A Day in Preschool
Children who arrive in the early morning can help teachers setting up the classrooms or getting to their own work. Children, whether they attend all day or just for the morning, spend most of the morning working independently, freely choosing the works that interest them. This period is when teachers are observing children, giving individual or small-group lessons, and facilitating a peaceful learning environment. Snacks and other food activities are available all morning. Gross motor activities are sometimes available in the "muscle room" during this work period. The morning ends with a line time, with group activities such as the daily calendar, games, songs and a story.
Children who do not stay for lunch have their outdoor time before they are picked up from the playground, while others will go to lunch. Hot lunch is prepared at the school every day. Children in the All-Day program have a play period outside after lunch, while staff prepare the classrooms for naps, the Extended-Day class and the Afternoon Preschool class.
After playtime, younger children who stay all day will rest. The older children have their special time, called Extended-Day, with a focus on more advanced activities, during naps. The late afternoon is a time when All-Day children come back together for more exploration of the classroom learning environment or on the playground. The All-Day program ends with games and songs, while parents arrive to pick up their children.
The 3-hour Afternoon Preschool class runs concurrently with the afternoon portion of the All-Day program. Afternoon Preschool begins with outdoor time on the playground. Following playtime, the session is devoted to individual work time as in the morning classes and short group times for calendar, songs, games and a story.
Preschool environments: Our preschool classrooms at Boulder Montessori School are designed in the Montessori tradition, with learning materials displayed on shelves accessible to all the children and work spaces at tables or rugs on the floor. Within the mixed age group of 2½ to 6 year olds, children learn and advance at their own pace in a non-competitive atmosphere. The younger learn by the example of the older. The older children gain confidence and reinforce their knowledge by helping the younger ones.
The children are free to move around and choose what material or activity they will use, and whether they will work alone or with a friend. Our Montessori environments have unique, self-teaching materials which are manipulated by the children. The adults interact with one child at a time, demonstrating the use of the materials and recording his or her progress.
Practical life activities build gross and fine motor skills and coordination, as well as help develop concentration. There are many tasks, such as care of self (ex. dressing), caring for the environment, and exercises for hand-eye coordination, presented to enable the child to develop competence and independence through practice and repetition.
Sensorial materials connect the child to the physical attributes of the world around through concrete materials that isolate one quality or aspect for hands-on exploration. Concepts presented in this area include color, weight, shape, and size, and the ability to see similarities and differences in increasingly minute variations.
Academic materials give the children many opportunities to expand their knowledge in the areas of language, mathematics, science and geography. Children often develop readiness for reading and writing or numeracy, because they have experienced concrete activities presented in small, logical steps that build upon each other in these areas.
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