In Montessori, kindergarten is when your children advance into “big kids school” and put the concepts they have learned in preschool into practical usage. Basic concepts like letters and numbers transform into reading and addition, children are introduced to the sciences, and their socialization skills are refined into etiquette and responsibility.
Kindergarten and the Montessori Method
Children who remain in the Montessori environment from preschool through kindergarten find themselves elevated to the role of leadership in their multi-aged classrooms. Kindergarten wraps up the Montessori 3-year cycle, building the self-esteem of kindergartners by increasing their social responsibilities in regards to their younger classmates.Reading and Writing
During their kindergarten year, children learn to recognize and write common words, including the ability to pronounce the phonetic sounds of letters and common letter combinations. By the end of the year, these skills will include recognizing basic sentence structure, using plurals, and more.Basic Math
Preschool introduced children to counting numbers, but Montessori kindergarten will give children the ability to manipulate numbers using simple addition and subtraction as well as learning how to use sets to group related items. Preschool concepts such as recognizing shapes are refined, and numbers higher than 10 are introduced.Physical and Social Sciences
Physical sciences include biology and simple rules of matter. Kindergartners will be introduced the concepts like the states of matter and basic scientific ideas which will be expanded throughout their education.Kindergarten puts more emphasis on education than preschool, but Montessori kindergarten maintains the same activity centers and play-based techniques. Completing the 3-year cycle is a big deal for Montessori students, and kindergarten is the year when children are able to play a larger, more helpful role in the activities taking place within the classroom.