Welcome!
We hope everyone had a wonderful, restful summer and the students are excited to return to school. We are eagerly anticipating a room of little friends filling LED with the “energy of learning”! We welcome our new families and students and welcome back our returning families and LED Grade 1 and 2 alumini. Herein you will find our goals for the first month of school, as well as an overview of our teaching philosophy.
A Montessori Lower Elementary classroom is an active, prepared environment. It offers a wide range of compelling, engaging materials, and is guided by teachers who are keen observers, ready to seize teachable moments. Students go about making independent choices of work in class, and follow their interests through various research projects and collaborative works. They are guided when necessary in order to maintain a well-balanced and productive work period. Throughout the school day, students are invited to lessons in groups or individually. At times, the class may also engage in thematic discussions or lessons as a whole.
2013-2014 LED Class
To help give parents an idea of what would normally be covered in the course of a month, we will be sharing general lesson themes for each month, starting with those for the month of September (please click the link below to view our goals for September).
It is important to note that classroom lessons are not strictly limited to or determined by these themes. Other fundamental Montessori principles are considered in the comprehensive implementation of a productive classroom:
- We respect and seize moments of serendipitous learning initiated by the student. These “teachable” moments are invaluable, effective opportunities to engage the child’s inquiring mind, and feed and deepen intellectual curiosity. Lessons may and will arise from these moments, and they are prioritized as crucial opportunities for optimum learning.
- We follow the readiness of the child for any lesson. Each individual’s pace and readiness for learning is respected. Time is allotted for students to practice and grow with the concepts which have been presented.
- Learning is cross-curricular and cyclical. Fundamental concepts and skills are re-visited on a regular basis throughout a child’s time in a Montessori class. Lessons are not simply given one month and then promptly forgotten. The unique structure of a Montessori classroom – with its emphasis on connective learning and its focus on individual inquiry – enables students to come across a particular concept several times and in different contexts or ways within a three-year cycle.
Additionally, our first week will be dedicated to orienting the students to the new classroom arrangement, getting to know each other through “ice-breaker” activities, composing our Classroom Constitution, and completing some academic “warm-ups” to assess where the students are after the summer break. Please feel free to contact us at led@mbts.ky if you have questions. We look forward to a great first month with the students!