Gallery of Student Work

Infant - Black and White Books
We offer books as well as reading aloud to the children; looking at books independently also prepares the child for reading, encourages concentration, and teaches them how to care for a book. In the first year of life, there are limitations in infants’ vision and they respond well to simple, bold patterns with high contrast. These support their visual development, inviting infants to engage while offering stimulation. Strong black and white images also help them to develop their ability to focus their attention and level of concentration. This student is on the floor to offer freedom of movement so she can explore how to move her body while she explores this crinkle black and white book, engaging her auditory senses as well.

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Early Childhood - Practical Life: Cutting with Scissors
Look at that focus and precision! This Practical Life material acquaints our students with the proper use of scissors and helps them develop basic cutting skills. This work strengthens a child's hands and fingers in preparation for writing, all while preparing them to master this important life skill. They will be able to cut thread and yarn, make booklets, and create cardboard models to illustrate projects. They can also take pleasure in being able to use their scissors skills for artistic expression. Here you can see the younger students work with the scissors, practicing cutting smaller and smaller pieces while an older student uses his cut pieces to make a pattern of different colored paper with varying sizes.
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Early Childhood - Colored Beads in the Math Curriculum
Throughout the Early Childhood curriculum, beads are used to represent the numbers 1 through 10. The Colored Bead Stair is a quintessential Montessori math material that introduces connection between the quantity and their corresponding color. Montessori math colors are consistent across all work to help the child grasp math concepts, especially in more advanced work. As students progress through the curriculum, the Short and Long Bead Chains are introduced to teach skip counting, preparing them for multiplication. These colored beads are also carried on into Lower and Upper Elementary as they learn long multiplication and equations.
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Toddler - Gardening
Maria Montessori designed the Practical Life Curriculum to teach children concentration, independence, and a great love for work. She discovered that children have an innate need to imitate the activities of adults, as this is their way of learning about their role within society and their environment. Practical Life exercises are designed to meet this need by providing children with the skills to move and manipulate materials independently. Through contributions in the classroom, home, and the wider community, children gain a sense of independence and satisfaction in what they have achieved. In effect, this provides children with the building blocks for positive self-esteem and a sense of place within their society. Our toddlers recently updated their classroom courtyards for the spring, giving them a sense of ownership of their space as well as accomplishment when they see their seeds flourish or when the birds visit the feeder.
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Early Childhood Kindergarten - Division Bead Board
Division while in Kindergarten?? With the Montessori approach, math can be fun while also challenging! The Montessori division board introduces children to the concept of division by allowing them to explore it in a concrete way, as they learn to "share" the beads equally between the skittles at the top of the board. They will be able to check their own work by making sure there are no leftover beads without relying on an adult. Once they have mastered division problems with no remainder, they can move on to equations that will have a remainder and will be able to self-correct if they notice the remainder is larger than the dividend. Dr. Maria Montessori believed that children absorb and retain information for prolonged periods when they learn through hands-on activities with concrete materials. Young children appreciate the repetitive nature of the materials, which gives them plenty of opportunities to practice and internalize the concept before moving on to dividing numbers abstractly.
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Elementary - Freedom of Movement
Maria Montessori's philosophy to follow the child is clearly illustrated here as we appreciate the fact that not every child learns the same way, providing opportunities for students to find what works best for their success each day. The importance of freedom of movement is evident in our younger classroom environments as students gain gross motor control and coordination. However, this doesn't end when students transition to elementary. Students are given the choice to work on the floor at a rug, kneel at a small desk, move around a table while standing, or sit at an outdoor table. This power of choice allows children to find what works best for them so they may maintain focus and concentration.
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Mentorship in the Montessori Classroom
Among the many benefits of a mixed-age classroom is the chance for older students to become mentors to their peers. This not only builds confidence and leadership skills, but reinforces their previous knowledge when they are able to pass it on to others. In the infant and toddler classrooms, this happens naturally as the younger students often enjoy, and even seek out their older peers to observe their work. As they transition to the Early Childhood classroom, they are given the chance to give lessons and quiz each others' knowledge. In one picture, one student is reading puzzle sight words from the stack so that another student can find them solely by sound. In another picture, one older student gives a lesson on tik-tac-toe to some younger peers while on in the outdoor classroom. A sixth grader even had the opportunity to mentor some Early Childhood students while handling their classroom hermit crab. These experiences are incredibly valuable and enrich our school's sense of community and cooperation.
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Toddler - Animal Print Match
This toddler student is very focused as he works on matching a close-up photo of each animal to the picture of the whole animal. This material helps children develop concentration and visual discrimination as they use their executive functioning to compare the patterns at different perspectives. Development of concentration at such a young age prepares the students for more complex tasks as they progress through the curriculum, preparing them for academic success and building their self-confidence and a positive self-image.
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Upper Elementary - Squares and Square Roots
As the Upper Elementary students approach middle school age, they are introduced to algebraic concepts like square roots, balancing equations, and polynomials. Through the Montessori approach, they can visualize these concepts by manipulating concrete materials that will help them more fully grasp the concepts. This student is very focused, using the Square Root Peg Board to build the square of 27 in single units (green pegs), and then exchanging them with the blue pegs, which represent ten units each. Once she has exchanged it, she will be able to clearly see the root. This material helps students understand more complex math concepts thoroughly before transitioning to working through them more abstractly on pen and paper.
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Early Childhood - Nomenclature Cards: Human Anatomy
Montessori Nomenclature cards are used for classifying and building vocabulary and concepts in all subject areas. Also known as 3-part cards, this material is made up of a control card, which has the picture and word on the same card, and individual pictures and labels. Students then match the individual pictures and labels to the correct control card, providing for in-depth visual discrimination practice and independence, as students do not need to ask the teacher for help to check their work. For this 4-year-old student, the teachers have extended the work to include realistic objects and word tracing, adding layers of complexity to the work.

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