About Mountainside Montessori

About Mountainside

The Montessori classroom provides a prepared environment where children are free to respond to their natural tendency to work. The children’s innate passion for learning is encouraged by giving them opportunities to engage in spontaneous, purposeful activities with the guidance of a trained adult. Through their work, the children develop concentration and joyful self-discipline. Within a framework of order, the children progress at their own pace and rhythm according to their individual capabilities. The following areas of activity cultivate the children's ability to express themselves and think with clarity.

Practical Life
Practical Life exercises instill care for themselves, for others, and for the environment. The activities include many of the tasks children see as part of the daily life in their home washing and ironing, doing the dishes, arranging flowers, etc. Learning positive ways to handle social situations and extend courtesy to others creates a strong social community. Through these and other activities, children develop muscular coordination, enabling movement and the exploration of their surroundings. They learn to work at a task from beginning to end, and develop their will (defined by Dr. Montessori as the intelligent direction of movement), their self-discipline and their capacity for total concentration.

Sensorial
Sensorial Materials are tools for development. Children build cognitive efficacy, and learn to order and classify impressions. They do this by touching, seeing, smelling, tasting, listening, and exploring the physical properties of their environment through the mediation of specially-designed materials.

Language
Language is vital to human existence. The Montessori environment provides rich and precise language. Language includes stories both read and told, self expression, vocabulary building, sound and visual recognition of letters, reading and writing. Your child will learn the sounds of the letters, begin to put these sounds together to for words, and then “explode” into reading. The joy of accomplishment is readily apparent as the child further explores this new avenue of communication.

"When the children come into the classroom at around three years of age, they are given in the simplest way possible the opportunity to enrich the language they have acquired during their small lifetime and to use it intelligently, with precision and beauty, becoming aware of its properties not by being taught, but by being allowed to discover and explore these properties themselves. If not harassed, they will learn to write, and as a natural consequence to read, never remembering the day they could not write or read in the same way that they do not remember that once upon a time they could not walk."
Dr Maria Montessori.

Cultural Extensions
Geography, History, Biology, Botany, Zoology, Art and Music are presented as extensions of the sensorial and language activities. Children learn about other cultures past and present, and this allows their innate respect and love for their environment to flourish, creating a sense of solidarity with the global human family and its habitat.

Experiences with nature in conjunction with the materials in the environment inspire a reverence for all life. The classroom extends out to the garden where the children plant fruit and vegetables. Part of the everyday work in the classroom is tending the garden where the children are responsible for all aspects: planting, watering, weeding etc

Mathematics
After previous preparation with sorting, categorizing, sequencing and size discrimination, the Montessori math materials provide a concrete means for your child to learn and understand abstract mathematical concepts. The math materials begin with learning quantity and symbol, then progress into place value and the four operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

email: mountainsidemontessori@earthlink.net



About Mountainside The Montessori classroom provides a prepared environment where children are free to respond to their natural tendency to work. The children’s innate passion for learning is encouraged by giving them opportunities to engage in spontaneous, purposeful activities with the guidance of a trained adult. Through their work, the children develop concentration and joyful self-discipline. Within a framework of order, the children progress at their own pace and rhythm according to their individual capabilities. The following areas of activity cultivate the children's ability to express themselves and think with clarity. Practical Life Practical Life exercises instill care for themselves, for others, and for the environment. The activities include many of the tasks children see as part of the daily life in their home washing and ironing, doing the dishes, arranging flowers, etc. Learning positive ways to handle social situations and extend courtesy to others creates a strong social community. Through these and other activities, children develop muscular coordination, enabling movement and the exploration of their surroundings. They learn to work at a task from beginning to end, and develop their will (defined by Dr. Montessori as the intelligent direction of movement), their self-discipline and their capacity for total concentration. Sensorial Sensorial Materials are tools for development. Children build cognitive efficacy, and learn to order and classify impressions. They do this by touching, seeing, smelling, tasting, listening, and exploring the physical properties of their environment through the mediation of specially-designed materials. Language Language is vital to human existence. The Montessori environment provides rich and precise language. Language includes stories both read and told, self expression, vocabulary building, sound and visual recognition of letters, reading and writing. Your child will learn the sounds of the letters, begin to put these sounds together to for words, and then “explode” into reading. The joy of accomplishment is readily apparent as the child further explores this new avenue of communication. "When the children come into the classroom at around three years of age, they are given in the simplest way possible the opportunity to enrich the language they have acquired during their small lifetime and to use it intelligently, with precision and beauty, becoming aware of its properties not by being taught, but by being allowed to discover and explore these properties themselves. If not harassed, they will learn to write, and as a natural consequence to read, never remembering the day they could not write or read in the same way that they do not remember that once upon a time they could not walk." Dr Maria Montessori. Cultural Extensions Geography, History, Biology, Botany, Zoology, Art and Music are presented as extensions of the sensorial and language activities. Children learn about other cultures past and present, and this allows their innate respect and love for their environment to flourish, creating a sense of solidarity with the global human family and its habitat. Experiences with nature in conjunction with the materials in the environment inspire a reverence for all life. The classroom extends out to the garden where the children plant fruit and vegetables. Part of the everyday work in the classroom is tending the garden where the children are responsible for all aspects: planting, watering, weeding etc Mathematics After previous preparation with sorting, categorizing, sequencing and size discrimination, the Montessori math materials provide a concrete means for your child to learn and understand abstract mathematical concepts. The math materials begin with learning quantity and symbol, then progress into place value and the four operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. *email: mountainsidemontessori@earthlink.net*