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  Banyan Montessori Academy

Phone: 734-756-8774
Email: shiva@banyanmontessori.com

 

 
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  •  Kindergarten
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Kindergarten Program

KindergartenMontessori is an approach to working with children that is carefully based on what we've learned about children's cognitive, neurological and emotional development from several decades of research. The Montessori approach has been acclaimed as the most developmentally appropriate model currently available by some of America's top experts on Pre-primary through elementary education.

One important difference between what Montessori offers the five-year-old and what is offered by many of today's kindergarten programs has to do with how it helps the young child to learn how to learn.Montessori is focused on teaching for understanding. In a primary classroom, three and four-year-olds receive the benefit of two years of sensorial preparation for academic skills by working with the concrete Montessori learning materials. This concrete sensorial experience gradually allows the child to form a mental picture of concepts like how big is a thousand, how many hundreds make up a thousand, and what is really going on when we borrow or carry numbers in mathematical operations.

Kindergarten, is thus a culminating year of the Primary cycle, provides an extraordinary opportunity for 5 and 6 year olds to develop their leadership skills. Kindergarteners act as positive peer models for their younger classmates, assuming positions of responsibility that further strengthen their own capabilities and self-esteem. Everything that children have learned in previous years comes together in Kindergarten, giving children a readiness to meet new challenges.

Kindergarten Curriculum:

Peace Education

Peace making and conflict resolution are a daily part of the Montessori curriculum. The Peace shelf is full of lovely, interesting and calming objects from around the world, like music boxes, smooth stones, or tiny flowers, for children to touch and hold. There may be a mirror, so children can see how they look when they experience different emotions, and books with peaceful messages. At the Peace Table teachers help children to be good listeners and forge mutually agreeable solutions to conflicts through a peace bear and peace rose. It is also a place where children can choose to go to enjoy a peaceful moment alone.

Grace and Courtesy

In our classrooms, children and adults take care to be gracious toward and courteous of one another. This area of the curriculum encourages respect for oneself, for other members of the community, for the living things in the classroom, and for the environment. Carrying things carefully, returning them to their place so others may use them, moving gracefully and carefully, using polite and respectful language, showing consideration to others, good table manners, properly introducing oneself, and interrupting politely are all part of the lessons in Grace and Courtesy.

Everyday Living

Everyday living activities are central to the Montessori classroom and prepare the child for all other areas. Every day living exercises give children the opportunity to refine their fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, hand strength, balance, concentration and ability to do things for themselves. Through the repetition of Everyday living activities, children develop practical skills that will serve them all their lives. Some of the Primary Everyday Living exercises include Pouring, Lacing, Scooping, Flower Arranging, Food Preparation and Serving, and Table Washing.

Sensorial

Sensorial materials are designed to help children learn about qualities like color, size, shape, length, texture, and sound. 3-6 year olds are increasingly able to make finer and finer discriminations of the many stimuli all around them. Sensorial activities assist children in refining this skill and becoming good observers of the world. Montessori saw the importance of the manipulation of objects to aid the child in better understanding his environment. Through the child’s work with Sensorial material, the child is helped to make abstractions, he is helped in making distinctions in his environment, and the child is given the knowledge not through word of mouth, but through his own experiences. Sensorial materials in the Primary classroom include Knobbed Cylinders for practice with dimension, Color Tablets, Rough and Smooth Boards, Geometric Solids, the Pink Tower, and the Binomial Cube and many more.

Language

Language establishes its significance almost everywhere in the Montessori classroom and crosses all curriculum areas. The young child is introduced to the names of things, and phonics/sounds and letters, while the older child may be beginning to read. Language materials are often tactile, taking advantage of the 3 and 4 year olds sensitivity to learning through touch. Writing often comes early to the Montessori child through the use of concrete materials, like the pre-cut letters of the Moveable Alphabet, that allow the child to express his/her knowledge without needing precise control of a pencil. Language Materials include Sandpaper Letters, Language Objects for initial sounds practice, word and picture Matching Cards, vocabulary building activities and Early Reader books.Children are provided with possibilities to read much advanced readers as well.

Math

Math curriculum uses concrete materials to introduce mathematical concepts in the Montessori classroom. Children build their abstract mathematical reasoning skills on these early concrete experiences. They learn how a numeral represents an amount. They manipulate objects to see concretely operations like addition and subtraction. These exercises cater to children’s developing sense of order, sequence, one-to-one correspondence and directionality. Primary Math activities include Sandpaper Numerals, the Spindle Box for counting, Numerals and Counters, the Hundred Board, Bead Chains, and Golden Beads to introduce the decimal system. Children get familiar and even work on fractions, squaring and cubing with appropriate Montessori Math Materials.

Geography and Cultural studies

Geography and cultural studies is an important part of the Montessori curriculum. The curriculum begins with the two hemispheres of Earth and becomes more and more detailed as children learn about continents, and then countries. The very young child will use the wooden puzzle maps as puzzles, but the older child can use the pieces as a guide as he makes his own maps, labeled with his own handwriting when he/she is ready.this curriculum introduces each continent/country each month and children get to explore the cultural importance (food / clothing etc) of each geographical area.

Science and Nature

Children are introduced to many science and nature topics and learn to make predictions in their Science and Nature activities. The land and water work, introducing the concepts of Lake and Island, is closely connected to the Geography curriculum. Children learn about volcanoes, the layers of the Earth and the solar system. They go on nature walks and then research the leaves, seed or flowers they have found. They learn to classify things, predict the results of experiments and test their predictions. The Science and Nature curriculum is designed not only to help children discover facts, but to honor the sense of wonder they have about the world. Activities include Sink or Float, Living or Non-Living, Magnetic or Non-Magnetic, Land and Water Forms, the Structure of the Earth and Botany.

Spanish

Toddler, Pre- Primary and Kindergarten children are exposed to the sounds and rhythms of the Spanish language through games, songs, and activities. Lessons initially include counting, colors, and basic vocabulary.

Music

Toddlers, Pre-Primary and Kindergarten children enjoy Music classes. Concepts such as beat, meter, rhythm, tempo, and pitch recognition become internalized as children develop the ability to listen to, discover, and understand rhythmic and harmonic elements. 2nd year primary students and Kindergarteners also participate in Eurhythmics classes, with a concentration on movement, encourage children to feel and enjoy music through physical activities. Students regularly demonstrate their performance skills for the entire school community in performances.

Physical Education

Toddlers, Pre-Primary and Kindergarten children benefit from movement, cooperative games, teamwork, and athletic skills. Each child has an opportunity to grow and excel as an individual and as a member of a group through a variety of games and athletic activities.

Community Service

Children learn about our responsibility to the community at large and learn from their experiences with others. As a school with parent involvement and child awareness we raise funds to support any needed child during the holiday season, and children help to buy and gift wrap gifts. The school also supports Cancer fund raisers where students sell books, lemonade etc to raise funds. We conduct fund raisers to help educate underprivileged children.
6215 Canton Center Rd, Suite 305, Canton, MI 48187. Phone: 734-756-8774. Email: shiva@banyanmontessori.com

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