The Primary Program

Curriculum

Practical Life

For our children, but especially the young ones, our classroom offers exercises to help satisfy his need for meaningful activity. For the young child, there is something special about tasks which an adult considers ordinary. Washing dishes, paring vegetables and polishing silver are exciting to the child because they allow him to imitate adults. Imitation is one of the child's strongest urges during his early years.

Tasks are broken down into simple steps so that the child learns how to comb his hair, button, tie, pour water, wash tables, wash clothes on a miniature scrub board, sweep rose petals from the floor, and polish brass. Prepare and serve food such as bananas, carrots or celery to friends and guests.

Sensorial

The importance of educating the senses can be illustrated by an example from the adult world. It is possible for adults, as well as children, to receive any amount of sensory impressions and be none the richer. Two people may attend a concert together. One experiences great pleasure and the other, with equally accurate hearing, feels only boredom and weariness. Sense impressions are not enough by themselves. The mind needs education and training to be able todiscriminate and appreciate.

A young child can remain unmoved by a myriad of sensory impressions in her everyday environment. What she needs is not more and more impressions, but the ability to understand what she perceives, The Montessori sensory materials help the child to distinguish, to categorize and to relate new information to what she already knows. We believe that this process is the beginning of conscious knowledge. It is brought about by the intelligence working in a concentrated way on the impressions given by the senses. Our children work with materials specifically designed to refine their sense of color, weight, shape, texture, size, sound, smell and taste.

Mathematics

Many children enter school today knowing how to count to twenty, but having no idea what "one" is in relation to "nine". They have merely memorized counting. When a child indicates that he is interested, we begin by showing him how to count concrete materials and later by introducing the abstract symbol for one, two, etc. Eventually, through the use of our specially designed materials our children learn about the decimal system, the process of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

These children cannot work math problems on paper, as that is an abstraction for which they are not ready; rather, they can count and understand that addition is "putting things together", and subtraction is "taking things away". Later on, when our children enter the Montessori elementary program, they will have a thorough understanding of what numbers mean and will be able to comprehend the mathematical facts and abstractions presented to them.

Language

Language consists of more than just reading. It is communication. It consists of verbal skills, visual perception and small muscle coordination. Materials throughout the environment directly and indirectly prepare the child for the acquisition of these skills. A complete reading system is available to the children, by which they gain an understanding that separate sounds can be blended together to make meaningful words. These children love to read and are ready to expand their knowledge to sight vocabulary and creative writing.

Cultural: Geography, Science, Art & Music

Children love to play with puzzles! We have large, brightly colored wooden geography puzzles - each a map to a particular continent, where children learn to reassemble the pieces,representing the individual countries. They can all learn the countries of Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America and Australia through their play. Foreign students are often invited to share their customs, lifestyles, music, art and food with the classroom community.

Plants and animals abound in our classrooms. Through the care of our menagerie, through puzzles of flowers, leaves and plants and through simple experiments, our children's lives become enriched.

Parent Perspective Listen to what Jann and other parents have to say about the Bergamo program. WATCH Coming Soon