Gallery of Student Work

Early Childhood - Pouring
This student is putting the pouring lessons to good use in a real life setting! Having a good command over pouring both wet and dry objects will help children with other work in the classroom and in their home life. For example, washing floors or dishes requires pouring large amounts of water into a bucket to then be poured in the sink or wastewater area. This takes precision, but is no problem for a child who has already mastered pouring skills from early Practical Life materials.
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Toddler - Chair Scrubbing
This child is very focused on her task! As part of the Practical Life area of the classroom, care of environment activities abound. While cleaning the chair, students develop their coordination and concentration skills in addition to learning sequential work patterns.
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Toddler - Smelling Jars
In the Sensorial area of a Montessori classroom, there is a work called The Smelling Jars. These jars call to the child's sense of curiosity as they can smell through the small holes but cannot see inside of them. There are two sets of matching scents that the students must go through and match. This strengthens their sense of smell, or olfactory sense, while fostering concentration and memory.
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The Decimal System
With an abundance of materials in the Early Childhood classroom that concretely introduce the decimal system, students develop a thorough understanding of place value and quantity. These materials are used in sequential order, so students build on previous knowledge to learn more complex concepts. These materials use a color-coding system for place value that is consistent throughout the Early Childhood through Upper Elementary years. In early lessons, students use these colors to "build" numbers concretely, using beads and blocks. Later, they use this knowledge to add, subtract, multiply, and divide large numbers.
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Infant - Black and White Books
We offer books as well as reading aloud to the children; looking at books independently also prepares the child for reading, encourages concentration, and teaches them how to care for a book. In the first year of life, there are limitations in infants’ vision and they respond well to simple, bold patterns with high contrast. These support their visual development, inviting infants to engage while offering stimulation. Strong black and white images also help them to develop their ability to focus their attention and level of concentration. This student is on the floor to offer freedom of movement so she can explore how to move her body while she explores this crinkle black and white book, engaging her auditory senses as well.

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Early Childhood - Practical Life: Cutting with Scissors
Look at that focus and precision! This Practical Life material acquaints our students with the proper use of scissors and helps them develop basic cutting skills. This work strengthens a child's hands and fingers in preparation for writing, all while preparing them to master this important life skill. They will be able to cut thread and yarn, make booklets, and create cardboard models to illustrate projects. They can also take pleasure in being able to use their scissors skills for artistic expression. Here you can see the younger students work with the scissors, practicing cutting smaller and smaller pieces while an older student uses his cut pieces to make a pattern of different colored paper with varying sizes.
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Early Childhood - Colored Beads in the Math Curriculum
Throughout the Early Childhood curriculum, beads are used to represent the numbers 1 through 10. The Colored Bead Stair is a quintessential Montessori math material that introduces connection between the quantity and their corresponding color. Montessori math colors are consistent across all work to help the child grasp math concepts, especially in more advanced work. As students progress through the curriculum, the Short and Long Bead Chains are introduced to teach skip counting, preparing them for multiplication. These colored beads are also carried on into Lower and Upper Elementary as they learn long multiplication and equations.
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Toddler - Gardening
Maria Montessori designed the Practical Life Curriculum to teach children concentration, independence, and a great love for work. She discovered that children have an innate need to imitate the activities of adults, as this is their way of learning about their role within society and their environment. Practical Life exercises are designed to meet this need by providing children with the skills to move and manipulate materials independently. Through contributions in the classroom, home, and the wider community, children gain a sense of independence and satisfaction in what they have achieved. In effect, this provides children with the building blocks for positive self-esteem and a sense of place within their society. Our toddlers recently updated their classroom courtyards for the spring, giving them a sense of ownership of their space as well as accomplishment when they see their seeds flourish or when the birds visit the feeder.
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Early Childhood Kindergarten - Division Bead Board
Division while in Kindergarten?? With the Montessori approach, math can be fun while also challenging! The Montessori division board introduces children to the concept of division by allowing them to explore it in a concrete way, as they learn to "share" the beads equally between the skittles at the top of the board. They will be able to check their own work by making sure there are no leftover beads without relying on an adult. Once they have mastered division problems with no remainder, they can move on to equations that will have a remainder and will be able to self-correct if they notice the remainder is larger than the dividend. Dr. Maria Montessori believed that children absorb and retain information for prolonged periods when they learn through hands-on activities with concrete materials. Young children appreciate the repetitive nature of the materials, which gives them plenty of opportunities to practice and internalize the concept before moving on to dividing numbers abstractly.
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Elementary - Freedom of Movement
Maria Montessori's philosophy to follow the child is clearly illustrated here as we appreciate the fact that not every child learns the same way, providing opportunities for students to find what works best for their success each day. The importance of freedom of movement is evident in our younger classroom environments as students gain gross motor control and coordination. However, this doesn't end when students transition to elementary. Students are given the choice to work on the floor at a rug, kneel at a small desk, move around a table while standing, or sit at an outdoor table. This power of choice allows children to find what works best for them so they may maintain focus and concentration.
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