Pre-Primary
"The essential thing is to arouse such an interest that it engages the child’s whole personality."
Pre-Primary: 3 – 6 years
As the foundational cornerstone of Montessori education, the pre-primary experience supports the child’s natural inclination to seek out and master a wide array of life skills and cognitive abilities.
Our hands-on learning approach includes curriculum areas important and relevant to this particular stage of the child’s development: language, mathematics, sensorial, practical life, cultural studies, geography, botany, zoology, history, music, and art.
At Bridges Montessori, the learning environment is more than just a classroom. Each preprimary space is a warm and secure community atmosphere designed to meet the child’s needs at every developmental step. Our Montessori-certified teachers are specialists in pre-primary children, skilled at guiding each child through carefully planned activities and lessons that build sensory-motor skills, socialization, self-esteem, independence, a sense of order, concentration, and cooperation.
Through careful observation, our teachers take cues from the child to determine the right developmental moment to personalize instruction and introduce appropriate materials. This allows children to learn and master skills at the most opportune time – the moment they as individuals are most sensitive to acquiring a new skill or absorbing a new concept. Our method creates the optimal environment for mastery so children experience success often. Continual positive experiences naturally promote a love of learning, build independence, and establish a sense of empowerment.
The Montessori preprimary program consists of the following areas: Read more...
Practical Life — These exercises are designed to enhance concentration and focus through purposeful activity, including care of the environment, care of self, coordination of movement, and grace and courtesy toward others. These activities respond to the child’s need for movement and order, while appealing to the growing desire for independence and social relationships.
Sensorial — At this development stage, children learn very effectively through their senses. Our materials and activities stimulate sensory discovery and description, while exploiting the child’s natural desire to explore, classify, and order their surroundings. Through hands-on interaction, children learn concepts of mass, width, length, temperature, and other physical properties of items in their classroom.
Math — Our pre-primary math program uses carefully prepared tools that lead the child through a logical mathematical thought process, from concrete to abstract ideas. Manipulative materials assist the child in understanding concepts like linear counting, the decimal system, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
Language —The pre-primary age continues a sensitive period for language development, and our thoughtfully planned environment encourages growth in oral language, written expression, reading, and even grammar elements. For reading, the Bridges Montessori approach is phonics-based and highly sequential. We compliment this with intervention programs for different types of learners. To promote expressive fluency, classroom life provides many opportunities to expand vocabulary and prepare for formal writing instruction.
Culture — Cultural exercises expose the child to geography, history, physical, and life science basics. The children gain an awareness of the world around them by exploring other countries, their customs, foods, languages, and wildlife. Through multicultural studies we lay a foundation of mutual understanding and tolerance.
Peace — Peace education consists of opportunities and experiences for children to develop an ability to understand and access peace within themselves, interact peacefully with others, and eventually engage in activities that create a peaceful planet.
Art — The art area in a Montessori classroom provides developmentally appropriate and open-ended experiences that foster creativity and sensory development.
Spanish — Capitalizing on the young child's propensity for language acquisition, foreign language is integrated into the prepared environment through individual and small group instruction utilizing hands-on materials and experiential, conversational interaction.
Music — Music is incorporated in the classrooms in many ways throughout the day. Every moment, from transition times to lessons, is rich with song. Montessori bells and other instruments are available for experimentation and formal instruction. And each week, we offer a whole-group music experience with a carefully designed and developmentally appropriate program.
Garden — The outdoor environment serves as an extension to the Montessori classroom. Lessons in the garden help children develop an understanding and appreciation for the complexity and interdependence of our living world. The children foster skills of exploration, observation, experimentation, and conservation.