The Pre-Primary years are one of the most remarkable periods of human development. Children at this stage are absorbing everything around them, language, culture, movement, mathematical concepts, not through instruction but through interaction with a thoughtfully prepared environment.
The prepared environment
Southside Montessori’s Pre-Primary classroom is a rich Montessori prepared environment where children work with the classic Montessori materials: sandpaper letters, the golden beads, the pink tower, the binomial cube. These materials are not toys. They are precisely designed tools for developing specific cognitive and motor skills, each one preparing the child for the next.
The five curriculum areas
Practical Life
Pouring, sweeping, food preparation, dressing and care of the environment. The foundation for concentration and independence.
Sensorial
Refining and organising what the senses take in, through materials that isolate size, shape, colour, weight, sound and texture.
Language
Spoken language, sound games, sandpaper letters, the moveable alphabet, then writing and reading.
Mathematics
Concrete materials that make quantity, place value and operations physical before they become abstract.
Cultural
Geography, science, history, art and music, introduced as part of everyday classroom life.
The three year cycle and the kindergarten year
Children stay in the same Pre-Primary classroom for three years. The third year, which is the kindergarten year, is the one that matters most. Having spent two years learning from older children, they become the leaders of the classroom, consolidating everything they know by teaching it to someone else. Families who move their child on before that third year miss the payoff of the first two.
What children develop
Concentration and independence
Genuine concentration and self-regulation, built through freely chosen, purposeful work.
Literacy and mathematics
Strong literacy foundations and mathematical thinking, made concrete through Montessori materials.
Social and emotional growth
The social skills and emotional intelligence that come from working in a mixed-age community.
Moving into Lower Primary
When children complete the kindergarten year, they move into Lower Primary ready for the shift from absorbing the world through the senses to actively wanting to understand it.