The 3 – 6 year old child is like a sponge, ready and eager to soak in information from the surrounding world. The Montessori classroom is a specially prepared environment that allows the child to freely explore a wide variety of subject areas using hands-on learning materials.
Students in the 3-6 classroom often have the same teaching team for all three years, and typically, only the graduating kindergartners leave at the end of each year, leaving a stable community of peers for the children.
There will never be a time in your child’s life when she is more capable of taking in information and making synaptic connections. The mathematic and language arts curricula take full advantage of this developmental phase by laying down basic concepts in an easy to understand, concrete manner.
Children may choose work off the low shelves that fill a 3-6 classroom as they wish. The only requirement is that a teacher has shown them how to use it first. The teacher observes the child’s choices and competency with different materials, using this information as her guide in determining which materials the child will be ready for next.