APM Programs

APM’s Children’s House is the foundation of our school. We have two classrooms made up of 10 four-year-olds and 10 five-year-olds. The four-year-olds attend for 3 hours in the mornings Monday – Friday, and the five-year-olds attend full days, 8:25 AM – 3:25 PM. Children’s House students work with a variety of Montessori materials in a prepared environment designed to meet their developmental and academic needs.

If you walk into a Children’s House classroom, you will see younger pupils observing and learning from the older students. You may also see an older child sitting on the floor working on math, having an opportunity to reinforce her skills by helping and teaching their younger classmate with a lesson.

The lead teachers prepare the environment as needed to encourage students to choose challenging work, follow directions, work independently and respectfully, and develop self-confidence, concentration, and responsibility. For a visual tour of a Children’s House, view this video.

APM’s lower elementary program covers children in first through third grade. On most days, you’ll find up to thirty children in each of our two classrooms. Students will be involved in a variety of interesting tasks with the materials in our prepared classrooms. Although the children move about the room and freely talk with one another, they are engaged in their own work; some will seem completely absorbed, even without the direct oversight of a teacher. One student may be working on a Countries Around the World report, and one may be doing math, another may be researching, and our last student might be helping someone with a lesson she has already mastered.

Look around! The assistant teacher is working with one student in her reading. The teacher is introducing new work to a small group of five students. Individual or small group lessons are a hallmark of the Montessori Method.

How do we make sure that children are getting through work and keeping a record of their progress? Each child keeps a weekly record of their work in a work journal. This activity helps us keep track of the work getting done, and it also teaches the valuable life skills of calendaring and record-keeping. Additionally, at APM, we use the Albanesi Language, Math, and Geometry systems to help students progress through their work.

At APM, our upper elementary program covers children in the fourth through sixth grade. On most days, you will see thirty or fewer students working independently on a variety of tasks throughout the room; some sitting on the floor, others sit alone in a chair, others are working in small groups at tables.

When you walk in, there is a calm hum to the room…it’s not noisy, but it’s not quiet either. One student may be pulling up a chair to join a group of four students who are taking turns reading a book together. Another group may be guided by a parent volunteer working on handwriting.

Other children may be working on a story to present to the class since they completed all of their work plan for the day. What is a work plan? It is a plan that the students and teachers create together to ensure that students are making good choices that help them cover all topics in the curriculum in a timely manner.

Looking around, we see the assistant teacher on the floor helping a student struggling with long division. Together, they have spread out a work mat, where they set up a Montessori work called the Stamp Game. The student is working out a long division problem in his math notebook, while at the same time working it out using the “skittles” and “stamps” laid out on his mat.

Engaging sight and touch, the materials make this division problem more concrete to the student. The lead teacher is at a table with six students, explaining the details and expectations of a year-long project that the students will present at the end of the year to the entire school community.

Students at APM receive four thirty-minute classes weekly of performing arts in E1 and E2. Our Performing Arts program is led by Leila Pertl, who offers a holistic approach and believes music is a birthright of every child. Ms. Pertl’s focus areas include Samba drumming, harp instruction, and Irish dancing, as well as singing, music theory, and theatre.

These areas are of specific interest as they work together to fully engage each child’s brain. The desired outcome of our Performing Arts program is for each student to have joyful confidence in sharing oneself. Students in E2 may also choose to participate in Strings and receive an additional 30 minutes of elective strings instruction.

Each spring, we have a Performing Arts Showcase where students share themselves and their creations.

Kindergarten, E1, and E2 students receive physical education instruction twice weekly for 30 minutes. Our physical education program is a broader-based, integrated program. We partner with the Apple Creek YMCA for an on-site physical education program, including environmental education, lifelong fitness and health, problem-solving skills, community building, and social responsibility.

Students have the opportunity to be exposed to many varied physical activities – such as cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, yoga, Pilates, archery, boot camp, and sports. The APM Community also has the opportunity to use the YMCA facilities for team-building activities as well as environmental education. Additionally, because of our location and partnership with Outagamie County, our teachers can incorporate gardening, hiking, and bird-watching into our students’ days.

APM strives to teach the whole child – academically, socially, physically and emotionally. When a child breaks a school expectation, we look upon it as a teachable moment.

Our school “discipline” plan is founded on the belief that we all make mistakes and that all children want to do well, and have it within them to do so. Based on this belief, APM adopted the Virtues Program.

The Virtues Program, developed by Linda Kavelin Popov, believes that schools should be a safe and happy learning environment for all children. The purpose is to develop a culture of character where respect, patience, self-discipline, tolerance, and joy for learning are among the virtues children master.

During the school year, the fifty-two virtues are taught and discussed with the students. These virtues exist within each child in potential, and it is our purpose to awaken each virtue within them. For more information, visit the Virtues Project website and/or check out the Virtues Project Parent Guide from our school parent resource library.