Setting/Environment
The program is housed in a beautiful brick mansion in the historic East Side neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island. There are three classrooms consisting of two age groups- the toddler group, ages 18months to 3 years old, and the preprimary group, ages 2.9 years to 5 years old. The classrooms are bright and sunny, and prepared with attention to detail. There is a children's garden and play yard outside..

Program Hours/Days

Pre-Primary class (3yrs-6yrs)
Morning Session: 8:30 a.m. - 12:25 p.m.
Full Day: 8:30 a.m. - 3:25 p.m.*

*Please note early dismissal on Fridays, 12:25 p.m.
**(No afternoon classes on Fridays)
CHILDREN IN THE PREPRIMARY CLASS MUST BE TOILET TRAINED

ToddlerClass (18mos.-2.9yrs)
Morning Session: M-W-F 9:00 a.m. - 11:25 a.m.
Morning Session: T-Th 9:00 a.m. - 11:25 a.m.

Toddlers need not only love, emotional nurturing and a healthy physical environment, but also an environment which promotes their very real need to learn. Children in the program flourish in prepared environments which respect, support, and respond to their basic needs for independence, exploration, and the building of trust and self-esteem. Since Dr. Maria Montessori believed that children acquire knowledge through their senses, the program capitalizes on learning through direct experience. Children learn through the active exploration and manipulation of concrete materials. The structure of the curriculum is based on five developmental areas: Sensory and Perceptual, Physical and Motor, Self-Help Skills, Language, and Social and Emotional.

Dr. Maria Montessori believed that no human being is educated by another person but through his or her own experiences. A truly educated individual continues to learn long after the hours and years he or she spends in the classroom because that person is motivated from within by a natural curiosity and love for knowledge. Dr. Montessori felt, therefore, that the goal of early childhood education should not be to fill the child with facts from a pre-selected course of studies, but rather to cultivate the child’s own natural desire to learn. In the Montessori classroom this objective is approached in two ways: first, by allowing each child to experience the excitement of learning by his or her own choice rather than by being forced; and second, by helping the child perfect his or her natural tools for learning, so that the child’s abilities will be maximized for future learning situations. The Montessori materials have this dual, long-range purpose in addition to their immediate purpose of giving specific information to the child.

Practical Life Exercises
For young children there is something special about tasks which an adult considers ordinary— washing dishes, paring vegetables, setting the table. They are exciting to children because they allow them to imitate adults. Imitation is one of the strongest urges during children’s early years. In this area of the classroom, children perfect their coordination and become absorbed in an activity. They gradually lengthen their span of concentration. They also learn to pay attention to details as they follow a regular sequence of actions. Finally, they learn good working habits as they finish each task and put away all the materials before beginning another activity.

Sensorial Exercises
The Sensorial Materials in the Montessori classroom help children to distinguish, to categorize, and to relate new information to what they already know. This process is the beginning of conscious knowledge. It is brought about by the intelligence working in a concentrated way on the impressions given by the senses. By observing, understanding and exploring the world through the senses, the child acquires skills of classification, discrimination, evaluation and sequencing.

Mathematics
Dr. Montessori demonstrated that if children have access to mathematical equipment in their early years, they can easily and joyfully assimilate many facts and skills of arithmetic. She designed concrete materials to represent all types of quantities, after she observed that children who became interested in counting like to touch or move the items as they enumerate them. By combining this equipment, separating it, sharing it, counting it, and comparing it, they can demonstrate to themselves the basic operations of mathematics. Children do not sit down to memorize addition and subtraction facts or memorize multiplication tables. Rather, they learn these facts by actually performing the operations with concrete materials.

Language
Although language is one of the four basic learning areas in a Montessori class, it spans every other area. Children are exposed to many materials and activities designed to develop and refine sensory-motor skills necessary for reading and writing. The pre-reading child is introduced to phonics skills in a whole language curriculum. The children learn the phonetic sounds of the letters before they learn the alphabetical names in a sequence. The phonetic sounds are given first because these are the sounds they hear in words that they need to be able to read. The children first become aware of these phonetic sounds when the teacher introduces the consonants with the Sandpaper Letters. The individual presentation of language materials allows the teacher to take advantage of each child’s greatest periods of interest. Reading instruction begins on the day when the children want to know what a word says or when they show an interest in using the Sandpaper Letters. Writing— or the construction of words with the moveable alphabet— nearly always precedes reading in a Montessori environment.

Physical Geography and Exploration of the Wider World
At first, the children use our large wooden puzzle maps simply as puzzles. Gradually they learn the names of many of the countries as well as information about climate and products. The maps illustrate many geographical facts concretely. Children also learn the common land formations, such as islands and peninsulas, by making them. Children are provided in this area with the opportunity to experience and create in areas relating to mankind’s culture: art, craft, drama, music, dance, and physical education, which enable them to develop their imaginative responses and their creative self expression.

Science and Nature
Studies have shown that children can obtain sensory information only when they act on an object physically and mentally. Your child has many opportunities to handle objects and observe how they react in order to gain the physical knowledge needed for science.

Music
Musical games, chants, nursery rhymes, finger plays and songs are used to help the children develop their sense of pitch and rhythm, and improve their coordination, focus, and enjoyment of group activity. Children deepen their understanding of basic musical concepts of singing in tune, beat, tempo, dynamics, and melodic awareness. Some of the skills being introduce in age appropriate ways include: matching a pitch with one’s own voice; easiest singing intervals; high-low pitch awareness; moving to a steady beat; awareness of dynamics- louder, softer; responsibility to group activity and sound; rhythmic silence; learning by many repetitions; internal song; and patterns and musical structure.

Art
Children are encouraged to use their imagination through experimentation. From the beginning, work with the Montessori sensorial materials help to refine the sense of color, balance, and design, preparing the child to see harmony in his/her surroundings and using this in artistic expression. Art at Angel Care Montessori is designed to establish a foundation for the consciousness and the appreciation of the arts by discovering and strengthening: independence, individuality, self-confidence, self-esteem, initiative, resourcefulness, language skills and expression, eye-mind-hand skills, and the ability to construct and arrange objects.

Program Hours/Days
The Full Day Program provides children with more time to reinforce skills and social relationships. Following lunch, the teachers plan a relaxed, pleasant afternoon within the Montessori environment. Second and third year students accomplish more in depth work with the materials that is not usually possible within just the morning time frame. Children who require a nap do so during this time.

The Summer Program runs the month of June, Monday-Friday mornings from 8:30a.m. until 12:00 noon, is dependent on parent interest, highly recommended for toddlers transitioning into the class in September, and is open only to current and enrolling students. Children must be potty trained.