MSNV Montessori Curriculum

List of 2 items.

• Language

  A child’s command of vocabulary is stimulated in all classroom activities. Children are encouraged to participate during lessons, to ask and answer questions, tell stories, explain activities — all to help them organize their ideas. Once the sounds of the letter symbols are known, the child can begin to use them, first to construct words with the letters of the moveable alphabet (a hands-on material that engages several senses to help with language learning) and then to read. Elementary students explore various forms of literature through small-group discussion, They create compositions in a variety of fiction and nonfiction genres during Weekly Writing Workshops. Requisite daily reading is augmented by our extensive school library and occasional trips to the nearby George Mason Regional Library. Reading and writing skills are taught and interwoven throughout the program. Grammar, spelling, cursive and research skills are all part of the basic Elementary curriculum.

• Mathematics

  A basic tenet of Montessori education is that understanding is often a matter of seeing and touching. Special materials help the child to see and feel numbers and thus to understand them more completely. Basic principles of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are taught first with materials the child can feel and manipulate, then later in more abstract form, according to each child’s own pace and interest. Elementary students also learn basic concepts of algebra and geometry. While concrete materials enhance understanding of higher-order concepts, real worth math applications like graphing global data or balancing the classrooms budget are also incorporated.