4649 Columbia Road, Ellicott City, Maryland 21042, United States
Primary
Primary (Ages 2 1/2 to 51/2 years)
At the preschool level, kids are encouraged to learn from each other. Interacting with other students is a key part of learning. Older kids often help younger ones learn new skills.
Dr. Maria Montessori found that next to learning from their own experience, the child learns best from other children. Therefore, she created a mixed-age group where the younger children imitate older and older children to reinforce leadership skills by sharing their knowledge with the younger children. Each classroom is scaled down to a child’s size and provides an enriching and stimulating environment.
Each classroom is comprised of the following five areas of learning: Practical Life, Language, Mathematics, Cultural/Geography, and Sensorial.
The preschool classroom environment is important, too. Our Primary preschool program is Montessori based and uses hands-on learning materials, such as colored beads, brown stairs blocks, puzzles, and educational materials. The room is set up carefully to best encourage interactive learning.
Kids are encouraged to take work materials from these areas to small tables or use them on a work mat on the floor. The materials are all self-correcting, meaning that kids know they’ve done a task correctly because all the pieces fit into place. For example, a child using a “dressing frame” to learn how to button will see two pieces of fabric. One side has five buttonholes and the other side has five buttons. If the pieces don’t fit or a child misses a button, the mistake is obvious. And the child can go back and correct it.
Montessori programs promote independence and cooperative learning.
And while teachers guide learning, they aren’t the only instructors.
The benefits of Montessori
Montessori emphasizes cooperative learning. There’s a lot of focus on respecting and celebrating diversity. This sense of community and inclusion is reinforced by having the same preschool teacher and classmates for more than one year in a row. Kids in a Montessori classroom benefit from:
- High-engagement materials: Hands-on, colorful, and multisensory materials keep most kids interested in what they’re doing. Kids can focus on their strengths, and teachers can guide them to work on areas of difficulty.
- Individualized learning: If a child has difficulty learning a skill one way, there’s often another way to learn it. Each task builds one skill at a time.
- Independence: Kids choose their work for the day, serve their own food and wash snack dishes.
- A well-organized environment: All items have a specific place in the classroom. Kids learn the system, clean up after themselves and return things to the correct area.
- Opportunities to learn from mistakes: Self-correcting materials and natural consequences help kids see that their mistakes teach them things, too.
