A Typical Day
The
Children's Room sessions run from 9am to 12 noon Monday to Friday.
The morning sessions begins at 9.00am when the children are welcomed into the school by our 4 teachers. After the hanging of coats and changing into non-outdoor shoes, the children are engaged in practical life and sensorial work for the first hour and 15 minutes.
Practical life exercises help a child grow in motor skills, cognitive
development, self confidence and development of his or her own personality, and
most of all independence. They encourage the “I can do it myself ”approach that
young children have e.g. managing their own clothes by using dressing frames to
practice buttons, zips and bows, using jugs to pour beans which naturally leads
onto pouring drinks and laying tables and encouraging social skills with friends
and teachers. This all provides a feeling of independence and self worth.
Sensorial exercises help the child to learn through his or her senses;
Montessori devised a whole range of materials to help the child sort, match, and
grade and the materials are designed to help the child’s mind focus on some
particular quality e.g. wooden rods that teach idea of length, cubes in the pink
tower that of size etc etc. Wherever possible natural materials are used.
At around 10.15 am each child has the opportunity to participate in a 10 minute
yoga session with a qualified teacher. This is a calm, quiet period of the day
that leads naturally onto the much awaited snack time.
Suitably refreshed, we
may have a walk in the park opposite (weather permitting) or do some work in our
small garden. Water play, themed art work and creativity sessions round off the
morning before it is time for a story, some songs and time to go home.
Each child has the freedom to choose within the structured environment whatever activity they wish to participate in and because we work on a very high teacher to child ratio (one to four) we can ensure that whatever the activity chosen, it is being done in the correct and most beneficial way for the children