Fairbanks Montessori School

Dr. Maria montessori

Dr. Maria Montessori was an Italian physician, educator, and innovator, acclaimed for her educational method that builds on the way children learn naturally.

Dr. Montessori graduated from medical school in 1896, where she was among Italy’s first female physicians. Dr. Montessori defied conventional norms and expectations to successfully make her way in this rigorous field, which required tremendous strength, dedication, and perseverance.

Dr. Montessori opened the first Montessori school, the Casa dei Bambini, or Children’s House, on January 6, 1907. She had accepted the challenge to open a full-day childcare center in San Lorenzo, a poor inner-city district of Rome. The students were under-served children, ages 3 – 7, who were left on their own while their parents went out to work.

Using scientific observation and experience gained from her earlier work with young children, Dr. Montessori designed learning materials and a classroom environment that fostered the children’s natural desire to learn and provided freedom for them to choose their own materials.

To the surprise of many, the children in Dr. Montessori’s programs thrived, exhibiting concentration, attention, and spontaneous self-discipline. The “Montessori Method” began to attract the attention of prominent educators, journalists, and public figures. By 1910, Montessori schools could be found throughout Western Europe and were being established around the world, including in the United States where the first Montessori school opened in Tarrytown, NY, in 1911.

The team at Fairbanks Montessori is committed to the Montessori Method of teaching. The classrooms are organized into five curriculum areas: Practical Life, Sensorial, Language, Math, and Cultural, with the materials carefully ordered on the shelves. Children are observed carefully and lessons are given individually based on the teacher’s assessment of each child’s needs and abilities. Their knowledge is constantly enhanced through interactions with each other, and lessons carefully introduced, at the proper time and in the proper sequence.

the montessori method

The Whole-Child Approach

The primary goal of a Montessori program is to help each child reach his/her full potential in all areas of life. Activities promote the development of social skills, emotional growth and physical coordination as well as cognitive preparation for future intellectual academic endeavors. The holistic curriculum, under the direction of a qualified teacher, allows the child to experience the joy of learning and gives him/her time to enjoy the process . It ensures the development of self esteem and provides the experiences from which children create their knowledge.

Students at FMS are encouraged, and taught, to be independent at an age-appropriate level. This includes putting shoes on independently, learning to dress in outdoor gear by oneself, and washing one’s own plate after eating a snack. The Montessori Method values a balance of independence and responsibility, which means that as skills and independence increase, so too does the student’s responsibility to role model for others and to care for the classroom.

The Prepared Environment

Dr. Montessori noticed that even very young children are constantly exploring and absorbing information from their environments. She theorized, and then observed, that a suitably prepared environment would improve children’s concentration and behavior. In Montessori terms, the prepared environment includes both the physical set up of the classroom (all furniture and materials are child-sized), and the emotional climate maintained by the prepared adults who teach and guide the classroom.

In our carefully prepared classroom environments, and in every space in our school, children are taught to care for their environment and each other. Classrooms are both functional and aesthetically pleasing, as Dr. Montessori believed that children should experience beauty in their everyday lives. Students learn to interact with their environment in a way that fosters peaceful focus. Our classrooms, lead by highly trained Montessori teachers, maintain a consistent daily routines that contribute to children feeling respected and secure.

The Montessori Materials

Dr. Montessori designed a number of multi-sensory, sequential, and self correcting materials to facilitate learning in every area of the classroom. All of the classroom materials enhance vocabulary, scaffold learning, and build gross and fine motor skills.

In the practical life area, children practice fine-motor skills such as pouring and spooning, as well as self care and care of their environment.

With the sensorial curriculum, children develop auditory, visual, and tactile discrimination.

In the language curriculum children learn sounds phonetically, while also working on pincer grip and with activities that prepare the hand for writing. The curriculum can then offer word building (encoding) and reading (decoding).

The math curriculum introduces numbers 1-10, 1:1 correspondence, and the hundred board. Montessori math in the primary classroom can progress to addition and subtraction, building four digit numbers, and even multiplication and division.

The geography curriculum begins with the idea that each student is a part of the whole world (represented by the sandpaper globe); as students mature, their geography lessons narrow down to a specific continent, state, city, or neighborhood.

Our fully implemented Montessori primary program includes Dr. Montessori’s traditional curriculum materials in every classroom.

The Guide

Originally called a “directress”, the Montessori teacher functions as an educational guide, a designer of the environment, resource person, role model, demonstrator, record-keeper, and meticulous observer of each child’s behavior and growth. The teacher’s main function is to engage each child with the materials in that classroom. Extensive training is required for full Montessori certification, including a minimum of college degree and a year of student teaching overseen by a mentor.