of information.
Specially designed learning materials are displayed on open shelves, easily accessible to the children. Classrooms also include low sinks accessible to the children, child-sized furniture, cozy spaces for quiet reading, reachable shelves with work available for free choice, and child-sized kitchen utensils so the students can prepare, eat, and clean up their snack on their own. Teachers gently guide students to help maintain the organization and cleanliness of this environment to keep it orderly and attractive, and to help your child understand how to care for materials and clean up after themselves.
Learning areas include:
Readiness for Primary Community
Children can join our Primary Community when they are three years old. Readiness to join our Primary Community includes:
- Consistent practice and ability of toileting independently
- Understanding and practice of safety (staying with the group whilst outdoors, etc.)
- Communicating effectively with others
- Ability to engage in an age-appropriate level of independent activity
The Kindergarten Year
During the first 2 years of our primary program, students look forward to their turn to be a leader. In their third year – often known as Kindergarten – children get their turn and take pride in being the eldest. They serve as role models for younger students; they demonstrate leadership and citizenship skills. They reinforce and consolidate their own learning by teaching concepts they have already mastered to their peers. In their Kindergarten year, they express confidence, develop self-esteem and self-sufficiency, and show responsibility.
Kindergarteners are introduced to progressively more advanced Montessori materials and sophisticated, fascinating lessons. And they experience an important period in which their previous learning from working with concrete Montessori materials begins to become permanent knowledge. Children exhibit the independence, critical thinking, collaboration, and leadership they have been practicing during their previous years in the classroom.