Ages 2.5 - 6 with Curriculum extending into 3rd Grade
The AMI Primary class instills the habits that make education easy. This alone can change a child’s future as they move effortlessly into more and more advanced academics through their own sense of intellectual curiosity and wonder.
This is one of the greatest gifts a parent can give a child.
When a child is potty trained (often by 2.5) they have achieved a level of self control and independence that allows them to enter the Montessori Primary classroom. A highly trained teacher, combined with materials designed to engage a child’s natural interest in learning, will allow young children to advance in their studies. AMI Montessori Primary children receive instruction that can extend into the third grade of traditional education. Studies clearly illustrate that students who begin Montessori at this early age, and complete AMI Montessori Elementary, are academically and socially more advanced than their peers.
The AMI Montessori preschool classroom in a “living room” for children. Dr. Montessori was the first to introduce “child-sized” furnishings to the classroom environment. Children choose educational activities from the many scientifically designed, self-correcting materials displayed on open shelves and are allowed to work on the floor or at tables as they feel comfortable.
People that believe the common misconception that younger children cannot concentrate without supervision have never been in an AMI Montessori classroom. Dr. Montessori demonstrated that younger children can easily and happily acquire skills that allow them to learn independently when provided with age-appropriate materials.
Over a period of time, the classroom develops into a “normalized community”. Students work independently with high levels of concentration and few interruptions. Normalization is the process whereby a child moves from being undisciplined to self-discipline, from disordered to ordered, from distracted to focused, through activities in the environment. The process occurs through repeated work with materials that captivate the child.
Five Distinct Areas Constitute the Primary Prepared Environment:
Practical Life enhances the development of task organization and cognitive order through care of self, care of the environment, exercises of grace and courtesy and coordination of physical movement.
Sensorial studies enable the child to order, classify and describe sensory impressions in relation to length width, temperature, mass, color, pitch etc.
Mathematics makes use of manipulative materials to enable the child to internalize concepts of number, symbol, sequence, operations and memorization of basic facts.
Language includes oral language development, written expression, reading, the study of grammar, creative dramatics and children’s literature. Cursive writing, story development and reading are developed through the use of sandpaper letters, alphabet cut-outs and various presentations allowing children to link sounds and letter symbols effortlessly and to express their thoughts through writing.
Cultural activities expose the child to basics in geography, history and life sciences. Music, art and movement education are part of the integrated curriculum.
The primary environment unifies the psycho-social, physical and academic functioning of the child. Its important task is to provide the students with an early and general foundation that includes a positive attitude toward school, inner security and a sense of order, pride in the physical environment, abiding curiosity, a habit of concentration, habits of initiative and persistence, the ability to make decisions self-discipline and a sense of responsibility to other members of the class, school and community.
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