Casa

Our Casa (pre-school, junior and senior kindergartens) programme groups children aged three, four, and five into a mixed-age setting. The full curriculum is designed to be completed over a three-year period, building skills consecutively over time.

Our Montessori curriculum is based on the following areas of learning: (please select an area of learning for greater detail)


• Practical Life
• Sensorial Education
• Language
• Math
• Cultural Studies
• French
• Music
• Art


Practical Life
Our Montessori curriculum supports and facilitates children in their innate desire to become independent and take care of their needs, and those of their environment.

The Practical Life component of our Montessori early childhood curriculum is the foundation for success in all other areas. Specific tasks enable your child to gain independence and develop a sense of order, coordination, an ability to concentrate, and a sense of responsibility. The freedom and confidence children gain through these tasks allows them to engage in individual and cooperative situations successfully, and prepares them for later success.

Our Practical Life programme includes exercises that develop your child's fine motor skills, preparing him/her to work with writing tools. It also includes lessons in grace and courtesy that will enable your child to have the social interactions that underlie good interpersonal relationships. Conflict resolution skills are also taught, and attention is given to making good choices. (Back To Top)


Sensorial Education
Our Montessori Sensorial curriculum trains children to discriminate and order the impressions received through each of their senses. Your child will learn to separate and classify forms, colours, textures, tastes, sounds and smells. This prepares them for more complex learning in language, math and cultural studies.

The Sensorial curriculum uses scientifically designed materials that isolate and sharpen each sense to support development of the intellect through hands-on exploration in the following areas:

" Visual,
" Tactile,
" Auditory,
" Gustatory (taste),
" Olfactory (smell) and
" Baric (weight).

Exercises in this area refine the senses and develop skills in thinking, judging, concentrating, comparing and sequencing. The materials offer unlimited opportunities for the development of vocabulary and the essential development of dexterity that will lead to writing and reading. (Back To Top)


Language
Our Language curriculum is designed to meet your child's innate need to acquire language. The enrichment of language skills is deeply embedded into the Montessori approach, and is a focal point of lessons in all of the other curriculum areas.

Significant emphasis is placed on building vocabulary and oral competency. Using Montessori materials, your child will acquire a rich vocabulary for labelling, describing, comparing and contrasting the environment and the people in that environment with precise terminology.

Discussion is encouraged and the children are given the appropriate language to engage in a meaningful exchange as they work. Small group and circle activities are organized on a daily basis. These are opportunities for the children to enjoy a wide variety of language activities that enrich their oral expression and strengthen their listening skills.

Written language is introduced to children at about four years of age. Progressive exercises lead them to the early levels of competence in reading and writing skills. Children are encouraged to write their own "books" and experience the joy of communicating their thoughts in writing to others.

Literacy skills will develop rapidly, supported by a programme designed to harness your child's inner drive to learn. (Back To Top)


Math
Our Montessori early childhood Math curriculum is firmly based on learning through experience. As with all elements of the curriculum, the children build on what they already know and systematically progress from the concrete to the abstract. They discover number patterns, sequences and rules by handling the materials.

To begin, children use a wide variety of materials that lead them to understand the value and sequence of numbers from 1 to 10. Once they have mastered this, they are introduced to larger quantities and learn the decimal system by making groups of tens, hundreds and thousands.

Number notation and place value are taught as the child demonstrates readiness. Four- and five-year-olds are introduced to the basic operations: addition, multiplication, subtraction and division at a concrete level so that they experience what these activities really mean. Gradually, they move toward an abstract understanding of the concepts.

Geometry is introduced in the early childhood programme through the use of materials that are classified according to size and shape. Your child will learn to discriminate, classify, and name circles, squares, rectangles and polygons.

Fractions are introduced, again in concrete form, and an introduction to the concept of equal parts of a whole lays the foundation for future work at the elementary level. (Back To Top)


Cultural Studies
Our Montessori approach is based on an integrated study of science, the social sciences and the arts. Children are exposed to a rich, stimulating variety of activities based through hands-on learning.

In keeping with the Montessori philosophy of education, the children first experience general rules of the universe, such as the division between land and water. Over time, children learn to break these categories into smaller parts: continents, oceans, and the provinces and territories of Canada. Stories of animals and children from other lands help the children to understand fundamental needs and how these are influenced by climate, environment and lifestyle.

Cultural differences and similarities are explored through music, dance, costume, and food. Festivals and traditions such as Christmas, Hanukkah, Chinese New Year and Diwali are celebrated through the arts and geography. Work with the cultural materials helps the children to be aware that they are part of the large family of humanity. (Back To Top)


French
Our French programme follows the very successful Accelerative Integrated Method. Also known as the Gesture Method, it integrates vocabulary to gestures. The children learn new words that are essential in the development of basic fluency by acting them out in songs and plays. (Back To Top)


Music
Music is a social, emotional, intellectual and physical experience. It is one of the few activities in life in which children have the opportunity to use both the left and the right sides of the brain, profoundly enhancing their growth.

The casa children begin music classes by developing their listening skills. Learning to listen while moving supports the integration of mind and body, a long process that carries on throughout all of the elementary years.

The Orff method is used to teach children music through creative and directed movement, singing, rhythm, community games, partner games, instruments and notation.

Children learn to keep a beat on their feet, on their knees, on rhythm instruments, and on percussion instruments. They distinguish beat from rhythm, high notes from low ones, and loud sounds from soft sounds. These skills are acquired while learning a large repertoire of songs and poems.

Each child will connect to music in his/her own way. Some children love to sing, some are great at improvising dances, and others have a natural aptitude for instruments. Music class enables your child to explore a new song, try a new dance, create a new arrangement on the xylophones, or accentuate a poem with sound.

Music is always a joyful endeavour. (Back To Top)


Art
Art is part of our daily classroom program. It is integrated into many aspects of the curriculum. Children illustrate their own books and project work and also appreciate art from many cultures through their cultural studies. They are taught numerous techniques and skills through the use of various mediums available in the classrooms. (Back To Top)