Young children take in a tremendous amount of information from their environment with what Maria Montessori called "the absorbent mind." Our Children's House preschool and kindergarten program provides an enriching hands-on learning experience with specially formulated Montessori materials for math, language, sensorial exploration, practical life activities, art, science, and geography.

Making choices and using coordinated movements to accomplish tasks leads the child toward self-regulation and self-control. Children develop observation and problem-solving skills. By manipulating, experimenting, and discovering, children begin to move from the concrete to the abstract as they prepare for the more complex studies of the Inly elementary program.

Children are learning language long before entering the Montessori classroom. By using their senses as tools, children absorb information about their language. During the first two years of Children's House, students prepare themselves for language study by working in the practical life and sensorial areas with materials that refine auditory, oral, visual, and sensory/motor skills which are necessary for writing and reading in the third year. Language spans every other area as an integrated source of preparation for a well-planned approach to further learning.

Auditory preparation
• Conversational speech
• Identifying and discriminating sounds
• Storytelling
• Sequencing
• Repetition
• Poetry
• Rhymes and finger plays
• Listening skills and comprehension

Visual preparation
• Recognizing patterns
• Matching and sorting

Motor preparation
• Eye-to-hand coordination
• Strengthening of the hand
• Handwriting
     Manuscript
     Introduction to cursive in the third year

Analysis
• Phonogram sounds
• Blends

Reading on word level
• Phonics
• Reading in context

Correct expression
• Vocabulary of objects, attributes, and actions
• Informal discussion

Function of words
• Beginning writing
• Introduction of noun identification
• Introduction of verb identification
 

Maria Montessori proposed that logical thought stems from the human mind's ability to organize and categorize. The aim of the math curriculum at the Children’s House level is to help students develop their thought processes, not to simply teach math facts at an early age. With hands-on materials, students begin to understand the concrete through manipulation, experimentation, and invention, which prepares them for abstract study at the elementary level.

Numbers 0-10
Goals: Establish numbers one to ten. Understand quantity and sequence of numbers using manipulatives. Establish recognition of numerical symbols. Learn relationship of quantity to symbol.

• Number rods and cards
• Set baskets
• Spindle boxes
• Sandpaper numbers
• Cards and counters

Decimal System
Goals: Understand the concept of base ten. Learn composition of numbers, including place value and equivalencies.

• Introduction tray
• Tray of nine
• Golden Bead (or 45) layout
• Numeral
• Bead and numeral layout
• Number fetching
• Bank game

Numbers 11-99
Goals: Ability to recognize teens and tens.

• Bead stair
• Teens’ board
• Tens’ board (or 45) layout

Linear Counting
Goals: Develop ability to recognize and count to any number. Learn skip counting.

• Hundred board
• 100 (square) chains
• 1000 (cube) chains (or 45) layout

Operations
Goal: Provide a concrete introduction to the four basic arithmetic operations. Moves into abstract work with operations.

• Golden Beads

o Addition
o Multiplication
o Subtraction
o Division

• Stamp Game

o Addition
o Multiplication
o Subtraction
o Division

• Bead Board

o Multiplication
o Division

• Bead Frame

Continued Operations/Passage to Abstraction

• Addition

o Snake game
o Addition strip board
o Addition charts

• Multiplication

o Bead bars
o Multiplication boards
o Multiplication charts

• Subtraction

o Negative snake game
o Subtraction strip board
o Subtraction charts

• Fractions

o Names (wholes-ninths)

• Money

o Denominations

Geometry

• Geometric solids
• Geometry cabinet

o Regular polygons
o Quadrilaterals
o Triangles
o Circles
o Curved figures

The science materials live in the cultural studies area in a Children's House classroom. Maria Montessori had a unique way of defining cultural studies-she incorporated the specific areas of history, geography, physical sciences, botany, and zoology into the studies within this area. These components support Montessori's strong belief in the need for global education. Exploration and inquiry are encouraged by fostering and nurturing the young child's curiosity. By exploring in the cultural studies area the child defines his individual spirit as well as a sense of wonder of people and the world.

Life Science
• Botany-plant care, tree and leaf studies, flowers, gardening
• Zoology-animal husbandry, animals kingdoms, vertebrate/invertebrate

Physical Science
• Magnetism
• Sink and float

Earth Science
• Weather/seasons

Scientific Reasoning and Technology
• Observation skills

The Spanish program is designed to enable students to speak and write their basic thoughts and questions in a second language. The curriculum utilizes a combination of speaking, writing, and activities that are often based on music, art or Total Physical Response. Students learn to express themselves in a second language environment that promotes confidence and creativity.

Skills:

• Vocabulary
• Numbers
• Games and songs
• Questions and answers
   

The Children's House classroom integrates cultural studies through literature, activities, and materials. Maria Montessori had a unique way of defining cultural studies-she incorporated the specific areas of history, geography, physical sciences, botany, and zoology into the studies within this area. These components support Montessori's strong belief in the need for global education. Exploration and inquiry are encouraged by fostering and nurturing the young child's curiosity. By exploring in the cultural studies area the child defines his individual spirit as well as a sense of wonder of people and the world.

The Practical Life curriculum is the cornerstone of the Montessori method. Its goals span the three-year age cycle, providing practical experience in everyday activities. These activities not only teach physical skills, but also prepare the children for subsequent or concurrent work in mathematics, language, and socialization. The necessity of making choices and using coordinated movements to accomplish a task leads the child toward self-regulation and independence. The ultimate lesson, however, is concentration-without it, nothing else is possible.

Physical Skills
• Elementary movements
     Pulling out a chair, carrying a tray
• Gross and fine motor skills
• Use of activities that promote concentration, coordination, independence, and order

Respect and care of environment
• Indoor and outdoor
• Recycling

Grace, courtesy, and etiquette
• Caring about others
• Problem solving
• Conflict resolution
• Peace table

Independence
• Care of person
• Health and safety
• Nutrition and food preparation

Community Service
• Developing an awareness of needs of others
• Participating in several service projects throughout the school year

Sensorial Work

The Sensorial Curriculum is the key to knowledge in the Montessori classroom. It builds on the foundation of the Practical Life Curriculum and prepares the way for children to progress into academic work through development of observation and problem-solving skills. The sensorial materials are designed to develop and refine skills that help young children learn how to think, reason, make distinctions, make judgements and decisions, observe, compare, and better appreciate their world. This is the beginning of conscious knowledge. Students learn to distinguish and differentiate physical properties through:

Auditory learning
• Sound

Visual learning
• Color
• Size
• Shape
• Gradation

Tactile learning
• Texture
• Weight

Olfactory learning

Gustatory learning

The Inly visual arts program seeks to foster creativity, problem solving, and self-expression as it relates to each child's level of development from toddler to middle school. Art lessons use a variety of auditory, kinesthetic, and visual components. Students are encouraged to experience the art process as each concept is presented utilizing a variety of 2-D and 3-D materials to help them truly absorb and understand the lesson's objectives. Lessons include drawing, painting, sculpture, collage making, and print making.

Students will recognize and understand concepts of line/shape/form:
• how a connection of point becomes a line,
• how a 2-D shape becomes a 3-D shape-as in sculpture,
• how a closed line of points becomes a line-showing movement, edges, and
• expressing feelings.

Students will recognize and understand concepts of color:
• color terms and definitions: hue, value, shade, chroma, primary, secondary, and intermediate colors,
• monochromatic/complementary colors, and
• color wheel: the colors and sequences.

Students will recognize and understand concepts of texture:
• surface variations-implied or actual markings,
• sense varying texture by touch and sight,
• describe textures with words, and
• create a variety of textures.

Students will recognize and understand basic patterns of organization:
• repetition/pattern,
• sequence, and
• universal basic structures: radial, spiral, dendritic/branching, orbital, gradient, mosaic, modular chain, grid, waves closure, symmetry, and rhythm.

Students will recognize whole-to-part relationships:
• process of reduction of whole to parts,
• process of construction of parts to a whole,
• grouping by similarities and differences, and
• spatial awareness-positive and negative space.

Students will recognize and understand the processes of change:
• sequential process,
• abstraction,
• relationships between objects and symbols before and after change occurs,
• transformation, and
• cycles of nature and time.

The music curriculum combines individual and group work with work designed to appeal to a variety of learning styles. This directly relates to our philosophy of enhancing the Montessori philosophy with other innovative methods. The music curriculum also offers significant opportunities to build community through our numerous performances, field trips, and assemblies.

Understand tempo
• Keep a steady beat
• Matching pitch
• Singing in unison
• Introduction to aspects of drama

The ultimate goal of the Inly movement arts program is to assist all children along the path to lifetime physical fitness, which is also in line with our holistic philosophy. The benefits of this journey are many: health, longevity, positive body image, improved overall self-esteem, and increased energy and concentration in all areas. All students from toddler to middle school participate regularly in movement arts classes and activities.

Movement arts at Inly embraces the philosophy of the school as a whole. The program, at each level, is responsive to the needs and interests of the children, and the ultimate goal is the joyful discovery of movement and its benefits, both physical and psychological.

Inly movement arts seeks to benefit ALL children, not just those with particular interest or talent in this area. Volumes have been written about the connection between body image and overall self-esteem, as well as the dangers of introducing children to competitive sports at an early age. Care is taken to keep the emphasis on fitness and fun, as opposed to individual superiority of skills.

Skills
• Basic locomotor and axial movement activities
• Creative self-expression through movement
• Basic manipulative skills with movement props
 

All Children's House students visit the Inly library on a twice monthly basis. During their visits, they select books to bring home and often enjoy stories read to them by a parent volunteer or the librarian. Skills stressed during the three years in Children's House are as follows:

Skills

• How to treat a book-open, close, and carry properly
• Have the responsibility for returning library books
• Understand the roles of the author and the illustrator
• Grace and courtesy in the library
• The role of the librarian
• Knowing the location of picture books, beginner readers, animal and nature books, dictionaries

Technology

Children's House students are exposed to the computer in their classrooms and begin to understand its function. They hear their teachers identify the most basic parts of the computer -mouse, monitor, and keyboard. The students may choose to use a simple program and print a page of their work, but there is no formal requirement for computer skills at the Children's House level.

All Children's House students visit the Inly library on a twice monthly basis. During their visits, they select books to bring home and often enjoy stories read to them by a parent volunteer or the librarian. Skills stressed during the three years in Children's House are as follows:

Skills

• How to treat a book-open, close, and carry properly
• Have the responsibility for returning library books
• Understand the roles of the author and the illustrator
• Grace and courtesy in the library
• The role of the librarian
• Knowing the location of picture books, beginner readers, animal and nature books, dictionaries

Click here for the Summer Reading List.