Montessori (Ages 3-6) - Best Private School

Choosing a Montessori environment for your child has many benefits. Not only is Montessori known for individually paced learning and fostering independence, it also teaches empathy and a passion for problem-solving. Children in Montessori schools have shown significantly greater gains in measure of executive function, reading, math, and vocabulary, compared to their non-Montessori counterparts.

Pinnacle Academy Montessori Students Reading

The Montessori Difference

Our mission is to empower each child as they grow into their independence. At Pinnacle Academy Montessori School, each child is valued as a unique individual. Montessori education recognizes that children learn in different ways, and accommodates all learning styles. Students learn at their own pace, each advancing as he or she is ready, guided by the teacher in an individualized learning plan. Beginning at an early age, Montessori nurtures order, concentration, and independence. Intentional classroom design, materials, and daily routines support the student’s emerging “self-regulation” (the ability to educate one’s self, and to think about what one is learning), in toddlers through adolescents.

Students are part of a close, caring community. The multi-age classroom—typically spanning 3 years—re-creates a family structure. Older students enjoy stature as mentors and role models; younger children feel supported and gain confidence about the challenges ahead. Teachers model respect, loving kindness, and a peaceful conflict resolution. Montessori students enjoy independence work within limits. Working within parameters set by their teachers and the classroom community, students are active participants in deciding what their focus of learning will be.

Montessori Methodology

Practical Life Exercises

Practical life includes life skills to help develop independence, coordination, concentration, self-control, self-awareness, confidence and include:

– Care of Self (food preparation, dressing, washing),
– Care of Environment (cleaning, gardening, care of pets, environmentalism),
– Grace and Courtesy (greetings, manners, social interactions),
– Control of Movement (refining movements, walking the line, moving quietly).

Sensorial Exercises

Sensorial activities allows the child to refine each of their senses:

– Sight (visual),
– Touch (tactile),
– Smell (olfactory),
– Taste (gustatory)
– Sound (auditory)
– Stereognostic (kinaesthetic).

Includes the manipulation of specifically designed materials that isolate qualities. Refines fine motor skills, visual and auditory senses and develops coordination and the ability to order and classify. Materials include Pink Tower, Brown Stairs, Knobbed Cylinders, Color Tablets.

Language Exercises

Mathematics Exercises

Mathematics is developed with the use of concrete learning materials. The sensorial area is the preparation for mathematics. Hands-on materials are used such as number rods, sandpaper numbers, number boards, spindle box, number tiles, beads, and games. Each exercise builds upon another and the child gradually moves to from concrete to abstract areas such as place value, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and fractions.

Culture Exercises

Culture allows the child to explore the natural world around them and includes:

– Geography (continents, landforms, earth layers, solar system),
– Zoology (classification, physiology of animals),
– Botany (ecology, classification, physiology of plants),
– History (time lines, using a calendar),
– Science

Art and music could be considered cultural activities, however, creativity is encouraged across all curriculum areas. The cultural area is clearly identifiable by globes, puzzle maps, flags and perhaps images or materials from other cultures.

Preparing Children for Life

Given the independence and support to question, to probe deeply, and to make connections, Montessori students become confident, enthusiastic, self-directed learners. They are able to think critically, work collaboratively, and act boldly—a skill set for the 21st century. As you know, Pinnacle is a STEAM school that focuses on student inquiry. The Montessori method will allow our students to pursue their own self-paced curriculum, either individually or in small groups, within an environment that will allow for individualized growth.

We optimize sustained concentration, allowing a child to develop not just the ability to make choices but also the joy of sticking with them. We employ materials and activities that are well-designed. The Montessori learning materials are organized in such a way that they provide a child with core learning experiences in motor control, sensorial exploration, numeracy, literacy, and human culture that build on one another. As a result, you gain the invaluable benefit of basic knowledge and abilities, as well as the habit and pleasure of lifelong learning.

Student Support

Students are supported in becoming active seekers of knowledge. Teachers provide environments where students have the tools to pursue answers to their own questions. Internal satisfaction drives the child’s curiosity and interest and results in joyous learning that is sustainable over a lifetime. Self-correction and self-assessment are an integral part of the Montessori classroom approach. As they mature, students learn to look critically at their work, and become adept at recognizing, correcting, and learning from their errors.

Montessori supports social-emotional skills. Contemporary research supports the 100-year-old Montessori Method's effectiveness, indicating that children who learn in Montessori classrooms demonstrate stronger social-emotional skills in many more areas than children in more traditional environments.

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