Our programs are designed to shape minds and enrich lives through a child-centered, hands-on curriculum that encourages children to create, explore and discover at their own pace. By empowering children to learn through direct experience, we spark curiosity and unlock a sense of wonder that leads to a life-long love of learning. Montessori education is spontaneous, stimulating, and it strengthens academic excellence, self-confidence, and practical life skills.
Primary
Our Primary Program offers a comfortable environment for ages 3 to 6 with an engaging curriculum that is organized into five avenues of self-directed activity for the child’s exploration:
– Practical Life: Activities of varying difficulty around the theme of how to care for yourself and the environment.
– Sensorial: Activities for comparing, grading, matching.
– Language: Developing a broad vocabulary and phonetic based reading.
– Mathematics: Concrete, hands-on learning of quantity, number and number operations.
– Cultural Studies: Geography map puzzles and depictions of plants, animal, geographic, and cultural features of the continents.
The children also enjoy daily experiences in Music, Creative Movement, Visual Arts, and Foreign Language.
There are four classes (Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple), each taught by a Director/Directress and an Assistant. Primary classes open at 8:30 AM and run from 9:00 AM until 12:00 PM, or 2:30 PM depending on parent preference.
Students staying until 2:30 are in two groups. The younger students, usually below 4 ½* years, change over to the Rainbow Room at noon and are in After School Care. The 2 ½ hour Rainbow Class of combined Primary students offers stories, crafts, and playtime as well as naps for those students who need it.
When a student is ready for more daily classroom work (usually around age 4 ½), that student enters the Extended Day Program. Extended Day students remain with their classroom. Primary teachers work with these students more closely since the number of students is reduced during Extended Day.
Lower Elementary
Our Lower Elementary curriculum is a balanced, comprehensive, interdisciplinary model for continuing to spark each child’s expanded range of exploration. Math, Reading, Grammar, Science, History, and Geography are woven into the daily fabric of learning through daily journal writing, research projects, bookmaking, science experiments and a series of “Great Lessons.”
This program also includes Botanical and Zoological Studies, Spanish, Music, Creative Movement, Physical Education and a three-day trip to the ecological camp in the spring quarter.
There are three classes (Comets, Stars, and Vikings) that run from 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM. Each class is taught by a Director/Directress and one or more Assistants.
Upper Elementary
Our Upper Elementary Program builds on the foundations of the Lower Elementary Program as students delve deeper into such subjects as Anatomy, Astronomy, Ecology, Foreign Language, and Cultural Studies.
Important life skills, such as time management, creative collaboration, public presentations, and leadership are forged through coordinating assignments, presentations, computer resources, regular field trips and active participation in service projects for the school and the Athens community.
There is one double-sized class (Aces) that runs from 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM. It is taught by two Directors/Directresses and two Assistants
Middle School
Our Middle School program of work and study, guided by Dr. Montessori’s vision for the age, is specifically designed to meet adolescent developmental needs. Our highly interactive, interdisciplinary program offers adolescents the opportunity for experiencing practical roles that integrate and apply academic studies.
Students extend their studies in math, science, and technology by managing a nature reserve, campus weather station, organic gardens, greenhouse, woodland, pond, and a business enterprise. Our history and foreign language program is enhanced through travel. Our Language Arts, Humanities and Fine Arts programs offer performance opportunities. Through our many community service projects and internships, students experience firsthand practical roles that provide them with greater connections to society and the world. In this way, students are able to achieve a higher level of responsibility, independence, self-esteem, and a love of lifelong learning.
There is one class that runs from 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM. After Middle School, students graduate from Athens Montessori and move on to various high school experiences.
*Athens Montessori seeks to allow students to move through their programs based on readiness rather than strictly by age. Parents and teachers work together to determine appropriate placement and passage for each student.
Additional Programs
- Early Morning Drop-Off – Students enrolled in this program may arrive as early as 7:30 AM for an hour of supervised free play and then move to their respective classrooms.
- Extended Day After School Care – This program allows enrolled students to stay on campus until 5:30 on regular school days for supervised free play or various classes.
Environmental Stewardship
Nature is an excellent classroom and helps to ignite curiosity in education. It provides a wealth of sensory experiences and focuses on strengthening the deep connection between child development and nature. Since Environmental Stewardship is an essential part of our approach to education at all age levels, we have adapted our campus and curriculum to support a hands-on learning experience that fosters children’s relationship with nature.
Our school grounds are made up of many micro-environments, including class gardens, butterfly and bee-friendly areas, greenhouse, woodland trails and more. Composting food waste and recycling are daily tasks in the classroom, and our campus is committed to the conservation of resources and energy efficiency.
Athens Montessori is a designated Clarke County Green School and an Audubon Backyard Wildlife Habitat.
Our Year Books are provided by Tree Ring and a Tree is planted for every book that is purchased.
