Our Mission

To honor the light in each child.

Namaste Montessori School's mission is to guide each student on their path of development by providing a carefully prepared environment, which nurtures the mind, body, and spirit of each individual.

Goals
• To awaken a love of learning, passion for knowledge, and joy of creativity in each student
• To support the development of independent, self-directed, self-confident learners
• To foster a strong sense of self, respect for others and an ability to work as part of a group
• To develop a repertoire of life skills and a strong academic foundation
• To provide developmentally appropriate physical activity and healthy nutritional snacks
• To encourage regular practice of self-reflection and nurturing the peace within
• To provide a reliable source of care and information for families of young children

Core Values
Respect	Responsibility
Compassion	Honesty
Kindness	Awareness

Elements of the Montessori Approach To Teaching

A Responsive, Prepared, Child-Centered Environment:
The focus of activity in the Montessori setting is on the children's learning, not on the teacher's teaching. Generally students will work individually or in small, self-selected groups. The environment is designed to meet the needs, interests, abilities, and development of the children in the class. Teachers adapt the environment with the children in modifying the selection of educational materials available, the physical layout, and the tone of the class to fit the ever-changing needs of the children.

The Human Tendencies:
Maria Montessori based her method of education on the human tendency within the child to explore, to move, to share with a group, to be independent and make decisions, to create order, to develop self control, to abstract ideas from experience, to use creative imagination, to work hard, to repeat, concentrate and perfect one's effort's and creations.

A Multiage Community of Learners, a Family Setting:
The Montessori classroom is a community of children and adults. The classroom consists of children from a multiage span of three to four years. This creates a "family" like group where older children model and help care for younger children building confidence and responsibility, younger children look up to the older children and learn from their peers in a non competitive environemnt. Varying levels of ability blend easily in a multiage setting, no child feels left behind and everyone learns at their own pace.

Cooperation and Collaboration: Montessori children learn "at their own pace" and are encouraged to work together as well as independently. Group discussion and problem solving are encouraged. Teachers refrain from comparing students to one another.

The Process of Learning:
Montessori materials teach through hands on learning, spontaneous engagement, active involvement, and self-directed activity. Montessori materials have a control of error inherent in their design. This allows children to work independently, unafraid to make mistakes and to be comfortable with the fact that errors are essential to the process of learning. In the process of making independent choices and exploring concepts largely on their own, Montessori students construct their own sense of individual identity becoming independent and confident beings.

A focus on individual progress and development is based on the child's intrinsic motivation to learn. Children do not work for grades or external rewards, nor do they simply complete assignments given to them by their teachers. Children learn because they are interested in things and in gaining understanding of the world around them.

There are three stages of learning:

• Introduction to a concept. This is usually done by means of a lesson, conversation, something read in a book, exploring a work available in the classroom, observing another child at work, etc.
• Processing the concept. The child develops an understanding of the concept through working with materials that illustrate the ideas, experimentation, and repetition of an activity.
• Mastering the concept. The child is confidently able to explain the concept with ease and teach the concept to another person.

Overview of Curriculum

Practical Life: Young children have a natural urge to partake in the activities of daily living and be a participating member of family life. Simple chores adults may take for granted fascinate the child engaging them in the meaningful learning of life skills. Practical Life activities help children develop and coordination of movement, awareness of the environment, orderly thought patterns, independent work habits, and responsibility. The lessons in practical life include:

Preliminary Exercises: preparing the fine motor skills for more challenging activities (spooning, pouring, stringing beads, etc).

Care of the Environment: learning to respect and care for the tools in the space where the child lives and learns (food preparation, sweeping, dusting, washing, polishing, etc).

Care of the Person: learning basic self-care skills (hand washing, nose blowing, dressing, nutrition, etc.).

Grace and Courtesy: learning social skills (walking carefully, communication, manners, table setting, hosting a guest, etc.)

Sensorial: The materials and activities in this area allow children to pursue their natural tendency to classify sensorial impressions and sort by size, shape, color, touch, sound, and weight. The sensorial materials isolate one quality only, have a built in control of error, allow for repetition, and make abstract qualities concrete. Sensorial activities lay a foundation for math, geometry, geography, botany, art, and music.

Math: These activities make the abstract concepts of mathematics concrete for hands on learning. Each activity isolates a particular concept and integrates with other activities to form a strong foundation for further exploration. Beginning preschool math activities include 1 to 10, (sequences, quantity, number names, combinations of 10, basic arithmetic), teens, tens, introduction to the decimal system, and the operations of addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division.

Language: Children are immersed in language the moment they enter the classroom. Spoken language is encouraged as children communicate with each other individually, in small groups, and large groups. A library of books is available for enjoyment and information. Stories are read and told in small and large groups. Phonemic awareness is taught through hands on activities and games, the alphabet is learned with fun and interesting sorting/matching works, handwriting is practiced through tracing shapes and using chalkboards, moveable alphabets are used for writing words, and labels are used all over for word recognition. This language rich environment prepares the child for early reading which is explored in a variety of ways including the use of early reader series books, reading games, and environmental reading situations.

Science: Sensorial exploration and experimentation is key as children learn about the natural world. For example, sand and water tables allow for open ended work while other activities isolate individual concepts such as sink and float, magnets, electricity, and botany, etc. Care for plants and animals overlap with practical life activities and teach science as well as responsibility.

Geography: These materials help the child learn about the facts of the material world. Hands on activities introduce children to the names and types of landmasses, bodies of water, continents, countries, etc.

Cultural Studies: The diversity in our world is celebrated through language, music, art, traditions, food, stories, and history. A variety of cultural themes are integrated into all curriculum areas. Peace education is an integral part of the Montessori classroom and begins with respect for, understanding, and acceptance of differences as well as the celebration of the unifying aspects that connect us all.

Music and Movement: Informal and formal music education occurs through singing, playing a variety of music CDs, introduction of instruments, introduction of musical notation, exploration of sound, etc.

Art: A variety of materials are always available for creative expression including crayons, paints, papers, markers, collage materials, glue, scissors, etc. Along with the less structured art choices, different materials and skills are simultaneously presented as specific exercises for more focused exploration. Classic artists, art forms, medias, and history are learned about and explored throughout the year.

Physical Education: Care of the body is equally as important as challenging the mind. Movement is built in to all Montessori activities, allows the child to develop gross motor as well as fine motor skills. Yoga and other types of more formal movement exercises are built into daily group. There are at least two to three periods of free play gross motor activity time each day with choices of activities that include running, skipping, swinging, navigating an obstacle course, ball play, group games, using other props such as parachutes and ribbons, etc.

Universal Values and Global Perspective: Montessori deliberately teaches children not only appropriate patterns of polite behavior, but seeks to instill basic universal values within the core of the child's personality. These values include self-respect, acceptance of the uniqueness and dignity of each person we meet, kindness, peacefulness, compassion, empathy, honor, individual responsibility, and courage to speak from our hearts. The Montessori curriculum is international in its heritage and consciously seeks to promote a global perspective.