 It
is 7:45 in the morning. The rooster next door has already greeted
the day a few hours before. Early care begins. Children are dropped off
near the elementary playground. Regular day teachers arrive by 8:00 and
ready the classrooms for the children. At 8:15 the classrooms open. The
children leave the playground and go to their homerooms. Early care preschoolers
are escorted to classrooms by their teachers.
At 8:30 school officially begins. In
some of the classrooms, students and teachers sit together to plan their
day. In others, the children begin working from their work plans. Some
children are having a lesson on the big bang, others work in small groups
on a research project about Europe. A teacher takes a group out on a nature
hike, searching for specimens for their botany research. Others move into
the media center to work on computers or make copies for their presentations
on an American president.
 Another
teacher guides
some children who have
multiplication on their work
plans over to the math shelves.
Together they decide what
material would be the best
choice. One student
chooses the stamp game
and the others ask for
a lesson with the checkerboard.
 Over
in the library area, students are
reading and composing stories.
Others concentrate on grammar
with the Grammar Symbols and
Sentence Analysis boxes. Two children
work together spelling out words
with the Moveable Alphabet,
then copy the words
into their notebooks.
There
are children,
two at a time, having
snack on the front deck.
Many work on rugs with
math materials such as:
Test Tube Division,
the Golden Mat,
the Checkerboard,
the Geometric Stick Box,
the Squaring and Cubing Chains,
the Binomial and Trinomial Cubes.
Some
learn subtraction
with the Negative Snake Game.
Others tackle multiplication
facts with the Pythagoras
Board. One boy busily
composes numbers
from the Hundred Board.
 One
child works on initial sounds and an older child, sitting along
side, helps her sort through the "b" and "d" cards.
Another child helps his partner review the names of the Geometric Solids.
Two children sit across the table testing each other on spelling words.
At the end
of the morning
children are invited
to lessons in Spanish,
art, music and computers.
A child
reads aloud
to a volunteer parent.
Another volunteer works
with Sandpaper Letters,
inviting children to practice
their sounds, tracing
the rough surface of
each letter as a
preparation for writing.
 At
11:30 lunch and recess begin
for the K/1 classes. At 12:30 it is time
for the older students to break for lunch and a more structured physical
education time. Games are played such as croquet, soccer, and kickball.
One day they run a 50-yard dash. Another day,
the children participate in a cooperative
game that teaches teamwork.
 When
the students return to class, it is time for silent reading. Everyone
reads, including the teachers. After a time of silence and calm, a teacher
calls them back to work or to afternoon specials. For the afternoon work
time, the work plans are put away and the children work entirely from
their interests and inspirations. It is still school and learning, it
just doesn't feel that way.
 Suddenly,
it is 2:45. Work
is put away. Some students
help restore order to the classroom.
Jobs rotate so that each student
in the class has the responsibility
at least once before the
end of the year. One child
dusts the shelves. Another
straightens the
library books.
 Other
children
rearrange the materials
on the shelves. The others
sit quietly and read until
their classmates are done.
The regular school day
is done at 3:15.
For those
who remain, we have an After School Program. For more info click
here.
 It's
been a full day for the students at Island Village Montessori School.
As they leave for home the children say goodbye to friends and teachers.
It's been a fun day of lessons and activities. Now it's time to go home
and be with family.
By 5:30 everyone has left for the day.
Now the campus is quiet, awaiting the
rooster to crow again.
|
Home