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Chicago Montessori School Programs

To learn more about our school programs please click the corresponding link to an area of interest.

• Infant
  • Our infant program (ages 3 to 15 months) follows the individual child’s schedule with a flexible sequence of daily routines and activities. A strong partnership between home and school is a key element. In an atmosphere of unconditional love and acceptance, the development of basic trust is fostered. As infants communicate their needs, adults listen and respond appropriately. In addition to holding and rocking infants, we also engage them using expressive language. In a nurturing and secure environment, we care for their physical needs and provide for their developing personalities. Independence is fostered as infants learn to participate in their daily routine of care and practical life activities.
    
    Infants are provided with a variety of things to look at, explore, and experience. Appropriate concrete materials create just the right amount of challenge for developing hands. They gain knowledge of themselves and their environment as we offer materials to meet their developmental stages and sensitive periods. Comprehensive language skills are developed through the use of materials, conversation, reading, and singing.
• Toddler
  • Our toddler program (ages 15 months to 3 years) helps children gain an appreciation for the joy of learning and for their expanding capabilities. Their strong sense of autonomy is encouraged as they begin to function more independently and explore a broader spectrum of activities. At this age, children are able to interact, work alongside adults, and form real relationships with friends. This leads to the development of a true sense of community.
    
    Our toddler program encompasses a daily routine with flexibility for individual choices. Toddlers do not merely explore, but are able to work and thus gain the ability to stay focused on a task. Practical life activities such as pouring, dusting, and setting the table are used to help deepen this concentration. Equipment and materials are toddler-sized to promote independence.
    
    Our toddlers are given a variety of choices to support their development and interests. They are introduced to a work cycle in which they choose a work material, finish the work, and return the material to its place. Age-appropriate Montessori materials provide academic stimuli and promote cognitive preparation for more advanced materials used in the primary program. There is a focus on practical life in addition to sensorial, language, mathematics, and art materials.
    
    Our toddlers are exposed to a broad range of hands-on experiences, and our prepared environment entices toddlers to explore and discover. Group activities include stories, music, and movement. The daily routine includes snack time and outdoor or indoor gym time.
    
    Children do not need to be toilet-trained prior to entering this program, but toilet-training is incorporated into the program with parents’ help at the appropriate time. Children are required to be toilet-trained prior to moving up to the primary program.
• Primary
  • These three to four years of development are seen as crucial in the Montessori philosophy, and during this time children in our primary program set the course for future learning. During this time, we strive to:
    
    ― Instill positive attitudes toward school,
    ― Promote independence and self-confidence,
    ― Help children develop good habits of concentration, initiative, and persistence,
    ― Foster curiosity, inner security, and a sense of order,
    ― Provide a prepared environment in which the child can express their joy of learning,
    ― Provide a secure environment in which the child can grow both emotionally and academically,
    ― Introduce the richness of different cultures and expand the knowledge of history and humankind’s place in the universe.
    ― The primary classroom is divided into seven curriculum areas: practical life, sensorial, math, language, geography, science, and art. Classroom materials are arranged on shelves in an orderly, sequential manner and are available for individual use.
    
    Teachers give individual and small group lessons to the children during the work period. Preschool children work with the Montessori materials until they master the concepts their teachers present to them. Because we work with the individual child, each child works toward the betterment of their own potential.
• Elementary
  • Our Montessori school offers a Montessori elementary programming (1st through 6th grade) across three elementary classrooms. Each class is taught by a certified Montessori elementary teacher and one or more highly qualified assistant teachers.
    
    At age six, the child moves to what Maria Montessori called the Second Plane of Development, which encompasses children 6 to 12 years-old. There are enormous changes in the needs of the child from those of the First Plane of Development (the years from birth to six years). The child is no longer centered around themselves and their family but now has a great need to explore society and the world. If the first plane is the age of “what,” the second plane is the age of “why, where, who, when, and how.”
    
    In the Montessori elementary classroom, we give the child the history of the universe, the world, the coming of plants and animals, and the emergence of humans on Earth, including their contribution to language, culture, arts, mathematics, and science. This is also the age during which the child develops a moral sense, learning what is right and what is wrong. He strives to find how he can play an important and meaningful role in life. Elementary students at the Montessori Academy of North Hoffman learn about moral values through the study of virtues and various aspects of community building.
    
    During this stage of development, children are interested in the world outside the classroom. Our Elementary students explore with a purpose. They are given the tools to actively conduct research, not only using books and computers, but also using their minds and imaginations. Field trips are scheduled regularly based on the children’s work in the classroom and additional interest that they may show in any particular area. The field trip group may consist of the entire class or a few students who share a common interest. Some examples include:
    
    ― Every year the students go on a three- to five-day field trip to experience learning through natural surroundings.
    ― Every three years the upper elementary students experience real-life situations of our ancient ancestors by living in a primitive setting at Ancient Lifeways in Michael, Illinois.
    ― Every three years, as part of our cultural, political, and civic studies, upper elementary students visit Springfield, Illinois.
    
    Elementary children are given opportunities to work together or alone to pursue individual or group interests. Their teachers facilitate creativity, independent thinking, and personal responsibility through practical life exercises in the classroom. The students prepare their meals twice a week and are fully responsible for taking care of their classroom and its materials.
• Erdkinder
  • Our Erdkinder program (grades 7-12) recognizes and addresses the unique developmental needs of adolescents. The program is broken into Lower Erdkinder (grade 7-9) and Upper Erdkinder (grades 10-12). The lower program is taught at a high school level and the upper program is taught at a college level. We strive to instill in our students a sense of humility as well as a realization of the part they will play in maintaining a vision for a peaceful humanity. As guides to the development of the adolescent child our goals are:
    
    ― To provide children with a safe environment where they can learn by expanding their experience via meaningful work,
    ― To offer children meaningful exchange with their peers, with adults in the environment, and with experts in the field,
    ― To provide for individual differences by offering students multiple choices, while maintaining expected learning goals,
    ― To follow Montessori’s pedagogy of the three-period lesson, with the didactic lesson being given first (or an experiential opportunity for engagement), plenty of exploration as the second period, and, finally, an assessment of knowledge, whether it be oral, written, or dramatic performance,
    ― To ask challenging questions that engage our students in their learning,
    ― To link disciplines to offer our children a deep, holistic, and interconnected knowledge as opposed to isolated surface knowledge,
    ― To give our children individualized attention,
    ― To serve as facilitators and guides of learning through their adolescent experiences,
    ― To utilize the land and Montessori’s principle of pedagogy of place to incorporate the resources of our local community into various curriculum areas in order to give the children a sense of ownership and belonging through their experiential learning in the community,
    ― To offer a variety of experiences beyond the classroom to enhance the children’s learning of all curriculum areas,
    ― To show children that work is meaningful by offering them adult-like work experiences,
    ― To offer time for reflection so children can ponder their lives and their immediate and future goals.
    
    Our program is dedicated to being individualized. Children receive presentations in small groups, and teachers account for varied learning styles. In giving lessons and assignments to develop children’s goals and objectives for each area of study,, teachers cater to all learning styles, interests, strengths, and weaknesses of the children. Children are given an element of choice with respect to their assignments as well as their presentation of the material. No matter what the child’s learning style, areas of interest, strengths, or weaknesses, the teacher aims to uphold Montessori’s element of choice throughout learning so as to engage the child and enhance their learning experience through the development of in-depth knowledge rather than fact processing or memorization.
    
    Parents are encouraged to come for observations. Because of the sensitivity of children throughout adolescence, we encourage parents to come in before or after school to look through their children’s albums for each subject area. We also have our monthly parent/student morals and ethics meeting, where parents can hear their child’s perspective on various issues as well as share their own.
• Summer Camp
  • The 2018 summer program at the Montessori Academy of North Hoffman is five sessions from June 11 through August 17. Each session is two weeks long except for the last session, which is one week. Each session offers a variety of different classes for elementary age levels.
• Extracurricular Activities
  • The core curriculum includes Spanish and art for children in Kindergarten through 12th grade, Japanese class for children in 3rd through 12th grade, and physical education and music for children in Kindergarten through 12th grade. In addition to these integrated enrichment activities, the school also offers various extracurricular activities. Activities offered can vary, but typically include the following:
    
    ― Piano lessons
    ― Voice lessons
    ― Choir
    ― Elementary
    ― Erdkinder
    ― Art class
    ― Cooking
    ― Chess club
    ― Sports club

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