Children's House (3 to 6 years)
Our Children's House Program
In Children’s House (3 to 6 years), the focus is on Help Me to Do It Myself.
The Children's House program establishes an excellent foundation for students to develop greater thoughtfulness and independence as they continue their journey towards becoming capable, lifelong learners.
Current educational research and over 100 years of Montessori instruction demonstrate that children this age possess an innate desire to learn and an extraordinary capacity to absorb information from their surroundings.
In addition to the five areas of the curriculum, TMS Children's House students also receive French language instruction on a daily basis with French specialists.
Children's House student (5 years)
Communication with parents
Open lines of communication are extremely important at TMS.
- Verbal communication occurs at arrival and dismissal with a greeting and any pertinent information that needs to be shared.
- We have formal parent-teacher interview meetings during the year (November and April) and informal discussions about a child's development can be arranged anytime.
- Written reports are distributed in December and June.
Children focus on five areas of curriculum:
- Practical life emphasizes care of self, care of the environment (indoors and outdoors), grace and courtesy.
- The Sensorial area is where children learn to identify and internalize concepts such as size, shape, colour, taste and sound through the materials in our classrooms.
- Language development focuses on oral language skills, listening skills, writing and reading with the goal of students being able to decode words and comprehend the meaning of text.
- In Math, children use their mathematical minds to count quantities, identify numerals, sequence numbers, and experience addition, multiplication, subtraction and division at a concrete level.
- Cultural activities help students discover ideas and concepts in geography, history, botany, zoology and the sciences.
Outcomes
By the end of Children’s House, a student should be able to:
- Count, identify and sequence numerals to 1000
- Perform the mathematical operations of addition, multiplication, subtraction and division with four digit numbers
- Participate in public speaking
- Ask thoughtful questions and advocate for themselves and others
- Independently organize themselves, their belongings and their learning materials
- Compose their own stories and transpose these ideas onto paper using cursive writing
- Use well-developed vocabulary
- Read with comprehension
Our large classrooms give the children the freedom to move, touch, manipulate and explore. Each student is a part of a community where they learn from their classmates. The older students learn responsibility and are great role models for the younger ones.
- Carolyn Reid, Head of Children's House