Village Montessori Academy

Like all Montessori curriculum areas, geography is sequential and multi-sensory. Before giving abstract concepts to the minds of children, beautiful tactile materials are given to their hands. The lessons and works that children may repeat as often as they like initially provide the child with the most concrete experience and move gradually toward abstraction. Before being introduced to the continents that the Earth’s land is divided into, children observe real land, air, and water while touching the rough land and smooth water on the globe. With the introduction to continents of the world, children tasted food, matched models of landmarks and pictures of homes around the world. They experience how the sphere of the earth is divided into hemispheres represented two dimensionally on a map by watching a clay model of the Earth be halved and flattened. Children were introduced to the cardinal directions by observing the position of the rising sun and labeling the classroom walls each with its direction. “What the hand does, the mind remembers.” Dr. Maria Montessori

Great evening for a great cause and ran into ! We love our parks and thank you to this amazing organization for helping keep them beautiful

Thank you for the beautiful and generous addition to our classroom!

Hope to see you out! It's a beautiful day ☀️

Update! We have canceled our pool party this weekend due to the recent drop in temperature. We hope you can join us next weekend at the playground instead!

Happy first week of school!

Geography, science, food prep, classroom routines and lots of play time outside ☀️ plus homemade sourdough crackers with fresh herbs from the garden

We're ready and excited to welcome our families and children back to school on Monday ✨

These ladies have been working tirelessly to make everything beautiful and prepared for an amazing school year!

Alumni, current and prospective families are welcome! Check your email for details or PM me if you don't see an invite and want to join us.

This is the window during which children most embrace learning about and practicing good manners. Our Montessori environment gives them multiple authentic opportunities to learn about and practice social skills with adult modeling, direct instruction, and continual support. Young children welcome grace and courtesy lessons and love being equipped to politely navigate social situations such as dining, meeting new people, asking to join an activity, and politely accepting or declining an invitation. Practicing grace and courtesy grows self-esteem and independence.

See:
https://amshq.org/-/media/Files/AMSHQ/Families/Reading-Materials/ML_Summer18_MontessoriParent.ashx?la=en

The Montessori peace curriculum isn’t a separate set of lessons, but rather is a part of daily life in our community. Children practice “the silence game,” and repeat it when they like. In addition to growing their peace and happiness this independent act of mindfulness develops self-regulation and builds executive function.
Each day before lunch, children say the poem:
Earth that gives to us this food,
Sun that makes it ripe and good,
We thank you, Earth. We thank you, Sun.
We won’t forget what you have done.
The words are meaningful to them because they compost, plant, tend, harvest and share food from their garden.
Each child has a celebration of their trips around the sun on planet earth called the “birthday walk.” We sing this second verse of the birthday song:
We celebrate your birth,
And your place on the Earth.
May the sun, moon, and stars
Bring you peace where you are.
We will share more about peace in the Montessori classroom and how to practice at home.

New website (www.villagemont.org) and refined mission statement to wrap up the best year yet ✨

End of year family gathering in the gardens. We are so grateful for this awesome community ☀️

Still enrolling for the 2024-25 school year! Message us today to schedule a call or tour!

Annual Maymont field trip was a blast! Perfect weather and so grateful that our VMA families could join us ☀️

1. The joy of meaningful work!
2. Sense of ownership and responsibility
3. Community building and collaboration
4. Builds independence and confidence
5. Develops executive functioning

These are just some of the many reasons that children are cleaning in a Montessori classroom and how it benefits their development!

Tie dye was a blast and they all turned out great! Each shirt was made and wrapped with love 💕

A morning of Korean cultural studies with Samuel and Hanna

He wore a traditional hanbok and taught the children the Korean alphabet. The children helped prepare soup using a miso that was fermented for 50 days from Samuel's grandmother!

The cutest little visitor today

Happy Mother's Day! The children loved spending the week making necklaces, pin punching cards and wrapping their gifts for mom.

She was so excited to show me the giant leaf she found and brought in for the botany work 🥰. This work starts as a puzzle, then matching work, and eventually making and reading their own booklets. This system is utilized across the curriculum and supports many areas of development (vocabulary, science, fine motor, concentration, generalization, organization and more). It's also just a delight to see and hear children making real world connections!

Multiplication and division bead boards

Higher level math concepts are easily grasped through the use of Montessori materials, even dividing with remainders.

Sequential and intentional use of math materials allow children to move from concrete to abstract thinking naturally and confidently, eventually moving away from the materials when the individual is ready.

Friday afternoon watercolor painting with the older children. Art is such a peaceful and awesome experience when children are invited to paint whatever they want, as long as they want and as many as they want!

May we raise children who love the unloved things
by Nicolette Sowder

"May we raise children
who love the unloved things – the dandelion, the
worms & spiderlings.
Children who sense
the rose needs the thorn
& run into rainswept days
the same way they turn towards sun…

And when they’re grown &
someone has to speak for those
who have no voice
may they draw upon that
wilder bond, those days of
tending tender things

and be the ones."

This poem beautifully describes Montessori Peace Education