Kindergarten

Kindergarten work allows the children to use advanced Montessori materials that develop skills at a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade level in mathematics, geometry, reading, writing, vocabulary, and spelling. Additionally, students get to further practice these skills in botany, zoology, geography, and history through scientific language, writing biology booklets, assembling puzzle maps, and creating projects from their imagination.

Problem-solving and self-expression are encouraged. Process-oriented work that requires focus and long-term attention is a vital part of the kindergarten afternoon work cycle.

On a typical day, students choose a work from the shelves in a variety of subjects. One child might be writing sentences using a moveable alphabet, while another student is exploring place value using golden beads that represent units, tens, hundreds, and thousands. In the middle of the room, there might be a student putting together the United States’ puzzle map (or even making her map), while someone next to him is working on classifying the animals of the Animal Kingdom.
The afternoon work cycle is a time to begin work that may take several days or even weeks to complete. By having a more intensive, second work cycle, children learn to develop academic stamina, cultivate flexibility in thinking, and nurture their creative nature.

ADM’s kindergarten program exceeds the requirements of the Illinois State Education Board for this academic level.  The children move into 1st grade of private, public, or parochial schools.