Traditional Learning

Traditional disciplines are taught through child directed exploration times (when children can freely choose where and what to work with), through group times, through project work and through teacher directed 1:1 work. While not every child wants to work in every area, we trust that over the course of our school year, children will learn skills in each subject area. Teachers never force a child to work on something, however, teachers DO encourage and expect children to stick with decisions that they themselves made, to concentrate and do ones best and to return to difficult work until it is completed rather than abandoning it.

In our older classes, we focus on planning and academic based learning that naturally accompanies much of the project work occurring in the classroom; in our younger classes we focus on social-emotional development and the growth of language and motor skills.

Research repeatedly shows that BC children have not developed strong social-emotional skills. In fact, current research is showing that self-regulation, an important social-emotional skill, has a stronger association with academic achievement than traditional math skills or even IQ levels! Without strong social-emotional skills, we have found that children are simply not able to participate effectively or independently in self-directed group learning. As a result, a significant portion of our program time is aimed at helping children develop social-emotional skills. For more information on SEL (social emotional learning), visit the SEL link under 'program'.

Teachers track children's learning goals and celebrate successes with the child and their family through documentation in the classroom, our blog and our parents-only video website.

Subjects studied include:

Literacy
Comprehension, visual and auditory discrimination, letter and word recognition, fine motor development and phonics are all part of our formal literacy program.

Our program uses literature - both popular, classic and up-and-coming - to instill a passion and excitement for books. Children explore literacy through structured instruction, individual, group and home reading, computers, drama, storyboards, puppets, visiting authors, and throughout other curriculum areas.

Mathematics
Children learn numerical symbols and amounts, patterns, graphing, charting, classification, currency, time, spatial reasoning and problem solving. Focus usually involves extensive work with monetary systems, spatial reasoning and patterns/classification.

Geography
Continents, countries, cities, landforms, water bodies: there is so much to study in our world! Montessori materials are often used to supplement learning about our world, as are research materials such as National Geographic and the internet.

Engineering & Architecture
Spatial reasoning, determining how things work, having a vision and determining how to make that vision a reality are all skills architects and engineers use daily. Focus is on the vision-design-create process.

Science & Technology
A curious mind and understanding of the world are taught through the scientific method: ask a question, create a hypothesis, test, observe, and draw a conclusion. Children will study areas in biology, physics, chemistry, geology, zoology and technology. Apple™ computers - with secure and safe internet access - are used for further research and exploration.

Language
Children are introduced to Mandarin, Cantonese, French and Japanese through games, singing and drama. Learning multiple languages helps auditory perception skills, emphasizes the importance of communication and prepares children for a diverse educational and, ultimately, career environment. We do not teach language immersion or language "classes"; rather, we introduce the idea of multiple languages through using other languages within our day to day experiences.

Performing Arts
Our performing arts programme has three main components: dance, drama & music, all of which encourage self-expression, confidence and body awareness. Children enjoy movement, musicality, and rhythm and learn balance, strength, flexibility and coordination. Our ever-changing tickle trunk of costumes, props and musical instruments is a magical and surprising part of these classes.

Visual Arts
Children are inspired to try new techniques and to explore what they can individually create. Children will use a variety of materials and techniques while they immerse themselves in drawing, painting, sculpture, mixed-media and photography.

Physical Education
Large and fine motor skills, coordination and balance are learned through physical fitness activities that develop strong, healthy and coordinated bodies. Classes in hiking, circus, yoga, soccer, golf, hockey, skating and more will build the foundation for healthy lifelong fitness habits.

Social Development
Social graces and etiquette are a part of a traditional Montessori curriculum, and are included in our programme. The classroom supports the development of social graces such as saying "Please" and "Thank you", setting a table, table manners, cleaning up after oneself, shaking hands and making eye contact. We also place a strong emphasis on group social skills: a significant portion of our curriculum focuses on developing problem solving skills with peers, negotiating difficult situations, learning to share and take turns, and working with different people, in both leadership and team roles.