What is Montessori?

Montessori is a philosophy with the fundamental tenet that a child learns best within a social environment, which supports each individual's unique development.

What Makes Montessori Education Unique?

The Whole Child Approach: The primary goal of a Montessori program is to help each child reach full potential in all areas of life. Activities promote the development of social skills, emotional growth, and physical coordination as well as cognitive preparation. The holistic curriculum, under the direction of a specially prepared teacher, allows the child to experience the joy of learning, time to enjoy the process and insure the development of self-esteem, and provides the experiences from which children create their knowledge. The Prepared Environment: In order for self-directed learning to take place, the whole learning environment room, materials and social climate must be supportive of the learner. The teacher provides necessary resources, including opportunitites for children to function in a safe and positive climate. The teacher thus gains the children's trust, which enables them to try new things and build self-confidence. The Montessori Materials: Dr. Montessori's observations of the kinds of things which children enjoy and go back to repeatedly led her to design a number of multisensory, sequential and self-correcting materials which facilitate the learning of skills and lead to learning of abstract ideas. The Teacher: The Montessori teacher functions as designer of the environment, resource person, role model, demonstrator, record-keeper and meticulous observer of each child's behavior and growth. Extensive Montessori Certification training is specialized for the age group with which a teacher will work.

How can a "Real" Montessori Classroom be Identified?

Since Montessori is a word in the public domain, it is possible for any individual or institution to claim to be Montessori. But, an authentic Montessori classroom must have these basic characteristics: Teachers educated in the Montessori philosophy and methodology for the age level they are teaching, who have the ability and dedication to put the key concepts into practice. A partnership established with the family. The family is considered an integral part of the individual's total development. A multi-aged, multi-graded heterogeneous grouping of students. A diverse set of Montessori materials, activities and experiences, which are designed to foster physical, intellectual, creative and social independence. A schedule which allows large blocks of time to problem-solve, to see connections in knowledge and to create new ideas. A classroom atmosphere, which encourages social interaction for cooperative learning, peer teaching and emotional development.

How is a Montessori environment set up?

At Coleman Montessori Center the specially designed materials are displayed on low open shelves and children can select what interests them. They learn to complete what they begin and clean up afterwards. Thus allows for a work cycle to evolve. This also allows each child to become self-directed, learn responsibility and progress at his/her own pace. Each child works from his/her own free choice and is allowed a large measure of independence. This forms the basis of self-discipline. As each child progresses at his/her own pace and successfully completes chosen work, he/she develops confidence in his/her abilities. Montessori certified teachers serve to present materials to the children by introducing new concepts and "lessons." Montessori certified teachers also carefully observe the progress of each child and keep a detailed record of his/her activities and development.

Open Registration for 2009-2010

Coleman Montessori Center is accepting enrollments for 2009-2010 school year. Coleman Montessori Center welcome our community to a friendly tour of our school. This is an opportunity to meet the Head of School and teaching staff, and see what a Montessori school has to offer for your child, family and community. Please call 315-222-6943 for more information and to schedule your tour of our school.

Mathematics

The Montessori Primary Mathematics program makes use of manipulative materials that allow children to better internalize concept of number, symbol, sequence and operations. The emphasis is on using manipulatives to give the child a concrete foundation for the abstract math work he/she will do in later years.

Below is a picture of the Montessori Primary Preschool Mathematics materials: number rods, sandpaper numerals, spindle boxes, short bead stair, numbers and counters, and skittles -working with fractions. In the preschool level, the children combine the material, separate it, share it, count it and compare it, as they demonstrate to themselves the basic operation of mathematics. In our Montessori Primary Kindergarten Mathematics program, there are many Montessori materials that can be used for the mathematical operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The children of Coleman Montessori Center learn their operational facts by performing the operations with concrete materials. In the mathematics center, children begin by learning the concept of quantities 1-10 with the number rods as shown below. One of our students is working with the sandpaper numerals. She is learning the names of the numerals 0-9 by recognizing their written form.

The student below is working with the golden bead system on quantities 11-19. The teen boards show the student how to form the numerals 11-19.

The students are exploring the concept of fractions (a whole, 1/2, 1/3, and 1/4).

Hands-on learning of the concept of Addition. Below the student is working with the larger numeral cards and quanitites of the decimal system (100, 200, 300, 400-900).

Hands-on learning of the concept of multiplication.

Language Arts

Language Arts include oral language development, written expression, reading, grammar, and children's literature. Reading and writing skills are developed through the use of sandpaper letters, moveable alphabets and various presentations allowing children to link sounds and letter symbols effortlessly and to express their thought in writing.

At Coleman Montessori Center, each letter is introduced by its phonetic sound. As a child learns each phonetic sound of the alphabet, it is placed in his phonetic alphabet book and reviewed daily as shown below. In the picture below, a student is working with the sandpaper letter r. He is learning the formation of the letter symbol for the phonetic sound r. Sight words are introduced in Montessori Language Arts. In the picture below, a student is receiving a presentation of sight words with a control of error. After a student has been presented with a lesson of sight words, the sight words learned are written on red paper in black ink and placed in the child's sight word box to be reviewed daily.

The student below is working on the Pink Material which focus on 3-letter phonetic words.