Arts & Crafts
All parents know the importance of crafts for our children, simply because we've seen how involved they become. Creating art allows children to expand their ability to interact with the world around them, and provides them with a different set of skills they can use for self-expression and communication.
- Art projects are presented in an open-ended way, which gives children the freedom to do/create/design whatever interests them. Montessori is all about using your hands to learn and experience different sensations in a tactile way.
- Crafts provide children with all sorts of opportunities to feel a myriad of sensations – squishy, sticky, fuzzy, mushy, gooey, etc. Children love getting messy with paint on their hands, and the clean up afterwards is just as rewarding and valuable.
- At Maple Tree Montessori art is a process, not a product. It is easy to try to get all the children's projects to look perfect, but in art it is the process of creating (exploring, discovering and experimenting) that has the greatest value.
- The children have the chance to work with all sorts of techniques that involve (but are not limited to) ceramics, drawing, colouring, painting, cutting, gluing and stamping.
Physical Education
It is extremely important for children at preschool age to be able to develop their physical skills as much as possible. Through practical experience children are able to find out how their physique works and contemplate the possibilities of their bodies' functionality.
This is why our Physical Education program doesn't consist of just one or two classes a week, but is incorporated into the entire school day. We have:
- additional activities like gymnastics, capoeira and sports, which focus on specific aspects of physical development and allow children to concentrate more prominently on a concrete set of skills
- the Orff/Kodaly-based music program, which includes lots of movement and coordination through music throughout the day
- our natural playground that challenges the children to work on their gross motor skills and consequently gives them a good workout
- the morning work period with Montessori materials, which ensures that the children are constantly in motion
