Our preschool program (available at our Danville, Fremont, and Dublin campuses) provides an enriching hands-on learning experience with specially formulated Montessori materials for math, language, sensorial exploration, practical life activities, art, science, second language, music, history, and geography.
Our preschool children develop observation and problem-solving skills. They are able to achieve this by manipulating, experimenting, and discovering through Montessori materials and prepared environment. Children begin to move from the concrete to the abstract as they prepare for the more complex studies used in our Montessori Kindergarten program.
Montessori Preschool: Summing Up
We’re very proud of our Montessori preschool programs in Danville, Fremont, and Dublin. The children offer so much to us as parents and educators, and we’re so pleased to offer them a world-class Montessori Preschool curriculum. Whether you live in Danville, Fremont, or Dublin or you commute from nearby cities such as Alamo, San Ramon, or Walnut Creek, please reach out for a complementary campus tour. We’re excited to show you our preschool program considered one of the best preschool programs in the East Bay (Danville, Fremont, Dublin). We work hard for our students, and we try our best to make it convenient and rewarding as well for their busy parents, who often commute from Walnut Creek, Alamo, or Blackhawk to other parts of the Bay Area.
The language curriculum includes everything – from vocabulary development to writing to reading. The child progresses from spelling words to constructing sentences. The reading curriculum is supported by storytelling, poetry, singing, consequently fostering a joy and eagerness to understand written language. Language studies include:
Oral Preparation
- Conversational speech
- Student Presentations
- Speaking in front of peers
- Storytelling
- Vocabulary enrichment
- Show and Tell
Literature
- Listening Skills
- Creative Stories
- Introduction to Poetry, Non-fiction, and Fiction
Writing
- Eye-to-hand coordination
- Pencil Control
- Beginning Punctuation
- Handwriting
Reading
- Phonics
- Blends
- Sight Words
- Phonogram sounds
- Vocabulary of objects, attributes, and actions
Preschoolers learn to add and subtract by combining and taking away objects. They learn place value by seeing bead bundles that represent ones, tens, hundreds, and thousands. Conceptual understanding of math is a natural outcome of activities that allow children to manipulate objects and see relationships. Math studies include:
Concrete materials to explore place value:
- Units
- Tens
- Hundreds
- Thousands
Concrete materials to perform operations:
- Addition
- Subtraction
- Written numerals 1-100
- Skip counting
- Even and odd numbers
- Measurement
- Simple money
- Time
This area is designed to help students develop a care for themselves, the environment, and each other. We are so fortunate here in the Bay Area and our communities of Danville, Fremont, and Dublin to avail ourselves of nature and environmentally related activities. These creative activities are offered to assist the child in developing a sense of order, concentration, independence, fine motor skills, grace, courtesy, confidence, self-esteem, and respect for others. The activities build a child’s concentration as well as prepare the child for writing and language.
Physical Skills
- Basic movements
- Gross and fine motor skills
- Use of activities that promote concentration, coordination, independence, and order
Respect and care of environment
- Indoor and outdoor
- Recycling
Grace, courtesy, and etiquette
- Caring about others
- Problem solving
- Conflict resolution
Independence
- Care of person
- Health and safety
- Nutrition and food preparation
Community Service
- Developing an awareness of needs of others
- Participating in several service projects throughout the school year
The Sensorial Curriculum is the key to knowledge in the Montessori classroom. All learning first comes through the senses. There are many different Montessori sensorial materials and activities designed to help the child refine the tactile, visual, auditory, olfactory, and gustatory senses. The child will develop skills in thinking, judgment, and spatial awareness. This prepares them for more complex learning in other areas such as math and language. Students learn to distinguish and differentiate sensorial properties through:
Auditory learning
- Different Sounds
Visual learning
- Color
- Size
- Shape
- Gradation
- Identification
- Comparison
Tactile learning
- Texture
- Weight
- Temperature
Students become familiar and comfortable working with a variety of materials such as pencil, crayon, paints, and clay in various techniques. Art provides a mean of enjoying the creativity of others as well as their own. The visual arts program seeks to nurture creativity, problem solving, and self-expression as it relates to each child’s level of development. Lessons include drawing, painting, sculpture, and collage making.
Students will explore:
- Elements of art (shape, color, texture)
- Famous Artists
The science materials support the specific areas in Physical sciences, Earth sciences, and Life sciences and into the studies within this area. Science studies and materials enable the child to observe, explore and perform experiments in all or more areas of:
- Botany-plant care, tree and leaf studies, flowers, gardening
- Zoology-animal husbandry, animals kingdoms, vertebrate/invertebrate, life cycles
Life Science
- Plant care
- Nature walks
- Living vs. nonliving
- Life cycles
Physical Science
- Sink and float activities
- Gravity
- Magnetic v. nonmagnetic
- Color mixing
- Weight/balance
Earth Science
- Water properties
- Weather/seasons
- Oceans
- Rocks
Scientific Reasoning and Technology
- Observation skills
- Science Experiments
In Cultural studies children are exposed to geography and history and they gain an awareness of the world around them by exploring other countries, their customs, foods, and, languages. Montessori children achieve early understanding of the concepts of:
- Globe as Earth’s shape
- Continents/countries
- U.S. states
- Flag study
- State research
- Land and water forms
- Map-making skills
- Oceans
- Festivals around the world
Spanish involves speaking, listening, singing, and interaction as it is integrated into the curriculum through individual and small group instruction. Children acquire:
- Basic vocabulary
- Numbers
- Colors
- Calendar (days, months, seasons)
- Animals
- Parts of the body
- Spanish songs
- Questions and answers in Spanish
Our children will also grow socially as they interact with other children and parents through singing, dancing, performing and playing musical games. They are collectively exposed to different sounds, rhythms and stories that further enhance their musical awareness. The music curriculum also offers significant opportunities to build stage confidence through our numerous performances throughout the school year such as the Winter, Spring, and International Concerts.
The kindergarten program, at each level, is responsive to the needs and interests of the children, and the ultimate goal is the joyful discovery of movement and its benefits, both physical and psychological. The children explore their imagination, spatial awareness, musicality and rhythm, movement quality, energy, as well as are a great source of physical activity. Children develop skills in:
- Understanding different loco motor movements: running, hopping, leaping, skipping, jumping
- Continuing development of gross motor skills
- Increasing strength, coordination, and flexibility
- Building confidence working in groups and as an individual
