Academics

These are everyday living activities which afford the child the opportunity to imitate adults as he carries out daily tasks that adults consider ordinary, develop his motor skills, learn to care for himself and his environment and also develop social skills, grace and courtesy. Example of such activities include washing, dressing up, polishing, sweeping, opening and closing and such like. By carrying out these activities the child perfects his coordination, concentrates more effectively, works more efficiently and learns to observe more carefully.

Sensorial exercises help the child to distinguish, categorize, and use his senses to build a knowledge and understanding of the world he lives in. The child’s senses become refined and sharpened, thereby permitting him to form new concepts through experience and exercise. Sensorial exercises help to lay a proper foundation of understanding subjects like mathematics, geometry and scientific skills in future.

Montessori identifies the mathematical mind as one of the tendencies of the human being. Mathematics is all around us and we use numbers and engage in calculations in our daily encounters, without even realizing we are being mathematical. The Montessori mathematics curriculum employs the use of beautifully designed, precision, and graded concrete materials to help the child understand mathematical concepts from identifying number symbols, to quantifying, understanding the concept of zero, odd & even numbers, number bonds incorporating tens and teens, place values up to thousands, number operations – addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, up to fractions – all explored through the use of concrete materials with the child gradually and systematically moving towards abstraction.

The goal of the Montessori Language area is to support the child’s natural process for acquiring and perfecting language. For the young child in the Montessori Early childhood classroom, language is something to be discovered and created rather than learned.

The starting point is the provision of a language rich environment and a solid foundation for reading and writing through conversations, listening, speaking and activities for auditory and visual discrimination. The extensive curriculum includes handwriting, graded word building, word study/spelling, early grammar, descriptive, narrative & creative writing and literature.

All of these are carried out through the use of concrete and teacher –created materials and resources, exciting games and activities, to sustain the child’s interest and make language learning enjoyable and fun for the child

Cultural subjects comprise of History, Geography, Science, Botany (study of plants), Zoology (study of animals), cosmic education, peace education, environmental studies – incorporating religion, festivals and national celebrations.

History is explored through specific activities and materials, which help the child explore the vocabulary and concept of time, timelines, and differentiating between past and present, including developing an understanding of the past.

Geography in the Montessori Early childhood classroom includes physical and cultural geography. It begins with learning simple directions and position of things, study of the earth, and extends to mapping of the world, extensive study of continents, countries, land and water forms and identification of flags, beginning with one’s own country and continent. The journey to becoming a Scientist has its humble beginnings in the Montessori early childhood classroom.

Your child is introduced to the physical properties of substances like magnets and magnetism, floating and sinking materials, and encouraged to explore physical principles like friction, colour mixing, refraction with prism. Your child will be encouraged to conduct investigations, research and explore nature.

Study of Plants and Animals within the Montessori environment begins with simple pairing exercises, naming and identifying the different parts of a plant, or the different animal families. Your child will learn about the different classifications of the plant and animal kingdom and the interdependence of living things on each other. Specific concrete materials, teacher created materials and planned activities will help your child reinforce these lessons.

Through all these activities the child learns about the real world (the natural and man-made environment) exploring countries, food, customs, music, climate, language, fauna and flora. Above all, the child learns about love for all and appreciation and tolerance of all things and all people. He becomes a citizen of the world and understands his position in the circle of life.

Arts, crafts, music and movement are not relegated in the Montessori classroom. Your child is encouraged to foster their imagination in creative ways, employing different forms of media to express themselves. Music and music making, using percussion instruments, elements of music – rhythm, tempo, and pitch with freestyle dance are all explored in music and movement. Art activities are planned based on explored themes, seasons, festivals and interests of the children. The focus is on the process the child goes through in exploring the activities and not on the product.