Curriculum for Casa

Each day, the children are given time and opportunity to engage either individually or in small groups in various activities, which are integral of the Montessori Casa program. The children are presented an array of materials, and they are introduced to all aspects of the world to cultivate their own natural desire to learn.

Practical Life: 

These activities include tasks children see as part of the daily routine in their home, such as preparing snack, sweeping, arranging flowers, etc.  To each child, these are meaningful activities that involve caring for themselves, others and the environment.  Through those activities, children develop fine and gross motor movement, muscular coordination, hand-eye coordination, concentration and they learn to complete a task from beginning to end.    

Sensorial: 

Children learn about the world around them through the use of all of their senses, which then educate the intellect.  The purposes of the sensorial exercises are to enable children to manipulate, differentiate, order and classify impressions by touching, listening, seeing, tasting, and smelling.  These materials also help children to form mental images of concrete objects, paving the way to abstract thinking.

Language: 

The environment provides rich spoken language, through conversations, stories and poetry.  The use of specific materials helps children to link sounds and letter symbols.  As the children are aware of the phonetic sounds, and can link them together, they progress on reading phonetic words.  The children are then introduced to phonograms and sight words.  Eventually they become fully literate.  The language program also emphasizes on grammatical structure, function of words, cursive writing, and creative writing.

French:

At Parkdale Montessori, we take advantage of the children’s early years and their incredible capacity for absorption to introduce oral French.  In order to respect the principles of the Montessori Method, we do not “teach” French during “formal lessons”or “circle time” at the Casa level.  Instead, we introduce a second language in a very natural way into daily activities - French is simply in the air in the classroom every afternoon.  Each afternoon, teachers converse in French with each other and the children in an informal manner.  Children are introduced to new French vocabulary around classroom activities and classifed cards and by way of stories, songs, and poetry. 

Mathematics: 

Children are introduced to sensorial impressions of numbers, decimal system and its function, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  Children are first introduced to quantity, then symbols, followed by the association of both quantity and symbols.  Once children understand the concept of numbers from 0 to 10 in a very fundamental way, manipulation comes easily.  Addition and subtraction are introduced in logical, concrete way.  Once these concepts are well understood, multiplication and then division are introduced.  Later, children explore and memorize addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division tables, using specific tools. Following that, children only work with pencil and paper as they move on to more abstract materials, such as mathematical problems.

Cultural Studies: 

Cultural materials are presented as extensions of the sensorial and language activities.  These activities are used to broaden children’s experiences and draw their attention to various aspects of the world around them.

Geography: 

The geography materials provide children with the opportunity to classify the world into continents, countries, provinces, states; each with their own particular shapes, names, capitals and flags.  Geography activities also aid children developing a foundation of global awareness and a respect for all cultures.

Science:

The science materials provide children with exposure to basic leaf shapes, parts of the leaves and the flowers, life cycles, animals and their parts, etc. 

Art and Music:

The comprehensive art and music programs give children the opportunity to enjoy a variety of creative activities, as well as gain knowledge of the great masters.

Movement: 

Movement contributes not only to the physical but also to the intellectual development of children.

Outdoor activities: 

In our large and secure garden area designed to encourage social interaction, laughter, exercise and hands-on study of natural sciences, children participate in taking care of the outdoor environment, such as gardening, growing vegetables, raking, or pulling weeds.  They experience the full life cycle of the garden using child-size gardening tools and the basic building blocks: sun, soil and water.