Curriculum

One of the first goals of Smallville is to develop in the very young child a strong and realistic sense of independence and self-reliance. Along with love and a stable environment, this is the child’s greatest need. This area of the curriculum focuses on control and deals with the social and physical environment in which he lives. There is a growing pride in being able to “do it for myself.” Practical life activities involve young children in the care of the environment.  Students dust, dry spilled water, and water plants.  They also enjoy sweeping, mopping, table washing, table waxing, metal polishing, clothes washing, folding, flower arranging, sowing seeds, and cooking. They take great delight in this work, especially if it involves water. Practical Life activities aid the development of concentration, coordination of movement, order and independence. These activities are important to the integration of the child’s personality because she develops trust and feelings of self-worth.

Exercises in perception, observation, fine discrimination and classification play a major role in helping our students to develop their sense of logic and concentration. At the preschool level, these experiences include activities, which assist the student in developing fine discriminations and categorizations using their visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory and olfactory senses. Through activities in this area students prepare for science as well as geometry and algebra.

Because of our multi-age classroom design, our youngest students are constantly engaged with older students in the class who are already reading. Every curriculum area of the preschool classroom builds and reinforces in our young children a spontaneous interest in learning how to read and write. We begin to teach reading as soon as that interest is first expressed usually as early as two years old.

Pre-Reading Young students learn to recognize the shape and phonetic sounds of the alphabet through the Sandpaper Letters, a tactile alphabet. The concept that written words are actual thoughts set down in print begins to form as young students work with the easily manipulated letters of a Large Moveable Alphabet. As they start reading, they show their understanding of the parts of speech through games and activities.

Writing Students practice handwriting through a set of activities that entail increasing levels of fine motor precision. These exercises begin with very young children and extend over several years so that mastery is slowly but comprehensively attained. Once handwriting is properly accomplished, the students begin to develop their composition skills. Creative and expository composition skills continue to develop and become more sophisticated as the students advance from level to level. Students are typically asked to write on a daily basis, composing short stories, poems, plays, reports, and news articles.

Reading Children begin to sound out and write words using the Large Moveable Alphabet (LMA) as they first learn to read. It continues throughout their education. The Large Moveable Alphabet (LMA) is used for the early stages of phonetic word creation, the analysis of words, spelling, composing sentences, stories, and poetry. This work facilitates early reading and writing tasks.

In the earliest years, Montessori students are introduced to the concepts of mathematics through the use of hands-on learning materials. These materials allow students to experience such concepts as linking quantities to numerical symbols, linear counting, zero, the decimal system, and the operations. The objective is for students to actually understand the mathematical concepts rather than just memorize facts and figures.

The use of sophisticated concrete didactic materials helps students understand complex mathematical concepts introduced during the Elementary years. The use of concrete materials allows students to eventually move into abstract mathematical thinking, generally of their own accord. Math concepts presented include: time, money operations, whole number operations, multiples and factors, fractions, decimal fractions, problem solving techniques, number patterns using figurate numbers, measurement, both customary and metric.

A core component of the Smallville curriculum is the study of the earth, plants, animals, and people. As our world becomes smaller through technological and economic connections our students are better prepared to meet the global challenges of the 21st century because of their deep interest in and understanding of scientific as well as cultural and religious ideas regarding the formation of the earth. Countries are studied in many ways at all levels. Smallville students engage in detailed studies of one nation at a time. Focus moves over the years from one continent to another, as the student’s interest leads them. All aspects of the nation are considered: geography, climate, biomes (biological homes), major rivers and lakes, cities, mountains, people, food, religions, and much more depending on the skill level of the students.

A number of learning festivals are held every year to focus on specific cultures and to celebrate life together: an example being Chinese New Year, when the entire school might study China, prepare Chinese food and learn Chinese dances, Anything that the students find interesting is used to help them become familiar with the countries of the world: flags, food, climate, traditional dress, houses, major cities, children’s toys and games, stamps, coins, traditional foods, art, music, and history. This interweaves through the entire curriculum.

Smallville Montessori has a fully equipped custom-made kitchen for kids. Students are introduced to various recipes from appetizers to main entrée, and desserts to fruit concoctions. The SVM culinary class aims to foster their love and appreciation for healthy food, as it provides first-hand experience in cooking and baking. Students are taught how to handle kitchen tools and equipment properly and safely, as well as how to take care of them. Children get to practice peeling, chopping, cutting, grating and sautéing thus expanding their practical life skills and learning the rudiments of basic cooking. They learn to measure and calculate. They use their imagination and creativity as well. It is the tangible application of practical life skills. The teachers, in cooking classes will guide the students. Professional chefs are invited, too, to work with the students.

A part of the Foreign Language Program of Smallville Montessori is learning Beginner’s French as a foreign language (FL). La Langue Francaise is widely used in European countries, Canada, French colonies in Africa and Asia. Children ages 2-6 absorb ideas and words more easily. Since the learners are non-native speakers of the language, code switching and sounding out approach would be applied to learning the FL. Learners would establish relation between pictures and words, and pictures and sounds. They would be taught basic vocabulary and useful phrases in French. At the end of the course, learners are expected to have learned the BASIC FL through this process: sounding out – comprehension – usage.

The term Yoga is a Sanskrit for “yoke”, which means connection. Through a series of breathing and moving exercises, the person’s mind, body and spirit are connected. The gains associated with the practice of yoga include: a more relaxed mind, a stronger, purified and more balanced nervous and circulatory systems, stronger joints and increased flexibility. As part of the Smallville program, Yoga is one of the activities integrated in our curriculum. Children benefit a lot from yoga exercises. It helps them develop focus and concentration. Yoga exercises develop proper breathing, which is essential to health. Yoga exercises help enhance the psychomotor skills growth. A preschool child continues to increase height and put on weights. As a result of physical, muscular and neurological maturation, he makes big progress in major movement skills such as jumping, running, climbing and balancing. Other children are of great interest to him now; when they see him engaged in energetic, physical play, they want to get involved, too. There are three levels in doing the yoga: easy, medium and hard levels. In Smallville, we introduce yoga by starting with the easy exercises.