Keystone Montessori School

Come join us at Keystone Montessori School for our Admissions Open House!

Saturday, January 21st, 2012 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

55 Middlesex Street, North Chelmsford, MA 01863

If you’re looking for a preschool, kindergarten, or elementary program that allows your child to grow and learn at his or her own pace, you’ll want to consider Keystone. At Keystone, each child works through an extensive curriculum, with coaching from our trained and experienced teachers.

Of course, all our students learn math and language. Many are reading with delight and adding four digit numbers in kindergarten! But there is so much more…

Every student has Spanish, Music, and Art weekly

Engaging materials, and puzzle maps allow children to learn about every continent and country.

Classroom theme studies may include artists, outer space, countries, and cultures.

The three-year curriculum allows each child to progress, with success, at their own pace.

Through a variety of engaging materials, children practice essential habits of mind:  concentration, coordination, independence, organizational skills, and self-confidence.

The school operates on a foundation of respect, and children act out of respect for themselves, respect for others, and respect for their environment. When your world is built on respect, bullying is just not a problem.

Come see a place where your child can build a strong foundation for future learning and leadership. Give your child the gift of a Keystone education!

This short and engaging video gives an excellent overview of the benefits of Montessori education in our complex and demanding world.

Both founders of Google were Montessori students. In various presentations and interviews, they have spoken about how Montessori inspired their creativity, and nurtured their independence. Hear what Sergey Brin has to say in this informal presentation.

What happens when poetry meets grammar?  We are finding out in our lower elementary classroom!

Our students in grades one through three have been enjoying poetry:  reading works of many poets, and writing their own poetry. Sometimes a poem is illustrated with a picture, as well. Recently, the students have brought their grammar study to their poetry exploration. Using the Montessori grammar symbols, they ‘diagram’ the poem, showing how the poet used parts of speech, in patterns, to create the flow of the poem.

In the picture above, one student diagrammed a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The shapes show each part of speech:  nouns (black triangle), adjectives (small blue triangle), verbs (red circle), prepositions (green crescent), and conjunctions (small pink rectangle).

You  may think that it’s amazing to have second and third grade students really understand grammar! It is more amazing to see them have the ‘Aha!’ moment when they see that the patterns of grammar are a part of the writer’s craft. Students are now diagramming their own poems, and enjoying exploring the poetry of Jack Prelutsky, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Rudyard Kipling, and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Our elementary students enjoy Mystery History day every year. Each student selects a person from history (living or dead), and learns a bit about that person. The student then creates a costume, or a prop that relates to that person’s life. Finally, the student has three clues.

The student will wear the costume, or use the prop, and offer the first clue to classmates. If nobody guesses correctly, the second clue is offered. If necessary, the student gives the third clue to help the classmates guess his or her identity.

This year, we had Albert Einistein, Maria Montessori, Martha Washington, Roald Amundsen, Marie Curie, Theodore Roosevelt, Clara Barton, Jackie Onassis, Roy Rogers, William the Conquerer, Rachel Ruysch.

Our historic ensemble then visited the Children’s House classrooms, and told the younger students a little about their historic characters.

Elementary students enjoyed one of The Great Lessons of the elementary curriculum. This is called “The Beginning”, or sometimes “The Creation Story”.

The First Great Lesson weaves a tale of the origins of the universe and our own planent. Using impressionistic charts and experiments directly related to the basic physical properties of matter a foundation is made for the future study of physics, chemistry, astronomy and geology.

We see one student doing the volcano experiment.

Using molasses, water, and oil, students explore how heavy things sink.

Another experiment allows the student to explore the properties of liquid, gas, and solid. By chipping at a rock, the student sees how tightly particles are bound together in a solid.

This lesson is a special presentation by the teacher, followed by individual exploration of the various aspects. Students explore

- the properties of solid, liquid, and gas

- how matter can change from solid to liquid to gas

- crystallization

- compounds and mixtures

- evaporation.

This lesson sets the stage for many further explorations in science.

In our Montessori classrooms, each child works at their own pace. This is true for every child from preschool through elementary. Students do work, and when they master a concept, the teacher introduces them to something more complex. Many lessons are given to individual students, or a small group.

At any moment in a classroom, you will see children working on a variety of things. While one child is creating letters using the Handwriting Without Tears materials, another child may be scooping apples (which develops concentration coordination, and fine motor skills). Elsewhere, two children may be working togethere on maps of the world, developing tactile sensitivity by matching three dimensional objects by touch, or writing the names of continents.

The diversity of activity, all purposeful and with concentration, is remarkable. Children learn so many skills, and academic content. At the same time, they are learning to work together, to work independently, to resolve conflicts peacefully, to manage their time, to decide what to do, and to put things away when they are finished.

 These skills are the foundation for future learning, teamwork, and leadership.

Montessori teachers are very skilled at introducing work that will captivate their students. Young children love to learn new vocabulary. Put these two facts together, and you open the doors to a wide variety of “Parts Of…” work. Throughout their three years in Children’s House, students will explore the “Parts Of…” work at various levels.

An initial exploration of the activity involves laying out a set of three part cards. Some children will decide to create their own reference booklet, with colored illustrations, and written labels. Our classrooms may have parts of various animals (turtle, horse, bird, fish, frog — the five classes of vertebrates); parts of the dump truck, fire truck, or other vehicles; parts of trains, flowers, trees, leaves, etc.

Each finished booklet is a reference work, with one part colored and labeled on each page. The children enjoy learning the real nomenclature for animals, geometric shapes, and parts of everyday things. The finished work represents a series of activities, culminated in the written record.

Our “Parts of the Dump Truck” include:  dump truck, left fender, dump body, rear axle, headlights, side view mirrors, hood. It’s easy to see that coloring each part, writing the label, give repeated practice with letter formation, writing, careful pencil skills coloring just the specified part, and an overall sense that everything is made of parts, and each of those parts has a name.

In Room 1PM, the afternoon half day Children’s House class had a group lesson on the parts of the apple. Apples are familiar to everyone, but with this lesson, students took a closer look at the familiar fruit.

Mr. McGlinchy used a set of three-part cards to present this lesson. The first series of cards has a picture and the word. The second series of cards has only the picture.  The third series of cards has only the word.

A child will lay out the first set of cards (word and image). Then, s/he will lay out the second set (matching the images). Then, s/he will lay out the third set (matching the words).

Young children may stop at that point, having explored the vocabulary of the apple thoroughly:  apple, stem, skin, flesh, core, seeds.

Older children may record their study in a booklet, coloring the images and labeling the parts of the apple. We consider these booklets the equivalent of research reports. A child may make many ‘parts of’ booklets over their Montessori career, and you can accumulate these at home in an honored spot as a personal research library.