Kindergarten Program 

 

 

The Montessori Island School Kindergarten Program serves children from 5 to 6 years old.  Our Kindergarten program is four full days to allow us to further the child's transition into more abstract thinking while still supporting his/her need of meaningful social development. Beyond cognitive needs, children at this age are strongly motivated in social development. Therefore, we have designed a program that allows leadership and social skills to develop, as well as the necessary basic and higher level thinking skills. To accomodate this, children continue in their designated Montessori classrooms in the mornings and go to the Shooting Star Room for a Kindergarten Enrichment Program for part of the afternoon.

 

What is Montessori Kindergarten?

This is your child's third year in the Montessori Classroom; the year it all comes together. The three-year development cycle is at the very heart of the Montessori educational experience for our children at Montessori Island. The leadership of the older children has remarkable impact on the health of the community they help to guide, and it allows the oldest children in each cycle to stand tall with confidence during an uncertain time, while internalizing the academic work of the first two years by sharing their knowledge and expertise with the younger students in the group. They become role models for the younger students, who long to reach their level of academic accomplishment and community responsibility. The child's prior learnings are now solidified into usable concepts and structures; blending sounds now becomes the joy of reading and writing; counting and recognizing the symbols of numbers are used for addition, multiplication and subtraction; after working with the geography puzzles in preschool, the child now learns the names of the continents, countries and states.

 

What is the Kindergarten Enrichment Program?

Students have an opportunity to interact with their peer group in a structured but flexible environment that provides learning activities in large and small groups as well as individualizing to meet the needs of all students. Teamwork and peer mentoring in social, cognitive, and physical skills are strongly supported by the teacher. The curriculum includes language, math, science, geography, continued support of their Montessori lessons and special long and short term projects. Subject topic areas are determine by the students as their interests and desires to explore their bigger world begin to emerge. Fields trips are special events that begin with the Kindergarten Program to support emergent learning. The goal of the Kindergarten program is to provide a safe, nurturing learning environment that will provide students with a sense of success, responsibility and confidence as they prepare for their elementary education.