Academics

The Montessori method is a child-centered approach utilizing multi-aged classrooms.

• Each of our rooms offers a prepared environment with specific, hands-on, sequential materials.
• Each child contributes to their learning or work plan by selecting work and concentrating on it for up to three hours during work time.
• Our student programming also includes Spanish, performing and visual arts, and physical and environmental education.

We have many goals for the children at APM, but most of all, we hope they “learn to love to learn.”

What are the differences between this and a traditional classroom?

Classrooms in Montessori look, feel, and sound different from their counterparts in other schools.

Here are some of the differences:

Theory

Montessori classroom teachers observe each child and then ask, “What does this specific child understand? What is the next concept this child needs to learn? In which ways does this child learn? Are they observers? Talkers? Someone who needs to physically experience things? Do colors make things clearer? How about singing a song about the concept, will that help this particular child learn? What things interest this child so that I can use their natural interests and abilities to teach this concept that they need to know?”

Classroom Members

Montessori rooms are multiage classrooms grouped into 3-year spans: Grades 4K & 5k (ages 4-6), Grades 1-3 (ages 6-9), and Grades 4-6 (ages 9-12). This arrangement allows each child to learn at his or her own pace, regardless of chronological age, and allows students to learn from each other.

The older children guide the younger children through the same processes they learned in years past, and children share special skills and knowledge with each other.

Classroom Structure

To achieve this goal of individualized learning, a Montessori classroom is filled with thousands of kinesthetic materials that teach a wide range of levels and concepts, moving from concrete to abstract.

Shelves line the wall at the child’s level and are set up so that at a moment’s notice, a teacher can reach for a material and teach a student(s) the concept they need to know. Students can also reach for the same material and use it in the way that they were taught, so that they can practice a concept that they are working on mastering.

Classroom Functioning

In a Montessori classroom, you will rarely find the teacher up front instructing. Instead, you will see children, some in groups, some by themselves, working on different concepts, and the teacher sitting with a small group of children, usually on the floor around a mat.