29 Oct Pre-Primary Preschool Program
(2 years – 3.5 years)
Pre-Primary Preschool Program (2 years – 3.5 years)
Pre-Primary Preschool Program
Our Montessori preschool program for children ages 2 – 3.5 years provides the building blocks for the primary years, kindergarten and beyond. In age-appropriate, Montessori prepared classrooms preschool children are introduced to the five Montessori learning areas with hands-on, tactile learning experiences. While we take a personalized approach so that each student advances at their own pace, some baseline learning activities children in our program engage in by Montessori learning areas include:
- Practical Life: Introduction to and practice with basic movements such as carrying, pouring, scooping, folding, wiping and social development through grace and courtesy.
- Sensorial: Exposure to hands-on manipulative materials to engage all five senses. Students begin to distinguish between items based on features such as size or color.
- Geography/Culture: Introduction to the concept of earth, air, and water. Discussions on care for animals and their environment.
- Mathematics: Introduction of shapes and spatial relationships, pre-counting and counting activities and the introduction of sandpaper numbers.
- Language Arts: Introduction to the sounds of letters and sandpaper letters, consistent naming of objects/people/places, using songs, poems and stories to engage students.
Pre-Primary Preschool Program Available At:
Enrichment Programs
Spanish/Chinese
Lessons develop vocabulary and word phrases as well as an appreciation for the culture of the countries where the language is spoken
Music
Lessons combine singing and movement with music fundamentals
Yoga
Lessons provide fine and gross motor development combined with traditional and modified yoga poses
Library
Reinforces classroom learning through literature enrichment, exposure to multiple authors and writing styles
Enrichment Activities
The Pre-Primary Program participates in 2-3 fields trips and 3-5 outreach programs each year.
The purpose of these programs are to enrich and teach our students about culture, hygiene, science, our physical environment, etc.
Outreach programs that we have welcomed in the past include The Maryland Zoo, Maryland Science Center, Young Audiences, Howard County Recycling, Pickering Creek Wildlife Reserve, various dental offices, and Mr. Science.
Past trips have included Pump It Up, Toby’s Dinner Theatre, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Clarks Farm, The Maryland Zoo, and Port Discovery in Baltimore.
Daily Schedule
9:00 – 9:30 am – Circle Time
- Opening greeting, pledge and songs
- Calendar, weather, and/or current events discussion
- Circle time activities involve group/individual participation, teacher demonstration/presentation of Montessori learning activities that the student may later choose during individual work time
- Various activities requiring child/group participation, reinforce/review
- Phonetic sounds and math concepts
- Stories, songs, poems, creative movement, finger plays, and group games
9:30 am – 12:00 pm – Individual Work
- Floor work choices involve the use of a mat to define the student’s work area
- There are “hands on” manipulation of the Montessori learning equipment and other supplemental activities, of which, most are self-correcting by design
- Table work choices involve the use of trays to define the student’s work areas and work focuses on practicing small muscle skills by cutting, pasting, sorting, pouring, punching outlines, grating and water activities
- Both floor work and table work activities encompass the five basic areas of learning:
Practical Life
Students learn to care for the environment, learn self development skills such as buttoning, zipping, pouring liquids, etc. Students also begin to use social development through grace and courtesy
Sensorial
Heightens the child’s sense of sight, touch, sound, taste and smell; hands-on manipulative materials allow the child to distinguish, categorize and compare the concrete elements of height and order
Language
Phonics-based curriculum provides every child with“sounds” necessary to link letters to make words, the words to make sentences. Using simple alphabet cut-outs and sandpaper letters students are able to effortlessly link sounds, symbols, their shapes, and their written formation
Mathematics
Understanding of the basic mathematical operation of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division through the use of manipulative materials such as rods, beads, sandpaper numerals, cubes, cards, and counters allows the students to visualize the abstraction of numbers
Cultural Studies
(Geography, History, Science, Art, Foreign Language and Music): Children learn about people, their countries and the world through holiday celebrations, cultural observations, maps, flags, food, music, and pictures. Science activities and topics include differentiation between living and non-living things as well as between animals and plants (botany, zoology, ecology, etc.)
- Integrated half-hour of recess
12:00 – 1:00 pm – Lunch
1:00 – 2:45 pm – Rest/Silent Reading
*Integrated half-hour of recess
2:45 – 5:45 pm – Enrichment in half-hour blocks
- Music & Movement
- Recess
- Gross Motor Games
- Makerspace
- Arts & Crafts