Primary Program for 3 – 6 year olds
Here at MDS, our teachers create environments designed to meet the children’s developmental needs. The goals of the Primary Program are to help every child develop and learn at his or her own pace, to keep the child’s innate curiosity and desire to learn alive, and to facilitate the child’s self-creation as a lifelong learner.
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We offer school tours or Zoom conversations so you can find out how Montessori works.
Mixed Age Group
Three to six-year-olds work together in the same classroom allowing older children to become young leaders through peer modeling! The mixed-age grouping allows children to stay together with the same teacher and assistant for three years, allowing a strong bond of caring and respect to develop. The children develop strong social skills and a love of learning in this program!
Freedom of Choice
Children move through the Primary curriculum propelled by their own curiosity. The teacher is trained to engage children in all areas of the curriculum and to guide the child to approach materials to further the child’s learning. Each classroom has a complete set of Montessori materials available to the children at all times.
Maria Montessori believed “what the hand does the mind remembers.” The primary classroom is designed to teach through hands-on materials and experiences! Children explore through concrete understanding building into an abstract experience through tangible lessons such as sandpaper letters, bead chains, moveable alphabet, and sensorial works.
The Montessori curriculum for three to six year olds is an all encompassing one. Practical Life and Sensorial materials help the child develop the ability to concentrate, enhance motor development and recognize similarities and differences using all of the senses.
Language materials offer the child hands-on materials that lead to incremental gains in skills. Visual matching, work, sandpaper letters, the moveable alphabet guide the child through varying levels of abstraction, leading to an “explosion” into reading.
Math materials are a sequential introduction into the world of mathmatics. Hands-on materials teach the child basic counting, symbol and quantity recognition, skip counting, how the decimal system works and culminates with addition and subtraction.
Cultural materials offer the child knowledge in the areas of geography, history, science, art, music, and how other people live. Communication skills and problem-solving are important components of our program.