The Montessori classroom is specifically designed with child-centered spaces - a "living room" for children. This prepared classroom environment lets the child absorb the world about him through work with a wide variety of materials. Children choose their work from among the materials displayed on open shelves. Click on the links to view the main areas of curriculum in our Montessori classrooms.
Philosophy
814 W Linden St u Allentown PA 18101 u 610-435-4060 phone u 610-351-6276 fax
Practical Life
For young children, there is something special about tasks that an adult considers ordinary - washing dishes, paring vegetables, polishing shoes, etc. Children are excited about imitating adults. This imitation is one of the strongest urges during the early years.
In this area of the Montessori classroom, children perfect their coordination and become absorbed in an activity. They gradually lengthen their span of concentration, learn to pay attention to details as they follow a regular sequence of actions, and learn good working habits as they finish each task and put away all the materials before beginning another activity.
Science
In the prepared environment, the children's natural curiosity is stimulated through the discovery projects and experiments, helping children draw their own conclusions. The plant and animal kingdom are studied to foster a love and appreciation for all living things.
Sensorial
This area helps children distinguish, categorize, and relate new information to what they already know. Dr. Montessori believed that this process is the beginning of conscious knowledge and is brought about by the intelligence working in a concentrated way on the impression given by the senses.
Geography & Culture
We hope our students will become good "global citizens", and we try to foster an understanding, tolerance, and compassion for all forms of life. Large wooden puzzle maps are among the most popular activities in the classroom. At first, children use the maps simply as puzzles. Gradually, they learn the names of many countries as well as information about climate and products, and common land formations. Children gain an awareness of the world around them by exploring other countries, their customs, food, music, climate, language, and animals. This aims to raise their consciousness about other people, to gain an understanding and tolerance for all people of the world.
History
Montessori offers the children a concrete presentation of history by letting them work with Time Lines. Time Lines are very long strips of paper that can be unrolled and stretched along the floor of the classroom. This line is marked off in segments that represent consecutive periods of history.
Language
In a Montessori classroom children learn the phonetic sounds of the letters before they learn the alphabetical names in sequence. The children first become aware of these phonetic sounds when the teacher introduces the consonants with the Sandpaper Letters. The individual presentation of language materials in a Montessori classroom allows the teacher to take advantage of each child's greatest period of interest. Reading instruction begins the day the child wants to know what a word says or when the child shows interest in using the Sandpaper Letters. Writing - or the construction of words with the movable letters - nearly always precedes reading in a Montessori environment.
Mathematics
Children in a Montessori classroom never sit down to memorize addition and subtraction facts; they never simply memorize multiplication tables. Rather, they learn these facts by actually performing the operations with concrete materials. Dr. Montessori designed concrete materials to represent all types of quantities. By combining this equipment, separating it, sharing it, counting it, and comparing it, children can demonstrate the basic operations of mathematics to themselves.
Arts & Crafts
Art strives to maintain the great joy the child finds in creating something of his or her own. The children have the freedom to explore their imaginations in a variety of mediums used for expression. The focus is always on the process not the product.
Spiritual Life
Because of the school's Christian base, we acknowledge the child's spiritual nature within our Primary program in a specially prepared "Atrium" which we visit once a week. We believe that this is an important part of our program, though it is optional with alternative programming planned. The inter-faith chapel within our Elementary program is mandatory.
Music & Movement
Creative music and movement is an on-going flexible part of our Montessori classroom.
 | ||||||
About Us > Philosophy
