CHILDREN’S HOUSE

Students at Mariposa Montessori from three through six years of age enjoy the benefits of a three-year curriculum designed specifically for them. The Montessori early childhood classroom, or Children’s House, is an environment designed to meet the needs of the children. Children need real work to prepare them for real life. "Never do for a child what he can do for himself," Maria Montessori once stated.

The heart of the classroom and curriculum for the first year students is in the practical life and sensorial materials. In working with these materials, guided by the trained Montessori instructor, the students develop their motor skills, master sequential activities, and literally develop their brains through working with their senses. Social skills are important throughout the three years, and begin to blossom when the three-year olds learn what it means to be part of a community.

The second-year and third-year children build upon each previous year becoming leaders and mentors to the younger children. Children learn readily from one another, and the younger ones thrive under the tutelage of the five and six year olds. It is in the second and third years that the children are given more academic lessons.Montessori taught us to move from the concrete to the abstract. For example, we enrich the vocabulary of the young child before asking them to decode the symbols of written language. We allow the child to hold 1000 beads in their hands before understanding that a numeral represents a quantity.

Graduates of the Mariposa Montessori Children’s Houses go on to our elementary program with all the tools they need to succeed. Their confidence and self-reliance set them apart from other students. Their problem-solving skills and their integrity serve them well as they move forward in life. We invite you to schedule an observation in one of our children’s houses to see the Montessori philosophy in action.

Benchmarks for our Primary Program

Benchmarks are a series of skills a student will acquire over the course of their time in a program. One of the key components of the Montessori approach is the 3-year age groupings. Our curriculum is laid out in a three-year schedule as opposed to traditional programs that use an annual plan. These groupings are based on phases of child development and allow us to deemphasize grade levels. We can then respect each student’s own unique path towards mastery. Everyone has their own internal timeline for development and learning. It is normal for children to learn in spurts and have periods of time where the acquisition of certain skills takes precedence over others. Our format allows students the gift of time, while still ensuring they meet state curriculum requirements.

 

Development

  • Lengthening attention span

  • Ease of transition from one activity to another

  • Observation skills; observes others or a lesson

  • Demonstrates community awareness

  • Completes tasks – development of work cycle

  • Shows respect for materials and environment

Language

  • Reading

    • Learns letter sounds

    • Learns phonogram combinations, cvc words, blends and sight words

    • Learns to identify the beginning, middle and ending of a story

    • Able to identify a vowel vs. a consonant

    • Can tell a simple story and follow a train of thought

  • Writing

    • Finger dexterity development is supported through Sensorial and Practical Life work

    • Uses the dynamic tripod grasp when holding a pencil

    • Learns cursive and manuscript writing (all uppercase and lowercase letters)

    • Composes written sentences

    • Introduction to punctuation, applies capitalization and ending punctuation to written work

    • Precision with Metal Insets

Math

  • What we call “pre-math” skills, such as pattern recognition, size differentiation, etc., begin with Practical Life and Sensorial work

  • Introduction to the stamp game, understands exchanging and carrying

  • Understands addition and subtraction facts (strip board or object addition)

  • Reads numbers to the thousands

  • Understanding of the decimal system

  • Use of teens and tens boards

  • Writing equations on paper with operation symbol and answer line

  • Demonstrates understanding of addition and subtraction

  • Uses multiples with all long bead chains

  • Introduction to fractions

  • Count and recognize numbers 1-100 with materials

  • Write numbers 1-10

  • Identify coins and currency

  • Tells time to the hour and half hour

  • Knows the months of the year and the days of the week

Geometry

  • Quadrilaterals and Polygons nomenclature

History/Cultural Studies/Geography

  • Knows their birthday

  • Knows the name of the continents and oceans

  • Planet names and order

  • Familiarity with land and water forms