Curriculum
For 15 months – Kindergarten
At Evergreen Montessori House, we believe education should be fun. Each lesson is combined with hands on activities – such as arts and crafts and experiments – to encourage your child express himself or herself and enhance creative thinking.
All curriculum at EMH are individualised to meet each child’s needs through the use of assessment tools. In addition to the individual curriculum, a class wide curriculum is developed each year to meet the collective learning needs of all children enrolled in the program.
Our Montessori curriculum is based on a set of guiding principles formulated by Maria Montessori:
- The students are engaged in active learning;
- The environment is carefully structured to provide relevant, appropriate and stimulating experiences for each age group in the multi-age classroom;
- The students are given freedom within the structured environment to choose spontaneously and follow their own interests;
- Learning is integrated across all stages of curriculum;
- The contents of the curriculum reflect the beautiful mix of cultures in our great country;
- The teacher is flexible and bases decisions on observation and assessment, thus ensuring the developmental needs of each student are met;
- The teacher aims to develop autonomy, independence and self-discipline in each student;
- The teacher acknowledges sensitive periods of learning;
- Through the use of Montessori teaching tools, the teacher develops a solid foundation for children to build on in later learning; and
- In a Montessori classroom, there is mutual respect where the administrators, teachers, students and parents work together.
The curriculum for our program, 15 months to 6 years includes:
1. Personal, social and emotional development
| Montessori Curriculum | Learning Goals: Knowledge, Skills and Understanding |
| Exercises of Practical Life: Life Skills Care of Self Care of the Environment Social Skills Circle Time Activities and Games | Motivation: children will be interested, excited and motivated to learn |
| Self-confidence: children will be confident to try new activities, initiate ideas, and speak in a familiar group | |
| Concentration: children will maintain attention, concentrate and sit quietly when appropriate | |
Autonomy: children will (1) have a developing awareness of their own needs, views and feelings, and be sensitive to the needs, views and feelings of others; and (2) respond to significant experiences, showing a range of feelings when appropriate | |
Social Skills: children will (1) have a developing respect for their own cultures and beliefs and those of other people; (2) form good relationship with adults and peers; (3) work as a part of a group or class, take turns and share fairly, understand there needs to be agreed values and codes of behavior for groups of people, including adults and children, to work together harmoniously; (4) understand what is right, what is wrong, and why; (5) consider the consequences of their words and actions for themselves and others; and (6) understand that people have different needs, views, cultures and beliefs, which need to be treated with respect. | |
Independence: children will (1) dress and undress independently and manage their own personal hygiene; and (2) select and use activities and resources independently. | |
| Motor Skills: children will have a developing control over their actions, and gross and fine motor movements. | |
| Positive Self –Image: children will understand that they can expect others to treat their needs, views, cultures and beliefs with respect. | |
| Self-Discipline: children will be able to complete activities and return them to the appropriate place. |
2. Language and Literacy
| Montessori Curriculum | Learning Goals: Knowledge, Skills and Understanding |
| LISTENING Telling and reading stories, nursery rhymes, action songs, finger-play-rhymes Songs and poems Verse speaking | Children will be able to: (1) enjoy listening to and using spoken language; (2) explore and experiment with sounds, words and texts; and (3) listen with enjoyment and respond to stories, rhymes, poems and songs |
| SPEAKING Discussing pictures Discussing projects Drama Circle time Montessori games Show and tell | Children will be able to: (1) use language to imagine and recreate roles and experiences; (2) talk to organize, sequence and clarify thinking, ideas, feelings and events; and (3) sustain attentive listening, respond to what they have heard by relevant comments, questions or actions. |
| VOCABULARY Stories Pictures Language cards Games | Children will: (1) extend their vocabulary, exploring the meanings and sounds of new words; (2) interact with others, negotiate plans and activities, and take turns in conversations; and (3) understand that print has meaning. |
| Sandpaper Letters | Children will link sounds to letters, naming and sounding the letters of the alphabet. |
| Pink Level Materials | Children will hear and say initial and final sounds of words, and hear short vowel sounds within words |
| Blue Level Materials | Children will read a range of familiar and common words and simple sentences. |
| Green Level Materials | Children will recognize and read some of the different spelling patterns in the English language. |
| Writing Exercises | Children will: (1) attempt writing; (2) write their own names; (3) begin to form words; (4) understand sentence structure; and (5) use phonetic knowledge to write simple words and phonetically plausible attempts at more complex words. |
3. Mathematics
| Sensorial and Mathematics Materials | Learning Goals: Knowledge, Skills and Understanding |
Pink Tower Broad Stair Long Rods Knobbed Cylinders | Children will use quantitative language to compare two objects, numbers and quantities, such as: more or less, greater or smaller, longer and shorter, and heavier and smaller. |
Constructive Triangles Geometric Solids | Children will: (1) recognize and name 2-dimensional geometric shapes; (2) recognize and name 3-dimensional geometric shapes; and (3) use everyday words to describe position. |
Large Number Rods Sandpaper Numbers Number Rods and Cards: 1-10 Cards and Counters 1-10 | Children will: (1) say and use number names in order and in familiar contexts; and (2) Count reliably up to 10. |
| Spindle Box | Children will recognize numbers 0-9. |
Snake Game Small Number Rods Addition Strip Board Subtraction Strip Board | Children will: (1) use the vocabulary involved in adding and subtracting and understanding the concepts; (2) find one or more or one less a number from 1 – 10; and (3) begin to relate addition to combining two groups of objects, and subtraction to taking objects away. |
| Seguin Board A | Children will count reliably up to 19. |
| Seguin Board B | Children will count reliably up to 100. |
| Golden Bead Materials | Children will use mathematical ideas and methods to solve practical problems. |
4. Knowledge and Understanding the World
| Materials | Learning Goals: Knowledge, Skills and Understanding |
| Sensorial Materials | Children will: (1) investigate objects and materials by using all of their senses as appropriate; and (2) look closely at similarities, differences, patterns and change. |
Nature Materials
| Children will: (1) Investigate and identify some features of living things, and objects and events they observe; and (2) find out about their environment and talk about the characteristics they like and dislike. |
| Geography Materials | Children will: (1) observe and learn about identifying features of the place they live and their natural surroundings; and (2) begin to learn about their own cultures and the beliefs of other people. |
| STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) | Children will: (1) select the tools and techniques they need to shape, assemble and join materials they are using; (2) ask questions about why things happen and how they work; (3) in groups, use their creativity to work through engineering projects; (4) learn the principles of the scientific method, and use the scientific method to explore and learn more about their environment ; and (5) learn how to use everyday technology to support their learning. |
5. Physical Development
| Physical Activity | Learning Goals: Knowledge, Skills and Understanding |
Games Activities | Children will: (1) move with confidence, imagination, and safely; (2) move with control and coordination; (3) show awareness of space, of themselves and others; (4) use a range of small and large equipment; and (5) travel around, over, under and through equipment. |
6. Creative Development
| Creative Materials | Learning Goals: Knowledge, Skills and Understanding |
| Arts and Crafts | Children will: (1) explore color, texture, shape, form and space in two and three dimensions; and (2) respond in a variety of ways to what they see, hear, smell, touch and feel. |
| Music and Movement | Children will recognize and explore how sounds can be changed, sing simple songs from memory, recognize repeated sounds and sound patterns and match movements to music. |
| Drama | Children will: (1) use their imagination in art, design, music, dance, imaginative and role play and stories; and (2) express and communicate their ideas, thoughts and feelings by using a widening range of materials, suitable tools, imaginative play, movement, design and musical instruments. |