The Montessori philosophy was originally developed in the early nineteen hundreds by Dr. Maria Montessori to enhance a child’s opportunities for learning, relevant to the student’s relationship to the world around him/her. Over the years, the philosophy has evolved to challenge the whole child’s personality and intellect in a variety of multicultural settings. Her teaching system is based on a strong integration of adult to child observation and practical hands on activities. From her observations, she designed functional learning environments created to support and enhance a child’s innate desire to learn about the world around him/her. Classroom materials offer learning experiences in a clear, concrete manner. Students are encouraged to use motor and intellectual discovery when working with these materials. There is an emphasis on the sequential and orderly acquisition of both motor and cognitive skills. This ordered work method also allows for individualization and usually offers a two to three year age span within the classroom; enabling students to work and learn at their own pace, as well as in group settings. The integration of varied age spans allows older students to gain confidence by working and role modeling materials with younger students. Collaborative learning and projects completed in groups encourage students to teach and learn with each other.
Maria Montessori was a doctor, research scientist, and educator from the late 1800’s–early 1900’s who made observations about how children learn. The Montessori Philosophy of Educationist based on Dr. Maria Montessori’s observation that children have a natural desire to learn and that stages of development exist for which there should be corresponding educational environments and trained adults (Teachers) who prepare these environments. Children can learn independently in a prepared environment with teachers who guide and establish connections between the student and the environment. By providing freedom of choice, this enriched learning environment cultivates individuals who learn to make independent decisions and to solve problems creatively. They learn to develop healthy social relationships, to develop skills in concentration, and to master basic academic and life skills. At FLMA students are challenged to create, explore and imagine.
This includes daily living tasks, such as polishing shoes, sweeping, and buttoning a shirt. They also learn how to tie their shoes and put on their coats, prepare their own snacks and drinks, go to the bathroom without help, and clean up after themselves if they spill something. To the child, these are meaningful activities that involve caring for himself, other people, and the environment. They also help the child concentrate, expand his attention span, and improve hand-eye coordination.
These materials isolate a defining quality, such as color, size, sound, texture, or shape. They help to develop the child’s visual, auditory, and tactile senses. Some Exercises make sure children use all five senses to learn. For example, a child studying about fall gathers leaves and feels how brittle they are.
The language materials include objects and pictures to be named, matched, labeled, and classified to aid vocabulary development. Textured letters allow the child to feel and see the alphabet, while the moveable alphabet leads the child towards reading. Once the child begins to blend sounds to make words, a variety of materials are available, ranging from simple three-letter, short-vowel words to read, to materials designed to teach long-vowel sounds, phonograms, and parts of speech. Children are encouraged to express themselves verbally and are taught to trace and recognize letters as a precursor to learning reading, spelling, grammar, and handwriting skills. A wide variety of reading materials are used to gain proficiency and a love of reading.
Math is a concrete experience in the Montessori classroom. The children are constantly manipulating objects in their efforts to understand number concepts. The early materials are designed to teach the very basics, such as the quantity and symbols of the numbers one to ten. Spindle boxes allow the child to see what “nothing” or zero looks like. Moving toward the more advanced materials, bead bars teach concepts ranging from units, tens, hundreds, and thousands, to addition, multiplication, subtraction and division. Children learn about numbers through hands-on learning using concrete materials, such as the golden beads that represent the hierarchy of the decimal system, for example These traditional materials are supplemented with teacher-made games and materials for learning a variety of simple concepts, such as time, money, and fractions.
Science activities are nature-based, and include the study of different animals, a variety of plant types, and environments around the world that support this wide range of flora and fauna. Love and respect for all life are emphasized.
Children are given an introduction to physical and cultural geography through the use of wooden puzzle maps, activities with objects from other countries, and international celebrations and snacks throughout the year. Songs, stories and games are incorporated into daily routines as we “travel” the globe visiting a different continent each month.
Painting, color mixing, collage, and printmaking are just some of the activities provided to show the care and use of art materials, to encourage creativity, and just to have fun! Every week there is a different topic which helps children to explore the art world.
We have a French and Spanish teachers who prepare lessons on a weekly basis for the children to include numbers, colors, and general conversation in Spanish and French.
Our teachers provide progress reports twice a year. They prepare a written narrative report discussing each student’s work, social development, and mastery of fundamental skills
Once the Teacher progress report are complete parents and teachers will hold a family conference to review the child’s progress twice a year. Parents and teachers will create plans together to achieve and advance each child’s academics.
With today’s parents busy schedules, it’s difficult to get our children to the various programs like Amazing Athletes, Spanish class, Karate, Gymnastics, Zumba), Learning Spanish etc., FLMA offers an enriched program for all the above with instructors that specialize in working with young children. These programs are optional and there is no additional charge for enrolling in them. Our goal is to encourage all children to participate into the above enrichment programs