Our Primary Program for children aged 2
1/2
to 6 years
Our Montessori Primary Program is based
on the three-year-cycle, with the third year serving as the culmination
of the preparatory work during the first two years. This results in
exciting leaps in reading, writing and math concepts. The student
brings together practical life and sensorial experienced in botany,
geometry and geography to an intellectual level of conscious
understanding. For example, the puzzles played with in the initial 2
years become continents of countries in the 3rd year
The class is un-graded and children's
ages range from 2 1/2 years to 6 years. As a
result, the children have the benefit of social interaction with their
peers, but may choose to work alone or with older children. The
opportunity to lead and teach as they master the materials,
enhances
self esteem.
The Primary Program is divided into four
main categories:
Practical
Life
Sensorial
Language
Mathematics
Other activities include art,
music, science and geography. As mastery of each stage of learning is
gained a healthy self-concept fosters independence and responsibility.
Therefore, parents should understand that a Montessori school is
neither a baby sitting service nor a play school
that prepares a child for traditional kindergarten. Rather it is a
unique cycle of learning designed to take advantage of the
child's sensitive years between 3 and 6 years, when they can absorb
information from an enriched environment.
To accommodate the various ages
of students, Westside Montessori offers
half-day and
extended-day
sessions. For the younger children, the three hour morning session from
9 a.m. until 12 noon, is well suited to their attention span and
physical endurance. Admission to extended day,
9 a.m. until 2:30 p.m.,
is by invitation of the child's Directress. The child usually exhibits
the qualities of readiness about 4 1/2 to 5 years.
For parents wanting full day
care for their children, Home Environment care is available before and
after the half-day and extended-day sessions.
A Guide to Parent Observation in
the Primary Montessori Class
By
Judy Schepps Battle
Ms. Battle's
insight into the parent's point of view allows her to provide practical
guidelines as to how a parent should approach observation and to find
the positive attributes of a Montessori primary class.
We welcome your visit to your child's
primary classroom and would like you to read and absorb the following
guidelines for this observation so that you can learn the most about us.
Purpose
The parent
observation is an opportunity for your child to share with you a dynamic
picture of what life is like Montessori-style. You can observe friends,
teachers, learning materials, as well as the less tangible atmosphere
that is "home" for the child for so much of his or her working day. We
know from experience that what you will actually see is colored by the
excitement that your child feels by having you visit his/her class. To
minimize this excitement factor, both for your child and others in the
class, we ask that you observe the following procedure. We also offer
hints for observing and interpreting what you see.
Procedure
When you enter
your child's classroom you will find two adult-sized chairs. Choose a
place and in fifteen minutes you may switch to another vantage point.
This will enable you to get a chance to see the entire classroom area.
When you sit down children may come up
to you - either your child or others. Please try not to engage them in
conversation. A polite "hello" and a direct response as to who you are
is fine. Then quietly ask the child to return to work. The children
have been told before you come that your work is to watch them working
and they will understand your response to them in that context.
If your own child cries, clings, is
silly or ignores you completely, do not be surprised. We are not.
Children respond differently to having their parents in the classroom
than they do in the normal course of the school day or at home. It is
the talent of the classroom teacher to deal with your child's response
and it is fine for you and your child to spend the observation time
watching the class together if he or she is not able to leave your lap.
It is very likely that your child will
offer you a snack while you are visiting. Although the fare may be
meager (crackers and juice) remember that he or she is very proud to be
able to put together and serve this food to you. Please do not refuse
to partake of it even if it may not be your choice of food or if it
means adding a few more calories to your diet. The joy that your child
experiences in your eating the snack is a special delight to watch.
Teachers will not be able to take time
from their classroom duties to converse with you either during or after
your observation. If questions occur to you while you are watching,
please write them down. Your child's teacher will be glad to answer
these questions within our normal parent-teacher procedure, by telephone
or in person.
Hints on
Observing
We have found it
helpful to offer a guide to observing and interpreting the dynamics of
the Montessori classroom. Many parents, upon first entering the
environment when it is abuzz with children, feel overwhelmed by the
diverse activities that are going on. The suggestions below are
intended to be focus points for your attention.
Visual
Perspective
There is more to the Montessori
classroom than the activities of your particular child. Naturally, the
first tendency of parents is to focus and follow their child's
activities. Try to observe in a context. Alternate between a
wide-angle view of the entire classroom and then focus in on your
child. This way there will be less self-consciousness and you will have
a true context.
Audio
Perspective
Listen to the noise level as it rises
and falls and try to see which groups or individual children are
generating the sound. You will hear the normal hubbub of children being
together and the special pitch of the children excited about learning.
At times there will be a special peak of excitement of discovery. See
if you can differentiate.
Learning
Notice that children learn different
ways. With some types of materials you will see groups of children
working cooperatively, and with others you will find an individual child
working intensely. Still other children are walking through the
classroom seemingly not engaged in any direct activity. Very often this
last type of child is engaged in actively absorbing the children and
materials in the classroom through observation. It will help if you
alternate your focus on these three learning patterns. Note also the
ease and joy with which the children work. You will see the intense
self-gratification that the learning process affords your child.
Child-Child
Interaction
Listen to the way (the style and
context) in which children talk to each other. Try to hear the level of
respect as well as the normal pushes and pulls of childhood. Very often
observers new to Montessori are surprised that a child will jealously
guard his or her work and tell another classmate that they are
disturbing this work. A result of this verbal communication is that the
other child will leave. Other new observers are bemused by the
politeness with which one child will ask another if he or she would
"care for a piece of apple" and the other will respond "yes, please,
thank you."
Teacher-Child
Interaction
Watch the way teachers interact with
children and compare it with the traditional classroom mode by which you
were probably educated. Notice the way in which a teacher corrects a
child and look at the instances in which she does not. Listen to the
teacher's tone of voice with the child. Many parents have asked how one
Directress can "handle" a group of thirty children. The answer lies
with this interaction process. The Directress is a facilitator of the
child's autonomous learning process. She guides, not directs. She
prepares the environment, gives the child the tools to utilize the
materials and then does whatever else is necessary to help the child do
it without assistance. Sometimes this "whatever else" involves direct
encouragement and at other times indirect appreciation and at still
other times, judicious absence. There is basic respect for each
individual child's particular style of learning in the Montessori
classroom. See if you can pick this up.
Sociability
Watch the ways in which the children
offer assistance to one another with the materials and with every day
tasks. Watch for the ways that they are directly social with one
another. The snack table is a good area to keep an eye on to see this
dynamic.
The Montessori classroom contains a
wide range of both ages of children and materials that are appropriate
to the different developmental levels. Note how the children go to the
material that is appropriate to their developmental level. Note also
how the younger children absorb the older children's work simply by
being near them, and how, conversely, the older children will assist the
younger one with the work that they have already mastered. These
seemingly "academic" activities have a strong social component to them,
one that instills a sense of responsibility for, and community with, all
those in the class.
There are always present in the
classroom pockets of purely social activities. Children may be
clustered around a table discussing the latest cartoon superhero or
in-vogue doll, or they may be making plans to play at one another's
houses that they have not yet told their parents about! Whenever a
birthday nears, a child's upcoming party is certain to be a major item
of discussion. Children are children in the Montessori classroom and
the child's natural desire to form friends and be part of an ongoing
community are present.
Autonomy
Absorb the independence of your child
and other children as they do for themselves in their classroom
environment. Watch even the youngest child take responsibility for his
or her personal environment. Watch how, however precariously, a glass
pitcher of water or a tray with fragile materials on it is carried.
Watch as a child chooses a piece of work, takes it from the shelf,
completes the work, and returns it so that the next child can use it.
The generation of this autonomy is a
function of the prepared environment of the Montessori classroom. What
this means is that the child will have available all needed materials,
in good working order, to complete a task that has usually been chosen
by that child. The structure of Montessori provides the child with as
much time as he or she needs to complete this task and success is the
primary reward. As you look around the classroom notice the materials,
how attractive they are in placement, color, and cleanliness. The child
is attracted to learn by the environment.
We recognize that you will not be able to sort out and see all the
dimensions of the classroom that are outlined above and hope that you
are not disappointed in yourself or in us when you find that all aspects
of the classroom have either not been present during your observation or
that you did not see it all. We recognize that the process of learning
how to "read" the Montessori classroom is difficult at first, but we
know that with each successive observation your skills will become
increasingly honed.
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