The Montessori School of Manhattan Beach

The mission of the Montessori School of Manhattan Beach PTO is to enrich the children's experience at Montessori Schools of Manhattan Beach (Peck and Bell campuses) through collaboration between parents, teachers and school administration. This mission is accomplished by creating an infrastructure that augments the school's pre-planned and sponsored activities by providing:
1. Activities and information for parent education.
2. Activities that allow children and parents to demonstrate teacher appreciation.
3. Activities that promote community.
4. Activities and materials specifically aimed at enhancing the children's classroom or educational experience.
5. Enhanced communication between all interested parties.
6. Funds to support 1 thru 5, as necessary.
7. Ways for all families to participate and become members of the PTO.
Toddler community
Our Toddler classroom is designed with just the right size furniture and lots of open spaces. This environment fosters and encourages an exploration which is free of obstacles. To help smooth their initial social interactions, the toddlers also learn to use words for the feelings they experience in themselves and others. As a Montessori classroom, our Toddler community is an environment designed to encourage and stimulate individual growth and learning. The children love to practice washing their hands and putting on a t-shirt and shorts. Through song, dance and freedom of choice, the toddlers have access to a variety of large muscle activities that offer them opportunities to jump, climb, balance, crawl or skip. These exercises as well as creative art activities are offered for each child to choose. This freedom in a safe space is crucial to the toddler program. However it is always tempered by two important limits that will be beneficial for a lifetime - respect for others and respect for the environment.
Preschool Program                                    
The Montessori “prepared environment” allows children to act freely on their own initiative, and to meet their own needs through individual spontaneous activity. The children use the materials they have chosen with a sense of perfection and order. This builds self-discipline and concentration.     
Practical Life: In the preschool classroom, the “practical life” materials involve the child in precise movement, allowing them to develop concentration and work at their own pace, without being interrupted. The materials fulfill specific purpose for the child in the real world, they learn to master buttoning, tying, washing and taking care of their environment, and in a safe supervised classroom all free from adult interference.    
Language: Children's vocabulary increases from 100 words at 2 years old to several thousand at 6 years old. Vocabulary increases naturally without any teaching. In order to help this seeking mind, we want to give the children experiences in the school environment. In the area of "enrichment of vocabulary" we offer objects to the children once we have given names of the things in the environment. We have collections of pictures of those things that are not in the environment.
Math: With the use of concrete material, young children can be introduced to mathematical functions before the age of six. The child does not merely learn to count - they are able to visualize the whole structure of numbers through the use of beads, spindles, rods, counters, cubes and cards.             
Sensorial: “Sensorial” materials are used for clarifications of large/small, hot/cold, rough/smooth, color, taste and smell. The mastering of these skills is propelled by the child’s interest and love of the environment.
The Transition Elementary Class
The elementary transition class was established to meet the needs of the 5 to 9 year old child. This is acually the most fruitful time in the Montessori experience, where the foundation layed during the preschool years, comes to fruition as children begin to unfold as young leaders, early readers, and budding mathematicians. This class also serves as an excellent transition into traditional education. It replaces and offers more than traditional education programs and we feel children of this age need more academic stimulation than most traditional programs provide. The objectives of the program are different from preschool, in that, the child is directed towards abstraction, away from the Montessori “teaching” materials. The mature imagination of the older child embraces large ideas which go beyond their immediate environment. The curriculum is interdisciplinary where concepts of Biology, Geology and History converge on the study of life’s evolution from the beginning of the Universe to the evolvement of man and civilization.