Monique Montessori
Day Nursery
Phone: 01732 452931
Email: info@moniquemontessori.co.uk
Address: 41 Chipstead Lane, Sevenoaks, Kent, TN13 2AJ
Montessori Curriculum
Although each Montessori environment is special and unique, they do resemble one another with respect to how the environment is arranged. Every Montessori preschool classroom is divided into the five main Montessori subject areas: Practical Life, Sensorial Development, Language, Mathematics and Culture. Additionally, we have an art room and outdoor classroom and play area.
Practical Life / Life Skills
This area of Montessori teaching focuses on giving the child the ability and independence to carry out every day tasks successfully on their own. This includes but is not limited to pouring, buttoning, zips, hair brushing, sorting (cutlery, shells, socks), cutting with scissors, cutting with a knife, washing up, doing up shoes and many, many more activities. These exercises are enjoyable tasks based on day to day activities in the home. These activities promote independence, hand eye co-ordination and fine motor skills. It is through these exercises that your child will develop concentration and manual dexterity as indirect preparation for writing.
Sensorial Development
As the name suggest, the sensorial area focuses on the development of the senses. Children will begin to understand length, width, height, breadth, texture, colour, sounds, weight and many other variations through the sensorial activities.
Maths
Children begin to learn maths through the Sensorial equipment where they learn to grade through visual discrimination but once their interest in numbers is apparent then they are introduced to the maths curriculum to broaden their language and ability is developed from simple to more complex activities. Children will learn quantities first in concrete form and only once the concept has been grasped will they learn through the abstract form. After learning to recognise and trace through using sandpaper numbers and one to one correlation when counting, the concept of zero is introduced, and counting is further reinforced through counting activities leading on to addition, subtraction sums.
Literacy
When a child is ready they will be introduced to the sandpaper letters and the phonic sounds of the alphabet. After this they will begin to build 3 letter phonetic words using the large moveable alphabet which develops the childs ability to segment sounds of a word eg "p - i - g" and then blend them to sounds out "pig". Other activities are promoted alongside such as I-spy, alphabet cards and working with peers.
Cultural
Children are learning about the world around them everyday and the activities within Montessori's Cultural section allow children to explore the wider world. They will learn about land, air and water, continents, clouds, life cycles of animals and plants, different cultures and their celebrations and many more.
At Monique's we undertake celebration of Christmas and Easter, these being the two major events in the Christian calendar marked both by celebrations across the country and by formal holidays.
We also feel very strongly that children should learn to understand, appreciate and respect other people’s religious beliefs and festivals. There is such a broad range of beliefs and religions across the world that it is not easy to incorporate all their festivals. This decision is made with regard to the beliefs and religions followed by the families of children attending the nursery, and those of the staff. This presents opportunities for peer teaching and learning and for parents to become involved if they wish.