4 year olds
Preschool
During this stage of development, a child has an incredible ability to absorb vast amounts of knowledge. In this growth stage, children embrace learning with joy and enthusiasm. Their natural curiosity allows each child to use their senses to develop and construct their knowledge.
The Montessori method of learning allows this age group to learn quickly through hands-on learning with a wide variety of manipulatives through practice and, even at times, mastering critical skills.
The Montessori educator's role is to guide and provide a nurturing, caring, and safe environment to support and enhance their learning. This will lead children to become independent learners with a connection and appreciation for themselves, others, and the world around them.
At our centre, we provide this age group with many practical life, sensorial, language arts, mathematics, culture and science activities throughout the day to promote development.
Practical
Life
This area provides a wide range of real-life activities that aid children in areas of developing a sense of order, concentration, personal pride, independence, respect for others, fine motor skills, grace and courtesy, confidence, and self-esteem.
Practical Life
Sensorial
Sensorial materials and activities supply children with concrete examples of abstract concepts that can be perceived through the senses. Children are better able to understand the world around them by refining their senses and promoting developmental and cognitive skills through visual activities (i.e. pink tower/brown stairs), tactile activities (i.e. touch boards/tablets/fabrics), auditory activities (i.e. sound cylinders), and olfactory activities (i.e. smelling bottles).
Sensorial
Language Arts
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Oral Language - Children build oral language through vocabulary enrichment, language training, and visual discrimination.
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Reading - Children acquire reading skills through a phonic reading program that targets 2, 3, and 4-letter ending sound combinations.
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Parts of Speech - Children develop tools and strategies to identify nouns, articles, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs in sentences and how to use them properly when writing.
Language Arts
Mathematics
Children develop strategies using the many hands-on manipulatives to understand abstract concepts in math such as:
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Numbers to 10
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Introduction to the Decimal System
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Numbers up to 100
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The Four Operations
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Teens, Tens and Hundreds
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Memorization
Mathematics
Culture
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Geography - Children examine and explore both physical and cultural geography.
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History - Children learn about the passage of time and their personal history through timelines, family trees, and changing seasons.
Culture
Science
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Science - Children work with hands-on experiments that expand their knowledge in areas such as magnetism, evaporation, and chemical reactions.
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Zoology - Children explore living and non-living things, the differences between plants and animals, and the five classifications of animals.
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Botany - Children investigate the various components of plants and their many uses.