Aldea Primary Program -- The Casa

The AMI-Certified Primary program accomodates toilet-trained children ages three through Kindergarten. Children use a variety of materials especially designed for the Montessori classroom to make discoveries in practical life, sensorial, language, cultural, and mathematics curriculums.

“Our aim is not only to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but to so touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his innermost core.” -- Dr. Maria Montessori

Practical Life -- The Skills of Daily Living

Any preschool parent will tell you that his or her preschooler frequently leaves all the toys in favor of helping mom or dad. Preschoolers are drawn to the activities they see in their daily lives—cleaning, washing, cooking. The young child understands that to master these skills means to achieve a degree of independence.

The exercises in the classroom give the child opportunities to practice these skills in four distinct areas:

• Care of the Person (zipping, tying, dressing, etc.)



• Care of the Environment (sweeping, dishwashing, polishing, etc.)



• Social graces (greeting, thanking, apologizing, etc.)



• Movement (balancing, remaining still, silence, etc.)

The Montessori environment fosters the child’s growing independence and belief that, “I can do it myself.”

Sensorial -- Exploring the World

Dr. Montessori recognized that the young child discovered the world through the use of his senses. By providing a variety of sensorial experiences and giving the child the language with which to describe them, the Montessori environment opens the door to the world and provides the “keys” to that world.

In the classroom, the children explore shape, size, texture, smell, sound, color and taste. By isolating the quality being explored, the materials allow the child to grasp the concept and then apply it to his environment.

Language -- From Spoken to Written

Language lessons are pivotal in the curriculum, and cross over into the other areas throughout the day. Students develop vocabulary, progress into letter recognition, writing, and finally reading.

Through a succession of exercises, students progress through combining sounds into words, phonetic reading, and then total reading (the ability to pick up any book and read it). The students simultaneously develop their fine motor skills for handwriting through a series of increasingly challenging exercises.

Mathematics -- From Concrete to Abstract

Sometime after their fourth birthday, the children begin the study of mathematical concepts. Students begin with segmented number rods to introduce quantity. As they progress, concepts become more difficult, moving from addition with concrete materials to subtraction facts with materials to division on paper. Geometry and fractions are also available for exploration.

Cultural -- We Are the World

The cultural curriculum teaches children History, Geography, Art Appreciation, Music, and Natural sciences.

“If help and salvation are to come, they can only come from the children, for the children are the makers of men.” -- Maria Montessori

Dr. Montessori understood that only through the children could we achieve world peace. The children come to appreciate the differences between cultures and the basic needs that we all share through the cultural curriculum.

Each month we select a country on which to focus. Pictures and maps from that country are displayed in the classroom. We make coloring sheets with concepts and objects from the area of study available for students. We learn songs and dances related to the area. At the end of the month, students help prepare a meal consisting of some of the traditional foods from the country. Parents play a big role in these cultural celebrations, assisting in food preparation, contributing pictures and other information about the specific area, and attending the celebration itself.