Welcome to Mission Viejo Montessori!

The Montessori philosophy has several important aspects:

• Young minds are absorbent minds: children absorb everything around them
• Children grow in three-year planes of development –birth-3 yrs: children develop basic skills of living; 3-6 yrs: children refine those skills; 6-9 yrs: children develop new skills as they start to explore their world; 9-12 yrs: children refine their new skills and so on to adulthood
• Children go through sensitive periods in their development when their minds are particularly sensitive to learning certain skills
• Children have a natural need for order, repetition, and practice with concrete exercises before moving to abstract concepts
• Prepared teachers who are trained not only for the use of the materials, but are also prepared to give children respect, empower them to learn in their way, nurture their spirit through kindness and love, and give them time to absorb and investigate the world around them
• The prepared environment is ready for the children to begin the learning process by drawing them to the materials. All materials are designed to foster concentration, coordination, independence, a sense of order, responsibility, and of course the particular skill being taught. The materials are grouped into 5 curriculum areas including Practical Life, Sensorial Exercises, Language Arts, Mathematics, and Cultural Arts.

Practical Life: training for basic skills that are “practical for life” –

• Movements of everyday life – walking, sitting, balancing, carrying objects, using utensils, pouring, folding
• Household applications – polishing, setting tables, flower arranging, cleaning, food preparation
• Caring for oneself – cleanliness, dressing, grooming
• Caring for one’s environment – care for animals, plants, indoor and outdoor areas
• Practicing Social Relations –lessons in patience, grace, and courtesy to learn greeting others, asking for things, appropriate ways to get attention, using manners

Sensorial Exercises: training the 5 senses –

• The Visual Sense – color, shape, size
• The Tactile Sense – textures: smooth/rough, pressures: soft/hard, weights: light/heavy, temperatures: hot/cold/warm/cool
• The Olfactory Sense – noting differences in various scents
• The Gustatory Sense – noting difference in various tastes
• The Auditory Sense – noting differences in various sounds & musical instruments

Cultural Arts:

• Zoology – the study of animals
• Botany – the study of plants
• Geography – land and water forms (island/lake, gulf/peninsula, cape/bay, strait/isthmus, archipelago/chain of lakes) globes, puzzle maps
• Geology – rocks and minerals, erosion, volcanoes
• History – time: days, months, seasons, years, age, the beginning of the planet, the timeline of life on earth, the development of humans, the needs of humans
• Science – buoyancy; magnetism; solids, liquids, and gases;
• Art – colors, drawing, various mediums and materials, creativity, process art
• Music – sounds, instruments, and creating music
• Dramatic Play – pretending, watching and listening, acting, performing

Mathematics:

• Counting – counting aloud, counting objects
• Numeral recognition (the symbols of 1, 2, 3…) and numeral to number correspondence (symbol and quantity association of 1=*, 2=* *, 3= * * *, …)
• Concept of 0
• The decimal system: units, tens, hundreds, thousands
• Operations: addition, multiplication, subtraction, division
• Elementary level mathematics work
  • Time
  • Fractions
  • Money
  • Measurement
  • Graphing
  • Geometry

Language Arts: speaking and listening, reading exercises, writing exercises –

• Vocabulary development
• Public speaking – sharing stories
• Sound-symbol association – sandpaper letters
  • Encoding – beginning, middle, and ending sounds, spelling
  • Decoding – reading short vowel words, long vowel words, blends, diagraphs, and special sounds
• Writing – hand-eye coordination, holding a pencil, tracing metal insets, tracing letter shapes, drawing, writing one’s name, writing words
• Elementary level language arts work
  • Grammar, mechanics, word study
  • Reading comprehension and reading various kinds of texts
  • Creative writing
  • Research projects