Montessori at the Preschool and Kindergarten

“It’s not so obvious when you’re looking through one of our observation room windows what skills are embedded for young children in something like building a tower, or spooning beans from one bowl to the other,” said SHS Director of Early Childhood Education Nasreen Ikram Hussain.

 

“Montessori sensorial materials, for example, were specifically designed to help children develop discrimination, order, and to broaden and refine the senses, and help prepare them to be logical, aware, and perceptive. Education of the senses helps with organizing and categorizing sense perceptions into inner mental order, and the materials used help young children build pre-language and pre-math skills.”

 

“Students in these classrooms are in a ‘sensitive period,’” added teacher Anna Reitman. “There’s an open window for each part of their brain—for language, for physical movement, etc.—we want to pack in as much as we can.”

 

In the Montessori classroom, children work with the materials during activities and tasks called “jobs.”

 

“In referencing this idea of jobs, we are recognizing that whatever the students are doing is as important as what mom and dad do when they go off to their workplaces,” explained teacher Michele Turchetti.

 

“The Montessori structure fostered in Sacred Heart’s PSK program has really been wonderful for my daughter,” said Julie Tucker, SHS alumna and parent of preschooler Kate. “She’s much more independent since starting,” said Tucker. “And the mixed-age setting provides opportunity to learn from the older kids; academically, she has motivation to learn what they’re learning. For example, she’ll say, ‘oh so-and-so in the class knows how to read, so I want to learn, too.’”

 

Similarly, three-year-old Kate has taken up writing many letters of the alphabet in just two months’ time. “Her growth and eagerness to learn has been terrific to see, and we are thrilled to see what will engage her next.”