Kindergarten Programs

Montessori Kindergarten Program

For 5 - 6 year olds

Our Geneva Montessori Kindergarten Program

Parents want their children to succeed both intrinsically as well as externally, which is why the Montessori philosophy sprung up in the first place. Developed by Maria Montessori in Italy during the early 20th century, Montessori wanted to create a method of learning that helped children grow by using their natural intuitions, like play. By giving children the tools to make their own learning decisions and develop a sense of self-reliance from a very young age, our Montessori Kindergarten helps you provide just such an educational environment for your little one. With equal parts focus on the social, emotional, and physical world around them, they have the opportunity to develop skills that will help them for life, all in a safe, nurturing, and scaffolding space.

Kindergarten

At Mansio Montessori, we begin developing a sense of empowerment and experimentation in children from the toddler years. While Montessori is a method that works better for some children than others, it is a perfect fit for those who love exploration and learning through play. We believe that play is a child’s “job.” This gives them lots of opportunities to learn how to become the self-reliant, lifelong learners you hope for your child to be.

Our Montessori Kindergarten program is the final year in a 3-year cycle that helps children round out all of the skills they’ve learned throughout their time in school. They are given increasing opportunities to prove their skills and leverage the trust they’ve earned throughout their time with us. They’re also given the chance to become real leaders, mentoring younger students and developing a sense of confidence in who they are and what they can accomplish.

A group of children are walking down a sidewalk.

Kindergarten is a time when children are looking forward to elementary school and the new social, emotional, and learning challenges that will bring. As such, teachers give children a greater sense of responsibility throughout this year, helping to prepare them for classrooms with a larger student-to-teacher ratio and different expectations. Our students leave this year knowing how to meet the challenges of a wider world and feeling confident in doing so.

Curriculum

The Mansio curriculum has a strong foundation of personal experience, cultivated here at our own school and in our teachers’ backgrounds. It is also built on the foundational principles of the Montessori method, whose long-term effects are well-attested to by research from various authorities. Children trained in this kind of thinking and interacting with the world develop a much higher sense of self-reliance as well as an intrinsic motivation for their studies and good choices.

Moreover, because they have been given the opportunity to explore their own passions from a young age, they know how to look for new opportunities for learning without an adult needing to tell them what to do. This translates into a core belief in the power of independent learning, which fuels them throughout high school and college, transforming them into people who can make serious contributions to the world.

With these goals in mind, the Mansio Montessori Kindergarten program focuses on several main areas of learning and development. These include life skills, sensory exploration, math, culture, and language. We make a significant effort to create connections between these areas as well, helping children to develop a systems-thinking approach to the world. This generates an approach to learning that relies on critical thinking, a skill children take with them into later schooling, work, and life.

One of our highest aims with Montessori education is always to ensure that the curriculum is accessible to all learners, from all backgrounds. That’s one of the wonderful aspects of this kind of learning: children can choose for themselves what feels comfortable, with just enough of a challenge to ensure continued knowledge acquisition. Our teachers are there to guide children toward appropriate learning choices, letting the students experience every activity and lesson for themselves.

A row of colorful circles on a white background.

Atmosphere

This atmosphere is part of what makes the Montessori Kindergarten classroom so enriching. Teachers in our school operate far outside the factory education model, instead creating an environment in which students develop their own relationship with the material. Naturally, any classroom must include methods of discipline, but we take care to reinforce a child’s natural sense of justice and help them self-correct rather than interfering with normal social-emotional processes. A critical area of emphasis in the Montessori environment is respect for others. By instilling a strong sense of their own humanity in children – rather than placing them in a factory education model of learning – they’re able to see the humanity in other children more easily. Adults gently guide them through interpersonal relationships, helping them to see other sides of the story and respond with empathy to their peers and teachers around them.

Aside from this intentional social approach, our classrooms also take care to foster a sense of comfortable community. With age-appropriate furniture, bright colors, and clear distinction between different areas of learning, we offer our students a calm, safe learning climate. Within that context, they are able to make the most of instructional time, adult guidance, self-interest, and learning materials.

Learning Materials

Learning materials in the Montessori Kindergarten classroom are geared toward helping children acquire skills without stifling their ability to devise new theories and approaches for themselves. Our tools include math manipulatives and counters, books, puzzles, games, writing and art materials, sensory tools, and more. Together, these enriching resources help them manifest experiments and creations that answer their deep questions and allow them to learn more about themselves. We add specialty materials as needed to complement lesson plans, explore class-wide areas of interest, or help specific students address various avenues of exploration.

If you are curious about what types of materials your student will use for learning in the Kindergarten classroom, feel free to ask. We invite you to reach out with questions or to set up a tour today!

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