DeColores Montessori School
Our Programs
What Will Your Child Learn?
During the first 3 years of life, your child develops more rapidly than at any other time.
The routines of everyday living are the foundation of Montessori Toddler programs. Activities promote independence, order, coordination, and concentration, as well as support social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development. These learning activities include:
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Self-care: washing, dressing, toileting, and eating, according to each child’s individual capacity
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Care of the environment: cleaning, food preparation and food service; plant care and animal care
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Fine-motor skills: reaching, grasping, picking up objects, transferring objects, using tools and utensils, doing art work
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Language: naming objects, describing actions and intentions, discussing pictures, conversation, music, and singing
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Social skills: developing manners through interactions with peers, teachers, and adult-led small group games
- American Montessori Society
The Early Childhood Environment
In a Montessori Early Childhood classroom, highly trained teachers create a customized environment crafted to their unique abilities, interests, and learning styles. Uninterrupted blocks of work time (typically 2+ hours in length) allow children to work at their own pace and fully immerse themselves in an activity without interruption. Your child’s work cycle involves selecting an activity, performing it for as long as it remains interesting, cleaning up the activity and returning it to the shelf, and making another work choice. This work cycle respects individual variations in the learning process, facilitates the development of coordination, concentration, independence, and a sense of order, while facilitating your child’s assimilation of information.
- American Montessori Association
The Elementary Classroom
In a Montessori Elementary classroom, students work individually or in small groups, at tables or on mats on the floor.
Natural lighting, soft colors, and uncluttered spaces set the stage for activity that is focused and calm. The classroom is a happy community. Students are focused. They take joy in their work. They invent, explore, experiment, confer, and create; sometimes they might even reflect in a peaceful, meditative corner. Meanwhile, teachers circulate throughout the room, observing the students and making notes about their progress, ever ready to offer support or introduce new material, as appropriate.
The Elementary Classroom 9 - 12 Classroom
What sets Montessori apart in the Elementary years, ages
9–12, is the individually paced curriculum that challenges children academically and safeguards their well-being and sense of self. Use of tools, such as work plans, to support organization and time management skills, is incorporated into the daily routine. Teachers and students often work together to post reminders about assignments, projects, and ideas. Using these, children make independent work choices, prioritize activities, and meet deadlines.
The DeColores Montessori Junior High Farm School is located at 6104 Arcanum-Bears Mill Road. It is a renovated local farm east of Greenville, situated on approximately 20 acres, one-half mile south of Historic Bears Mill. The main, 4,000-square-foot building accommodates classrooms, a library, and a kitchen. A large barn houses animals and equipment, and a separate workshop is equipped with the necessary tools, allowing for the development of woodworking, pottery, and mechanical skills. The core academic curriculum at the farm school includes math, language arts, science, and humanities. Additional offerings at the school include foreign language, technology, orchestra, health, physical education, life skills, art, and seminar. On the farm, everyone’s skills, abilities, and personalities can find expression.
