A fascinating world awaits a young child in the classrooms of Montessori Children’s Academy. The tables and chairs are child-sized, and the materials are all within easy reach of young bodies and laid out in an organized, inviting arrangement. Flowers, shells, fossils, a classroom pet, are abundantly available to study and explore.
There are easels on which to draw, child-sized kitchen implements for preparing snacks and reading corners with armchairs and a tantalizing array of picture books. There are activities to help a child practice buttoning, zipping, snapping, tying shoelaces, and other skills needed for dressing, and activities to help the child develop fine motor skills needed for writing.
Children can stretch out on mats as they use beads and rods for expressing quantities, sandpaper letters for exploring the alphabet, and blocks, color cards, bells, and other materials for stimulating their senses and investigating sequences and patterns. Children learn to choose their activities appropriately, and they become absorbed in their work.
While many activities take place simultaneously in the classrooms, the atmosphere is tranquil as the children find deep satisfaction in successfully completing their work. The child learns independence, self-motivation, and self-discipline, providing a strong foundation for the Elementary years.
MCA classrooms have Spanish language materials throughout. Additionally, each classroom has one staff member who only speaks in Spanish while the other staff member(s) speak in English. This ensures a true “Immersion” into the Spanish language. Given the competitive nature of the work environment throughout the world, learning more than one language assures your child will have a competitive edge over another candidate when seeking a future job.
The students practice meditation and peacetime every day. It teaches them coping skills for stress that they are sure to encounter throughout their life. They love it and even like to show off the skills they have learned at home. It is a very exciting and important part of our curriculum.
Healthy lifestyle training should start in childhood to promote improved cardiovascular health in adult life. The following good health practices should be promoted among children:
MCA students have Physical Education once a week to ensure our students are making good exercise habits from an early age. For more information on the importance of Physical Education for children please visit this link.
Play provides the ultimate curriculum for social, physical, and cognitive advancement. Secondly, by using materials, interactions with others, and mastery of tasks and skills to progress through levels of play, children develop a sense of control of their environment and a feeling of competence and enjoyment that they can learn. Finally, play provides a natural integration between all the critical brain functions and learning domains that are often missing with discrete teacher instruction. Recent brain research shows that this integration is very important to development (Shore, 1997). Play is also a very effective way for children to accumulate a vast amount of basic knowledge about the world around them, knowledge needed for later learning in language, math, science, social studies, art, and medicine. When playing with sticks in the sand a child learns about the properties of sand, how posts are used for building, the way materials must be retained from rivers, roads, and mountainsides, the effect of moisture on materials, the impact of wind and the nature of gravity, and ways of creating patterns, shapes, and lines by drawing in the sand. A child playing with tadpoles in a pond learns about the cycle of life, the properties of water including sinking and floating, the effect of cold water on the body’s thermal system, and concepts related to water safety and drowning. Children engaged in socio-dramatic play experiment with words, phrases, and idioms they have heard and learn new and more complex ways to express themselves.
Creative Movement is a joyful way for children to explore movement through music, develop physical skills, channel energy, stimulate imagination and promote creativity. Creative movement uses body actions to: communicate an image (the wind), communicate an idea (a journey) or communicate a feeling (strength).
Creative Movement provides children with opportunities for noncompetitive, success-oriented, and creative experiences.
Through movement, children learn about their bodies, the space around them, and each other. Creative movement activities should encourage all children to participate. Both boys and girls enjoy these classes. All children can benefit, including children with communication, sensory, developmental, or physical challenges.
Creative Movement is a way for children to know themselves and to see connections with the rest of the world. This is a way for them to understand themselves and their relationship with the world. Creative Movement activities can be used to enhance all areas of learning and growth. Many additional benefits can come from creative movement.
Movement is one of the first forms of communication. From infancy, children love to move. Just watch the reaction of a young child when he hears music, an instrument playing, or someone clapping. He responds to the sounds with motion, whether it’s swaying, rocking, clapping, or kicking his feet. Sheer delight is almost instantaneous. Developing that innate creativity is dependent on early influences. Creative movement enhances movement development that occurs between ages two and seven. During these ages, locomotor (creeping, walking, jumping, leaping, etc.), non-locomotor (stretching, bending, twisting, shaking, etc.), and stability and balance skills are able to flourish when children are provided with practice opportunities.