**Serving The Hudson Valley and Orange County Area*** 
Montgomery Montessori School
"Building a Foundation For Life" & "Nurturing a Love of Learning"
Prek - Kindergarten - Elementary - Upper Class
136 Clinton Street / Mead-Tooker House
Hudson Valley and Orange County Area
Montgomery, NY 12549
ph: (845) 401-9232
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Curriculum
Montessori Environment:
(Click HERE to learn more about the Early Childhood Montessori education by American Montessori Society)
The Montessori environment contains specially designed, manipulative "materials for development" that invite children to engage in learning activities of their own individual choice. Under the guidance of a trained teacher, children in a Montessori classroom learn by making discoveries with the materials, cultivating concentration, motivation, self-discipline, and a love of learning.
Montessori education is a flow experience; it builds on the continuing self-construction of the child—daily, weekly, yearly—for the duration of the program. Although Montessori schools are divided into multi-age classrooms—parent infan, preschool (ages 2.5 to 6), lower and upper elementary (ages 6 to 9 and 9 to 12), and middle school (ages 12 to 14)—the prepared environments introduce an uninterrupted series of learning passages, a continuum.
The prepared environments described in this section, along with their physical dimensions, desired outcomes, and documented results, carefully reflect the natural learning characteristics of the child at each stage of development. In Maria Montessori's metaphorical language, "the successive levels of education must conform to the successive personalities of the child."
The prepared environments and the role of the teacher in the classroom distinguish Montessori from other educational approaches. For example, independent activity constitutes about 80% of the work while teacher-directed activity accounts for the remaining 20%. The reverse percentages are generally true for traditional education. The special environments enable children to perform various tasks which induce thinking about relationships. The prepared environment also offers practical occasions for introducing social relationships through free interaction. The logical, sequential nature of the environment provides orderly structures that guide discovery: Theorems are discovered, not presented; spelling rules are derived through recognition of patterns, not merely memorized. Every aspect of the curriculum involves creative invention and careful, thoughtful analysis. In viewing learning outcomes at each Montessori level, it must be emphasized that why and how students arrive at what they know is just as important as what they know.
PRIMARY EDUCATION:
The Montessori preschool classroom is a "living room" for children. Children choose their work from among the self-correcting materials displayed on open shelves, and they work in specific work areas. Over a period of time, the children develop into a "normalized community," working with high concentration and few interruptions. Normalization is the process whereby a child moves from being undisciplined to self-disciplined, from disordered to ordered, from distracted to focused, through work in the environment. The process occurs through repeated work with materials that captivate the child's attention. For some children this inner change may take place quite suddenly, leading to deep concentration. In the Montessori preschool, academic competency is a means to an end, and the manipulatives are viewed as "materials for development."
ELEMENTARY EDUCATION:
The elementary program offers a continuum built on the preschool experience. The environment reflects a new stage of development and offers the following:
- Presentation of the formal scientific language of zoology, botany, anthropology, geography, geology, etc., exposing the child to accurate, organized information and respecting the child's intelligence and interests.
- The use of timelines, pictures, charts, and other visual aids to provide a linguistic and visual overview of the first principles of each discipline.
- Presentation of knowledge as part of a large-scale narrative that unfolds the origins of the earth, life, human communities, and modern history, always in the context of the wholeness of life.
- A mathematics curriculum presented with concrete materials that simultaneously reveal arithmetic, geometric, and algebraic correlations.
- Emphasis on open-ended research and in-depth study using primary and secondary sources (no textbooks or worksheets) as well as other materials.
MIDDLE SCHOOL/UPPER CLASS EDUCATION:
Unlike the other Montessori age levels, there is at present no international consensus defining Montessori secondary education. What follows is a composite of the programs of several existing Montessori middle schools.
Middle school ushers in a new level of independence, which must be provided for in the Montessori environment by increasing activity from the point of view of work level, choices, and planning. In the middle school, the Great Lessons, timelines, and charts are replaced with overviews of general sequences of learning for which the student becomes responsible in the context of an integrated whole. Within this overview, the student has open time to collaborate on both self-initiated and instructor-initiated projects.
Open time allows for individualized instruction, a natural pace for absorption of material presented for both mastery and emotional understanding, unlimited depth of pursuit based on student interest, and release time to study art, science, music, business, and other topics students choose.
The general premise for the adolescent program is that it must bring into consciousness the moral and world view of the elementary years. Philosophical ideas related to natural history and cultural history now come into play. Great Lessons evolve into great ideas derived from a serious approach to the humanities. For example, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" may be tied to a specific part of American history, but this ideal also has a life in the history of philosophy and literature.
Consistent with the moral relationships stressed in the elementary program, the adolescent can make great cognitive leaps while integrating ideas and values in conjunction with current events, home life, or community activities.
Service programs such as working in a soup kitchen, farming as a community venture, and apprenticeships or mentorships in the workplace are part of an advancing "going out" that gives the adolescent a combined vocational and liberal arts curriculum with a particular emphasis on economic enterprise.
Adolescent programs characteristically have discrete spaces for specialized activities: photo lab, science lab, stage, art room, and lesson rooms all adjacent to open space that unifies the siderooms.
Pinwheels for Peace!
Primary Program
Half Day-8:30AM-11:30PM
Full Day- 8:30AM-3:00PM
Elementary & Middle School
8:30AM-3:00PM
Extended Day
(additional fees apply)
Before Care-7:45AM-8:15AM
After Care- 3:15PM-6:00PM
Enrichment Programs
Art
Music
Movement
Spanish
Class Trips
Cooking
Sewing
Visits to the Library
Community Service
Transportation
Children have to be 5yrs old before December 1st to be eligible for busing through their school district. (within 15 mile radius of MMS).
FAQ
What is the goal of the montessori method of education?
The Montessori method of education is based on the philosophy that children possess a natural curiosity and love of learning. Therefore, the goal of education should not be to simply fill a child with facts, but rather to cultivate his/her own natural desire to learn. A truly educated person continues learning long after the end of formal schooling because he/she is motivated from within--he/she has learned to learn.
Who started the Montessori method?
At the beginning of the 20th century, Dr. Maria Montessori became Italy's first female medical doctor. Using her scientific training in observation, she developed schools for the children of working parents in Rome. In these schools, she created unique materials and a child-centered learning environment. Over 90 years of experience have proven Dr. Montessori's conviction that a child can learn to read, write, and calculate in the same natural way he/she learns to walk. Ladies Home Journal has listed Maria Montessori as one of the 100 Most Important Women of the Century.
What special training do Montessori teachers have?
Montessori teachers must undergo a vigorous training at the post-graduate level that requires several months of coursework and a year-long internship. There are professional development workshops that are ongoing.
How do children adapt to other school environments upon leaving the Montessori environment?
Generally children who have become self-motivated and independent learners carry those traits with them upon moving to higher grades. Many students report the training in social skills and community building experiences to be of utmost value to them as young adults.
Do Montessori schools administer standardized tests?
To understand the Montessori approach is to know that the most important goal for children is not the acquisition of learned skills or information, although children are involved in the learning process and the acquisition of new skills throughout the program. The goals of the method are primarily of a behavioral nature; therefore, they cannot be readily assessed or validated within the standardized testing format.
Montessori students' progress is monitored and evaluated both formally and informally throughout the program. However, in older children's- grade school children- in order to have an additional standard by which to evaluate student progress and curriculum effectiveness, many Montessori schools give a standardized test at the beginning and at the end of each school year.
Montessori students' progress is monitored and evaluated both formally and informally throughout the program. However, in older children's- grade school children- in order to have an additional standard by which to evaluate student progress and curriculum effectiveness, many Montessori schools give a standardized test at the beginning and at the end of each school year.
136 Clinton Street / Mead-Tooker House
Hudson Valley and Orange County Area
Montgomery, NY 12549
ph: (845) 401-9232
alt: VISIT US ON FACEBOOK!
info
