Curriculum for the Montessori School

Our goal is "to guide the full potential of each child through experiential learning, within an environment that offers beauty, order, structure, creativity, and an opportunity for real accomplishment." At Casa Maria Montessori School, we encourage freedom with responsibility and respect for self and others.

Our early education philosophy is based on the child-centered approach of Dr. Maria Montessori. It allows children the freedom to explore and experience activities in a prepared environment (in "an orderly, well-planned, multi-sensory child space") where they may grow in wonder, discovering the great and ordinary secrets of the Universe.

In the Montessori learning environment, the children choose activities from five learning areas. Two rooms are prepared so that children can pursue activities that introduce practical daily living skills, enhance sensorial awareness, and provide hands on experiences in math, language, history, geography, biology, and other sciences. Self-expression and cultural tradition are encouraged and explored through the arts.

After children are introduced to an activity, they are free to select work in any area. They may continue as long as they wish and are encouraged to finish their work and put it completely away before they start something else.

Daily experiences in music and folk songs, along with practical application of the language, give children the advantage of learning a second language at an age when they can do it most easily.

After twenty years of teaching in public and private schools, the Director Gail Longo adopted the Montessori approach to education "because of the way it supports the individual potential of each child".

The school environment invites children to expand their abilities, make connections and see relationships. Children learn skills for practical living and environmental responsibility.

We provide outdoor play and environmental education in our outdoor area with planting and harvesting experiences.

In addition, the location in the high school also offers us the chance to work with other departments, learning with the high students in area such as horticulture, art, drama, and music.

The curriculum covers five areas of learning that flow easily into one another. The basic Montessori curriculum materials allow for individual differences in the mental, physical, social, and spiritual growth processes.

These five areas are:

Sensorial - Through hands-on experiments with special materials, children refine the five senses. They encounter specific aspects of shape, weight, color, texture, length, width, temperature, taste, smell, sound, etc., and discover how to name, sort, classify, arrange in order, and describe sensory impressions.

Mathematics - Hands-on materials help internalize number concepts forming the bridge to abstract operations. Children explore the decimal system and concepts in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The worldwide metric standard for measurement in math and science is traditionally introduced using Montessori metric materials.

Language - Children are read to often and listen to real-life stories told by teachers and guests about lives of others, various places, and the secrets of the world of nature. Language materials are used to develop basic skills linking sounds with symbols. Individual expression is encouraged in creative writing, reading, and drama.

Cultural - Includes geography, history, life sciences, literature, foreign language (Italian), music, art, and creative movement. Life sciences are a rich focus at Casa Maria Montessori School.

Originating at Casa Maria Montessori School is the "Discovering Italy" curriculum, in which children experience Italy through activities in language, music, dance, stories, books, and food. Casa Maria Montessori School provides daily voice and movement activities (in Italian, Chinese, and English), enhanced by an exceptional music program with Joseph Weisnewski, which features appreciation of music, composers, and instruments from around the world. Children also perform at Festa Italiana annually. Tarantella at Festa Italiana 2001

Members of a growing circle of professionals who are committed to sharing their knowledge in all five curriculum areas with the children of Casa Maria Montessori School are occasional guests of the school. Three Montessori teachers act as gentle guides presenting activities in all five learning areas. Both function as a team. At the close of each school day, they exchange ideas, discuss their observations, and note the progress of each child. For more information about our teachers, please see the faculty/staff page.

The children at the MMLCC work on their gardening skills in Ballard High School’s Horticulture Department. In the Spring, the children reactivate a worm bin by feeding their food scraps from snack. The rich black soil provided by the worms is added to the soil dug up by the high school students to create a bed for Scarlet Runner bean seeds. The children plant the seeds in late May. Over the summer the beans grow and grow...quite as high as Jack´s beanstalk, but tall enough to cover one section of our playground fence. By then, the children go out and hunt for the bean pods among the runners and the scarlet flowers. The Seattle Tilth (http://www.seattletilth.org/) judges the beans for the Tilth’s Organic Harvest Fair in September.