Curriculum
The curriculum combines Montessori philosophy, with methodology and the materials designed by Maria Montessori. Our classrooms are extensively equipped with Montessori materials. The five curriculum areas are:
Practical Life: This area promotes co ordination, orderliness and self- confidence. The child’s experiences will include self care skills, care of the environment, control of movement and grace and courtesy.
Sensorial: These materials assist the child in learning to differentiate between sizes, colours, weights, textures, sounds, smells and tastes. The child becomes involved in numerous exercises involving sequencing, matching and classifying.
Language: Emphasis is placed on the development of vocabulary and an appreciation of opportunities for language in a variety of contexts. The language area employs a phonic approach to reading and writing. Phonic sounds are introduced through games and activities.
Mathematics: The child is presented with manipulative materials to develop a solid foundation for rational counting and complex math’ concepts.
Environmental Materials: The children learn about the world around them. Their experiences include work with globes, maps and landforms. The children will learn about living and non living things, plants and animals and begin to make observations and discoveries as they link materials in the classroom to the wider world around them. The children are encouraged to develop an appreciation for music and art and to experiment and create with art materials. This area is process rather than product oriented.
Four aspects of individual development are emphasised:
- Development of the senses
- Conceptual development
- Competence in daily life skills
- And Character development.
The curriculum is progressive and each activity is designed to focus on a particular aspect of development or skill in response to the child’s sensitive periods. Our Montessori program is framed by the principles, strands and goals of Te Whāriki, the national early childhood curriculum. Assessment and evaluation of each child’s learning and development is recorded in their individual journal.
Journals include curriculum plans, samples of your child’s work, photographs and narrative assessment in the form of learning stories. Learning stories record a particular moment of learning that has been noticed or observed by the Montessori Directress, is considered from recognised theoretical understandings of learning and development and may identify appropriate responses within the Montessori curriculum or Te Whāriki to support this learning further.