KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM (3-6 years old)

Our graduating students are accepted into top local and international primary schools. Proven record shows that all of them enrolling in local primary school excel English and Art Curriculum throughout their primary school. And their good fundamental of English as the first language in full kindergarten term with us [3 to 6 years old] serve as a strong base for their college and tertiary education.   AM Session 8:30am - 11:45am PM Session 11:30am - 3:30pm     Daily and International Living Experiences - Daily and International Living Experiences include many activities such as caring of self and others, international well manner, daily life and habits. The curriculum promotes the coordination of movement, orderliness, diligence, independence, a high level of concentration, self-confidence and inter-social behavior with an international setting. Carried out properly and enthusiastically in childhood, they lead to emotional balance, stability and maturity. Language - We use the Sandpaper Letters/Sandpaper Characters - symbols of our written language system as the starting point. When an individual child exhibits an interest and readiness for reading, instruction is given, and the children's interest in reading is cultivated as their most important key to future learning. There will be many story telling to develop hearing skill. Sensorial Material - A child working systematically with sensorial apparatus builds a firm and wide foundation for his future intellectual life. During the past four decades, we have developed in-house several sets of sensorial apparatus assisting the children in learning to differentiate between: size, colors, weights, forms, textures, musical sounds, odours and tastes. We named our sensorial apparatus "THE KEYS TO THE UNIVERSE". These exercises allow the child to organise, classify and give language to the sensory experiences he has received since birth. Mathematics - Through manipulation of concrete materials and various number activities designed by our school throughout the years, the children gain a strong basic understanding of our number system. The children are first presented with numerical quantity, then numeration, and finally the association of quantity and symbol. Our class room experience 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. Geography & International World - We have many developed structured activities and games on the topics, including many sets of large wooden puzzle maps, which are among the most popular activities in the classroom. At first the children participate in our structured activities, later use the maps, simply as puzzles. Gradually they learn the names of many of the countries as well as information about climate and products. They also learn a rich knowledge of the world through our structured activities and games. Children Computer - We are the first international kindergarten to develop a multimedia program for children in Hong Kong in 1990. Due to young children's short attention span and physical limitations, we straightly supervise our multimedia class schedule so that young children are given an optimal-time exposure to our computer program. Languages, creative thinking, logic and numeral skills are reinforced by our multimedia programs. History - Our curriculum offers the children a concrete presentation of history by letting them work with several time recording instruments developed by our school. These instruments record consecutive periods of history. As an introduction to the idea of history, the children begin by making a time line of their own lives starting with baby pictures. It is a curriculum that teaches about one's own family, country and culture. Culture Awareness Program - This curriculum developed by our school in 1970s, also the first of its kind in Hong Kong, allows the children to gain awareness of the world around them by exploring other countries, their customs, food, music, climate, language and animals. This helps to raise their consciousness about other people, to gain an understanding and tolerance and, therefore, compassion for all in the world.    The Dynamic Difference at Montessori School of Hong Kong   Every child can be a gifted child.  Every child can be a creative child.  This is our belief for all the children enrolling in our school. It Starts with the Right Environment – The 1st Step to Independence Children can assimilate quite easily and effortlessly into our group environment as teachers/staff are well trained in handling “separation anxiety”.  Tailor-made Program is an Individualized Program Emphasis is to design a tailor-made “development appropriate curriculum” to address individual characteristics, needs, abilities, and interests of children that come from various cultural backgrounds and cognitive levels.  Our individualized approach helps to develop each child’s potential to the fullest.  Our approach echoes the motto “Helping children to become all they can become” of American Montessori Society®, an internationally acclaimed education institute that Montessori School of  Hong Kong® has been a corresponding school for more than two decades, and now accredited as an International Member School.   Effectives of the Program centered on the followings: It is essential a Montessori program that has been tailor-made to meet children’s respective needs Teaching staff is trained in-house to identify the unique characteristics, strengths and weaknesses of each child so as to decide on how the curriculum should be implemented. Children experience in such environment generally should be able to comprehend complex ideas quickly, learn more rapidly and in greater depth, and exhibit better cognitive ability. They can manipulate ideas and draw generalizations about seemingly unconnected concepts, and they ask provocative questions. Children from our American Montessori program are regarded as “life-time learners”.   “An education for life….” The habits, skills and linguistic abilities that a child develops in our Montessori class are good for a lifetime.  They will help him to work more efficiently, to observe more carefully, to concentrate more effectively, and to view other culture and people with tolerance, no matter where he goes.  If he is in a stimulating environment, whether at home or at school, his self-education – which is the only real education – will continue.                                                                                                        - Montessori School HK -   On Parenting “Fathers and mothers have lost the idea that the highest aspiration they might have for their children is for them to be wise….specialized competence and success are all that they can imagine.” - Allan Bloom  (1930-92), U.S. educator, author -     SCHOOL CURRICULUM Language – English and Chinese Art & Crafts Daily Living Manner Perceptual Motor Development Cultural Awareness Critical Thinking Music & Creative Movement Geography & History Science & Nature Percussion Children Yoga Outings Children Mathematics Ecology Children Computer

 

The School Management ensures that the Montessori teachers establish a climate that encourages the children to question, exercise independence, and use their creativity in order to be all that they can be.     Benefits to Children: - Children are encouraged to learn at their own pace. If they master a particular level, they are provided with more advanced learning activities. - Real-life thematic, multi-cultural, and integrative contents in classrooms provide a creative and  joyful environment for the children from all parts of the world to develop their fullest potential. - Children are encouraged to move through curriculum areas at their own pace.  They advance constantly a new level without repetitions. - Small, mixed-age group interaction and simulations, flexible pacing, and guided self-management, all ensure the maximum intellectual and social development for our young learners     Teachers To know how to suggest is the great art of teaching.  To attain it we must be able to guess what with interest; we must learn to read the childish soul as we might a piece of music.  Then, by simply changing the key, we keep up the attraction and vary the song.                                                                                              - Maria Montessori Constantly Improving Curriculum Periodic evaluations of curriculum effectiveness allow corrections to be made when needed, and they are essential if curriculum is to meet the long-term needs of children for increasingly complex and challenging opportunities, whether it is in the United States, Australia, Hong Kong, or a European country. Lasting Benefits of Our Programs The curriculum enables children to explore constantly changing knowledge and information and develop a love for knowledge. The curriculum encourages exposure to, selection, and use of appropriate and specialized Montessori material and resources. The curriculum promotes self-initiated and self-directed learning and growth. It provides for the development of self-understanding and the understanding of one’s relationship to persons, society, nature, culture and the world. A good placement, both locally and internationally, after graduation. In sum, the Montessori curriculum at Montessori School of Hong Kong produces well educated, open-minded and knowledgeable children who love to learn, and can think clearly and critically about that knowledge. The Montessori Philosophy and Our Prepared Environment - We believe every child is an individual profoundly affected by society and the immediate environment. - We believe in the child’s creative potential, the drive to learn and the right to be treated as an individual. - Harmonious surroundings – in school and at home – help to develop the child’s natural potential. - Children must be given freedom to work and move around, within limits that enable them to see themselves as part of a group. - Material must be used that aid observation and comparison and help children to  master and to explore their environment. - Working in mixed age groups, all children are encouraged to develop a social and well rounded personality, at their own pace. Program Emphasis at Montessori School of Hong Kong® . To encourage intrinsic motivation, spontaneous activity and self education; . To provide sensory education for intellectual development; . To encourage competence through repetitive concrete  experiences; . To encourage cooperative learning through peer teaching and social integration; . To foster a love for academic achievement Growth in the Child – Our Approach      . Toward independence and problem solving      . Toward the enjoyment of learning;      . Toward the development of order and concentration;      . Toward skills in oral communication;           . Toward respect for oneself, other people, and the world; and      . Toward responsible group membership.   Send mail to montessori.hk@montessori-edu.com Telephone:(852) 2869 1811 Fax: (852) 2521 9455 All Rights Reserved Montessori School of Hong Kong