The 5 Activity Areas

Our classrooms are divided into 5 activity areas in accordance with the Montessori philosophy and method. This is called the Prepared Environment.

Practical Life Skills – These exercises act as a bridge between home and school. With child-sized equipment the children learn to clean, polish, wash, pour, tweeze, sieve and dress themselves, with a view to becoming independent, responsible individuals. The activities increase dexterity and hand-eye co-ordination, develop the children’s self-esteem, and increase their concentration span, which is essential for future learning.

Sensory Education – The specially designed and mathematically precise tactile materials helps to develop the five senses and teaches children to discriminate, match, contrast and grade with each of their senses, in order to gain a greater perception of their environment. The Sensory materials offer an indirect preparation for mathematics and help create mental order.

Language – Reading and writing is introduced at an early age by building our student’s phonemic awareness. The children learn the sounds of letters imprinted as sandpaper characters, which develops a “muscular memory.” Our system does not require children to learn by rote but utilizes all the senses to help them decode words and develop phonemic awareness. Children read and write with proper understanding, check their pronunciation and spell accurately. We also introduce the basics of French and sign language.

Mathematics – The children are provided with concrete experiences where they are given objects to hold, count and manipulate, before being introduced to abstract concepts. At our school, children are introduced to counting up to and beyond 10, the decimal system, simple arithmetic computations, addition and subtraction. They are also introduced to the concepts of fractions, measuring quantity and distance, reading time and exercises in non-verbal reasoning.

Cultural Subjects – these core subjects are fundamental to our environment and include history, geography, science, art, music and yoga. In addition to daily music classes we offer 45 minute professional group music lessons once a week. Enriched art lessons include the history of art where children learn about the masters from around the world.

Please visit the photo gallery to get a glimpse of the activities included within our program.