Shepherdstown Montessori
Our curriculum is divided into four core areas of study: Practical Life, Sensorial, Language, and Mathematics.
Practical Life
The exercises in Practical Life help your child establish independence, concentration, and coordination. Your child will develop fine and gross motor skills through activities such as pouring, scooping, sorting, and polishing. The variety of practical life activities offered facilitate each child’s natural tendency toward order and sequence. Children learn how to care for themselves and their environment through related activities such as buttoning, zipping, sweeping, and maintaining a clean work area. Children are first introduced to the Montessori work cycle and develop socialization skills through the practical life curriculum. Lessons learned in this area are the foundation for all other areas of the curriculum.
Sensorial
Many of the materials in the sensorial curriculum were created by Dr. Montessori herself in order to promote the discrimination and refinement of a child’s senses. These materials such as the Pink Tower, Sound Cylinders, Brown Stair, and Knobbed Cylinders, provide many opportunities for a child to make distinctions between size, shape, sound, form, weight, and dimension. The child further develops his ability to visually discriminate as he sorts, grades, and matches. The materials help build a mathematical mind and prepare for musical and scientific analysis.
Language
The Montessori language curriculum helps each child develop the basic skills required for verbal communication, reading and writing. The activities begin with phonetic based learning and progress through whole language and writing activities. Some of the materials included within the curriculum include the Montessori Sandpaper Letters for developing a tactile and visual awareness of each letter’s shape and sound, the Movable Alphabet for building words, phrases, and sentences, and the Metal Insets for developing pencil control.
Mathematics
These materials are concrete manipulatives that promote basic mathematical skills, concepts and operations. Children learn to associate the quantity and symbol and place value, which prepares them for more abstract mathematical concepts such as addition, subtraction, division and multiplication.
Geography
The materials provide for exploration of the physical world and the cultural aspects of the world’s people. The children experience maps, stories, songs and foreign languages that give them a realistic feel for the cultures around them.
Science
These lessons allow your child to explore the world through observations, experimentation and research. Throughout the year, the children will explore a variety of different topics, including the parts of plants and animals, living versus non-living creatures, weather systems, space, and local flora and fauna. Engaging in these activities enables each child to learn more about the world around them. They discover their world’s intricate parts through hands-on activities both inside and outside the classroom.
Forest Fridays
In addition to the above, Shepherdstown Montessori has partnered with the Potomac Audubon Society to provide Forest Fridays in order to encourage student's connection with the Earth. Forest Fridays are scheduled between the months of September-October and April-May for approximately 10 weeks of the school year.
