The Children’s House is for children ages 3-5 years and is the Kindergarten grade equivalent. “Children’s House” is the special Montessori term for 3-5 year old classes because the carefully prepared environment for these children includes so much more than just school work. It is, in fact, a small version of the world, a world scaled down to the child’s age and ability level. Work in the Children’s House includes everything from taking care of the classroom environment and learning practical life skills, to studies in Math and Reading. Children, ages 6-9 (1st-3rd grade equivalent) and ages 9-12 (4th-6th grade equivalent), will be in multi-age classrooms called Elementary I and Elementary II, respectively. Building on what has already taken place in the Children’s House program, older children learn within the structure of similar curriculum areas but at a higher intellectual and developmental level. Additionally, students are exposed to research techniques such as book resources and the internet. We have add two class rooms for grades 7/8 called ERDKINDER (E3) “Erdkinder” means “children of the earth,” Maria Montessori’s term for young adolescents preparing to engage in the larger world around them. Erdkinder provides a unique educational experience for junior high students, blending elements of more conventional experience academics (grades and homework) with a learning environment based on the principles of Montessori education. This results in an academically rigorous classroom in a supportive and caring environment that seek to optimize student independence and creativity.
Staff partner with parents to identify students with special gifts. We utilize Re-forming Gifted Education, by Karen Rogers as the basis for identification, data collection, inventory and gifted education planning. Students with Individual Education Plans (IEPs) will receive special education services necessary to meet the requirements of the IEP and the law. New Discoveries Montessori Academy will provide those services or will seek contracted services.
To help facilitate parent volunteer involvement, New Discoveries Montessori Academy facilitates the forming of a volunteer network beginning with parent training sessions. These sessions help parents understand the important role they play in the educational process and how their participation in their child’s education is valued. The sessions also introduce the curriculum to the parents and explain how they can best assist their children with the learning process. Community members will be asked to participate on an on-going basis. New Discoveries Montessori Academy provides Montessori parent education programs that promote understanding of Montessori principles and curriculum.
The “Prepared Environment” – In order for self-directed learning to take place, the whole learning environment – room, materials and social climate must be supportive of the learner. The teacher provides necessary resources, including opportunities for children to function in a safe and positive climate. The teacher thus gains the children’s trust, which enables them to try new things and build self-confidence. The Montessori materials – Dr. Montessori’s observations of the kinds of “toys” which children enjoy and return to play with repeatedly led her to design a number of multi-sensory sequential and self-correcting materials which facilitate the learning of skills and concepts. Teachers will follow “Montessori principles” as they structure new activities for the classroom. The Teacher – Originally called a “Directress”, the Montessori teacher functions as a facilitator of learning. S/he is a role model, designer of the environment, resource person, demonstrator, record-keeper and observer of each child’s growth and development. S/he encourages, respects, and loves each child as a special, unique individual; s/he also provides support for parents and joins them in a partnership to nurture the development of the child.
Children are free to work at their own pace with materials they have chosen, either alone or with others. The teacher relies on his or her observations of the children to determine which new activities and materials s/he may introduce to individual children or to a small or large group. The aim is to encourage active, self-directed learning and to strike a balance of individual mastery with small group collaboration within the whole group community. The two-to-three year age span in each class provides a family-like grouping where learning can take place naturally. More experienced children share what they have learned while reinforcing their own learning. Because this peer group learning is intrinsic to Montessori, there are often more conversation-language experiences in the Montessori classroom than in conventional early education settings.
New Discoveries Montessori Academy is an associate member of the American Montessori Society.