About
Mountain View-Los Altos Montessori Children's Center is a state-licensed Montessori preschool serving children from the ages of 2 through 6 years. From over 35 years of early childhood educational experience, we provide a flexible program for parents who want their children to participate in a preschool or kindergarten experience with a full day option.
Our program is designed around a different theme each month. The morning begins with a large group circle time where new work of the day is introduced. This is followed by the "work time" where children select materials of their own choice off the shelves. These materials are appropriate for their own developmental level. The lesson plans follow a yearly curriculum enriched by geography, science, math, language, sensorial, practical life and art, music, foreign language and a gross-motor development program. The work time is followed by a group time where children participate in singing and learning Spanish. A 45-minute recess outside follows. The half day program ends at 12 noon. Children that stay past noon have lunch followed by story time. Children who nap will then go down for their naps and the PM schedule follows the same format as the AM program with different enriching activities.
Program Goals
Our philosophy is to give children a "love for school" attitude by building their self-esteem and having the children verbalize their feelings. The chief goals of the curriculum are:
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To provide a prepared environment developing cognitive learning through hands-on activities
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To provide a child oriented environment giving children choices and the ability to execute them
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The ability to master basic skills thereby developing a genuine joy for learning
The Prepared Environment
Practical Life
The children learn to care for the environment through simple tasks involving pouring, spooning, care of themselves, such as buttoning and tying, and care of the environment such as polishing and washing.
Sensorial
Sensorial refines various perceptual discriminations in all five senses such as size, color, shape, texture, sound and taste. Examples of these materials are the brown stairs, the pink tower and the red rods.
Language
The Language Arts are organized into the categories of listening, speaking, writing, and reading. The children practice skills in classification, visual discrimination, vocabulary development, and auditory discrimination.
Math
The children manipulate objects that introduce the understanding of mathematical concepts. Activities in this area include patterning, measuring, size classifications and numeral and quantity recognition.
Science
The sciences are designed to introduce children to botany, zoology, chemistry, physics, geology and astronomy. The children develop a life-long fascination with the universe and the world we live in through hands-on experiments and materials.
Geography
The history and geography materials are designed to teach even the youngest of students the shapes and names of our continents. The children learn about land formations as well as flags and customs from around the world.
Arts, Music, and Foreign Language
Art is an important part of the program where children, using a wide variety of materials such as scissors and paintbrushes, learn to cut, paint, and glue. These materials are available at all times. The children explore songs and dance rhythms through the use of tapes, records and musical instruments. Spanish is integrated into circle time.
