Casa program is designed for students between the ages of 2.5 to 6 years of age. It is a sensory-rich environment to promote a love of learning and deep concentration. The multi-age group provides opportunities for peer learning and mentorship, both in the classroom and on the playground. Children are given a balance between guidance and freedom for exploration of the five curriculum areas of Practical Life, Sensorial, Language, Math, and Culture, through engaging with hands-on activities, as well as participating in physical education, Art and craft as well as French and Music.
1-Practical Life:
The Practical Life area is composed of exercises of everyday life activities such as pouring, cutting, and sweeping. While children at this age continue to learn and practice activities of the home and family environment they become familiar with activities for care of self, care of environment, and lessons in grace and courtesy.
Practical Life area is the foundation for all the other areas in the classroom. The exercises in this area aid the child in control and coordination of their movements, concentration, independence, self-esteem, and responsibility.
2-Sensorial:
The Sensorial area aims to train and refine the senses of children to better observe and receive information from the world around them. Exercises for the visual, tactile, auditory, gustatory, olfactory, baric, thermic, and stereognostic senses allow children to work with abstract ideas such as colour, length, volume, and temperature in the form of concrete activities. Through this work, children also learn the corresponding language for what they are discovering.
3-Language:
The Language area focuses on the enrichment of spoken language, as well as the development of writing and reading. Children are presented with a broad range of vocabulary applied to all areas of the curriculum, and encouraged to develop their conversational skills. Children are given the keys to express themselves in writing through classic Montessori materials such as the Sandpaper Letters and Moveable Alphabet, and then progress to reading.
4-Math:
In Math area manipulative materials are utilized to provide independent, hands-on experience with mathematical principles. These materials assist the children in developing a sense of number and awareness of quantity in relation to numeric symbols, as well as a deep understanding of the decimal system and place value. Work is also undertaken to solve equations in all four operations, as well the memorization of addition/subtraction and multiplication/division tables.
5-Culture:
The Cultural area of the Montessori classroom covers a variety of subjects. Geography, Science, Botany, Zoology, and History. Art and Music are also considered a part of the Cultural Area of the classroom.
Geography – During the year subjects discussed in Geography are things such as; land, air, and water, maps, continents, people, food and music from other countries. I like to take each continent and learn about it during the month. I set up a continent table each month with items from different countries for each continent. Curriculum pages break these down monthly.
Science – Unit studies in science include subjects as; four seasons, the five senses, why leaves change color, layers of the earth, parts of a volcano, and biomes of the earth. I include some simple science experiments as well. The curriculum pages will break these, and other science subjects, down monthly. The materials will be changed on this shelf monthly as the unit studies change.
Zoology – This is the area where the focus is learning about animals. I like to start with the five classes of vertebrates and have further lessons on each of the five. Invertebrates will be discussed also including insects, worms, and spiders. I think it is important to have classroom pets and so try to have one vertebrate and one invertebrate. We have a hamster and two hermit crabs. The curriculum pages will break these unit studies down monthly and works on the shelf change accordingly.
Botany – Seeds, parts of a plant, kinds of trees, herbs and spices, and what plants give us, are some of the unit studies that are discussed in Botany. This shelf will change monthly as well as the unit studies change. The curriculum pages will have the breakdown of the subjects and discuss how to present lessons.
History-Teaching history in a Montessori classroom means helping children understand the passage of time. It is a difficult concept for little ones to grasp, but there are many interesting ways to explore the passage of time in a Montessori environment. Some of the best ways to begin the introduction to time and history is to work with The Calendar, Days of the week, Months of the year, four seasons, Time line of the Child’s life, Birthday celebration, Sequence cards and clock.