..

Our Pre-Primary classroom is comprised of children from 2 years of age through (approximately)2.9 years of age

Generalities of the Pre-Primary Experience

Welcome to our Pre-Primary classroom

 

For the two to three year - old child, exercises in practical life are the most important part of the Montessori classroom. It is through these exercises that a child gains the ability to work in the classroom with confidence. It is through these exercises that a child learns how to work. There is no point in presenting work in language or math to a child who does not know how to focus her attention long enough to learn from it. The child who cannot control his movements cannot be expected to successfully work in the classroom; he will be forever distracted by his clumsiness. The child who has not had the opportunity to practice purposeful activity at an early age will find it difficult to focus his will at a later time.

The child gains all these skills through exercises that help perfect his movement, show him how to care for himself and his environment, and demonstrate to him the grace and courtesy required to smoothly interact with the society around him. These all provide opportunities for the child to learn independence from the sometimes overly helpful adults around him. For a child to be able to teach himself, it is necessary that he have the confidence to trust in his own abilities. Practical life allows him to become physically and mentally competent, by encouraging repetition of various real-world tasks. This gives him a feeling of self confidence that comes from within himself, and cannot be taken away.

Every act of life requires movement, and the young child is fascinated with it. It is necessary that a child move, as it is necessary that we all move. Movement is calming, familiar. She has just spent the first years of her life gaining rudimentary control over her motions, now she has the desire to perfect these motions. Children are frequently seen as clumsy and awkward, but they want to do things correctly. They merely require two things: a clear demonstration of the procedure, and the opportunity to practice. Their bodies are often tense, making it difficult to perform complicated small motor tasks like writing. These movement exercises allow the child the opportunity to gain control of and perfect the simple movements of her body, thus leading to more complicated activities. The exercises in movement allow a child to learn to move with dignity, economy and comfort. They assist the child’s mind and body in developing together.

Many adults feel that they should help children by doing things for them. The adult may dress him, clean up his spills, even take the extreme measure of talking in his place. The exercises in care of self, care of environment, and grace and courtesy help answer the need of the child to take responsibility for himself. They offer him the specific skills required to answer many situations with ease. If we acknowledge that development cannot be forced upon the child but must come from within, how then can he be expected to grow unless we let him approach the world himself, without unnecessary interference?

This brings up the underlying goal of the practical life exercises: a happy, confident child, one who is eager and ready to learn. By aiding a child’s development and biological needs; by helping the child, not serving the child; these exercises promote a sense of well being within the child. By keeping the exercises and presentations interesting and attractive, we encourage the child to strengthen her will and stimulate her growth. It develops her concentration, memory, awareness, attention to detail, and understanding of sequence. Most importantly, it teaches the habit of success through perseverance, without which nothing in this world could be accomplished.

Practical Life

 

“The first aim of the prepared environment is, as far as is possible,

to render the growing child independent of the adult. That is, it is

a place where he can do things for himself, to live his own life,

without the immediate help of adults.”

E.M. Standing, Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work p. 267

 

The practical life exercises develop and strengthen independence, motor-coordination, concentration, sequential memory and social skills. These tasks are often deceptively simple in appearance. They establish a pattern of how the child should view himself and value himself. The child builds the basic trust in himself and confirms the basic trust in the environment. The practical life exercises are activities we do in our daily life to care for ourselves and our surroundings, such as getting dressed, wiping our nose, preparing food, setting the table, dusting plants, sweeping the floor, washing dishes, etc.

Most early practical life exercises are open-ended; the child may work on them as long as his attention lasts before putting his work away and moving to something else. This allows the child to extend his attention span naturally. Later practical life exercises (at the Primary level), such as the food preparation and cleaning exercises, have many steps to challenge the child’s memory and sequencing skills.

Grace and Courtesy

We show our respect for adults by looking at their eyes, listening to what they say, and responding with courtesy. On the other hand, we show our respect for children by lowering our heads to their level, looking at them, listening to them, and respecting them as human beings. We as adults are the best language models children have. Children observe and absorb everything we say and do. Therefore, we must model grace and courtesy in the proper way when we have adult to adult interactions and adult to child interactions in our daily life. In this way, the children can adapt these skills and make them a part of their life.

Language

Maria Montessori said that “Language is an instrument of collective thought.” At this age, children are absorbing language from their environment at a phenomenal rate. In the Montessori environment, we focus on specific vocabulary enrichment. The materials we use for developing and enriching language are:

 

- The adults as models

- Objects: real objects for concrete sensorial experience.

- Replicas: objects used when the real objects are difficult to bring into the classroom.

- Objects with cards: 3 dimensional objects matched to 2 dimensional pictures.

- Classified cards

- Books

- Poetry and songs

- Self expression: listen to the children and allow them to talk to us.

- Question Exercises: this is the process of asking a child or group of children questions with the intention of helping the child/ren organize thoughts around a single concept.

 

Music

Music is a universal language. Music should be, not just a subject or a lesson, but an integral part of the life of the child. Music is a magic word which to some, means just to play an instrument, or to sing, or to dance. But to many, and especially children, it’s a magical language. The children love to sing. Singing is magical. Singing songs lightens the mood of everyone.

Art

Art materials are for children to express something inside themselves. As adults, we cannot teach children art. We can only show children how to use the tools and encourage them to draw whatever they want.

The materials we use for art expression are:

 

- Paper Tearing

- Scribbling

- Easel – chalk

- Easel – painting

- Clay

 

Toilet Learning

There is an optimal time to learn how to use the toilet. Using the toilet is a normal, healthy, necessary process. From the very beginning of a baby’s life, his diapers should be changed as soon as they are soiled so that he absorbs the message that it is normal to stay clean and dry. He will soon come to feel uncomfortable whenever his diaper is wet or dirty. Babies typically need to be changed at least ten times per day. It is important to remember the baby’s gastro-colic reflex, wherein his bowels are stimulated whenever he is fed. He will probably have to be changed immediately after eating, even if he had just been changed before he ate. The baby should never be left any length of time with a soiled diaper.

For most babies, bowel movements soon become regular and predictable. If a pattern can be recognized and the baby can sit, it is possible and desirable to place the baby on a very small potty. It is extremely important never to comment on whether anything is deposited in the potty. This is simply an opportunity for the child to understand that urine and bowel movements can be held and released. Never pressure the child in any way or comment on “accidents.” These are normal functions, not accidents. It is important to use correct language for bodily functions; i.e. urinate, bowel movement.

When a child can walk independently, his myelinization has reached the point where he can have some control over his sphincter muscles. Toileting should be made as easy as possible for the child. His clothes need to be very easy to take off, clean clothes must be accessible for the child and the toilet needs to be small enough so that the child can get on and off easily. At first, the child will need a great deal of help taking off and putting on clothes. He will collaborate and then gradually learn to do it for himself. When a child first begins toilet learning, he will recognize when he needs to urinate just prior to urinating. So it is important to observe the child to know when a child is about to urinate, and then suggest to him to use the toilet. If the toilet and his clothes are easy to handle, he is more likely to be successful.

In the Pre-primary classroom, we have regular times when the children are asked to use the toilet. Such times are when the children enter the environment, before snack, before going outside, before lunch, before nap, etc. We do not force the child to use the toilet, we just state in a matter of fact way, "We are going outside soon, so it is time to use the toilet.” We are only making an offer, but are phrasing it in such a way that the child will not automatically refuse. If he does refuse, it is because he has made a conscious choice, and so we do not push the issue. He should be given every opportunity to observe other children using the toilet and taking care of their dressing. Eventually, the child will accept that using the toilet is a natural behavior in the environment, and he will no longer want to be in diapers.

Once a child is wearing training pants during the day, he should wear them at night as well. It is a good idea to use flannel rubber sheeting under the mattress cover to protect the bedding.

Admissions Process

 

Contact Admissions