Preschool and Primary Programs
At Greece Montessori School in Rochester, NY, all of our classroom environments are meticulously crafted as a "planned environment," thoughtfully designed to cater to the unique needs and abilities of each child. Everything within our classrooms are proportioned to the child's size, easily accessible, and movable, allowing for flexible arrangements and fostering independence.
Regardless of age, children at our school enjoy the freedom to select and engage with materials and activities that resonate with them, empowering them to pursue tasks they can successfully complete either independently or collaboratively with other children.
Our curriculum integrates practical life exercises such as sweeping, polishing, and pouring, serving as foundational activities that promote coordination, orderliness, concentration, and positive work habits. Additionally, our sensorial teaching materials are specifically designed to refine the senses and enhance the child's ability to process and interpret the multitude of impressions they encounter.
Academics encompass a comprehensive range of subjects including reading, language, science, arithmetic, geography, and the creative arts, providing a well-rounded educational experience tailored to each child's developmental stage.
Social interaction is a vital component of our program, with structured activities such as snack time, physical exercise, and game periods fostering camaraderie, cooperation, and healthy social development among peers.
At Greece Montessori School, we are committed to providing an enriching and nurturing environment where children of all ages can thrive academically, socially, and emotionally, laying the foundation for a lifelong love of learning.
"The Nido Community"
Children 6 weeks to 18 months old
“Nido” means “nest” in Italian, and captures the idea of warmth and security. The Montessori Nido Community is a calm, cozy, home-like environment for babies ages 6 weeks through 18 months. Maria Montessori used this word to describe the infant classroom, within which little people feel cared for, loved and safe to explore and grow!
A Montessori environment can be considered an adaptive continuum between two basic needs of the developing infant: the bonded relationship between the adult and child on one end, and support for a growing sense of self and independence on the other. When infants are supported through a deep trust for their caregivers, they feel safe to begin exploring their own independence. We build trust with infants through honoring their individual needs and providing an empowering environment that allows for safe discoveries and skill building without excessive furniture or sensory stimulation. After the age of 18 months a child may begin his transition to the toddler program. Move-up ages may vary by several months. Please note that space availability is also a factor.
Details
- Ages 6 weeks to 18 months
- Infant to Teacher Ratio: 4:1
- Schedule: Monday-Friday 8:45am-11:45am
- Day House (Before & After Care): 7:00am-9:00am, 11:45am-5:30pm
The Prepared Environment
Much of your baby’s energy early on will go toward building gross motor ability, as they learn to hold up their head, roll over, push up off the ground, sit up, stand, walk, climb, etc. Successful development in this area sets the stage for strength and coordination later in life, which are necessary to enjoy sports, dance, or daily life recreational activities.
For babies to fully learn to do all these things, they must have time, space, and freedom to move and practice each individual step along the way. When you first visit a Montessori Nido community, you may notice there are no playpens, jumpers, walkers, or high chairs—nothing that restricts your baby’s movement.
A child’s early years are a time of great sensitivity to bonding in order to establish trust in the world; as well as language, order, sensorial impressions, and development of coordinated fine- and gross-motor development movement. Each of our Infant rooms supports the child’s development of movement, independence, and capacity for active exploration. Because an infant’s brain is wired for language acquisition, our environments offer rich opportunities for babies to learn through plenty of reading, singing, sign language and a running dialogue as your child’s caregivers explain the events of your child’s day. Our respect for each child shows by how we engage him in each care-giving activity with warm eye-contact and verbal explanations of each step, rather than merely just doing the tasks to the child.
Infant environments
Maria Montessori’s vision of a “Nido” or nest: They are peaceful, loving places where babies can explore and feel secure. Teachers speak in gentle tones, the daily pace is unhurried, and décor is understated and homelike. Each child in our care is an individual to be nurtured with affection and respect. As is customary for Montessori environments, every detail is selected with the child’s whole development in mind.
Each of our infant rooms welcomes children as young as 6 weeks of age. Our prepared environments have developmentally appropriate material and activities that support the child through each stage of infant growth. Because we “follow the child,” we provide a variety of environments where infants can explore based upon her curiosity and mobility, not just her age.
In our Infant environment there are special mobiles and images to stimulate brain development, as well as a variety of tactile objects for children to explore. Because this is the period when infants learn to roll over, sit, scoot, crawl and potentially walk, the room has many opportunities for movement. There are striking differences between a Montessori Infant environment and other, more traditional daycare settings: our babies do not spend their active hours in playpens, jumpers, walkers or other containers. Instead, in our Infant rooms you will see...
- Many soft floor mats and bolsters on which babies can move freely and develop gross motor skills.
- Mirrors positioned close to the floor to stimulate tummy time and self-discovery.
- Low bars mounted to the wall and soft furniture for children to pull themselves up.
- Interesting mobiles, grasping objects, and rattles within reach.
For the older infants, where crawling and newly walking babies have their hands free for exploration, you will see...
- Low shelving with materials for fine-motor development and cause/effect, such as puzzles, rings on a post, and containers to open and close.
- Opportunities for purposeful water play.
- A stair with low steps and a railing to practice climbing up and down.
- Pull and push toys to promote gross motor movement.
All of our environments have several special features that also set them apart from typical daycare settings:
- We support breastfeeding! Our Infant rooms welcome mothers who would like to nurse their baby during midday visits.
- We use low tables and chairs, instead of high chairs, for snacks and solid meals. We believe this provides young children with a valuable first experience at gaining independence with self-feeding.
- Ours are tranquil environments where a designated nap space ensures quality rest when babies need it.
- An outdoor space designed especially for infants, with soft surfaces and a variety of spaces to explore, plus equipment to climb over and through. We also have multi-child strollers for taking infants on regular “buggy rides” both outside and indoors around our campus so they can see more of the world.
Program Schedule / Daily Routine
Most infants follow a routine, though not necessarily a strict schedule, that allows for feeding, active time, and nap. This routine repeats itself throughout the day and provides important predictability for young children. In our Infant environments, our Montessori guides maintain a consistent rhythm outlined by parents that responds to each child’s needs and complements what parents do at home.
Ratios
Fully established Infant environments have a maximum of 12 infants and 3-4 adults, one of whom is also the Room Leader. While we strive to maintain a 3:1 ratio throughout the day, there are moments when we will need to provide care at a 4:1 ratio to allow for teacher breaks. When we launch a new Infant classroom, we may temporarily maintain a 4:1 ratio, as infants are slowly added to the program. Once our classroom is fully enrolled, we strive to achieve at 3:1 ratio for majority of the school day. Though your child will interact with all teachers in the classroom on a daily basis, the classroom’s Head Teacher will be the main point of contact for parent communication regarding your child.
Feeding
We are your partners in guiding and supporting you during the many changes in feeding routines that you will experience as your child grows.
All bottles and food for infants are supplied from home. With fridges, freezers, warmers, and microwaves in each Infant environment, we are set up to safely and hygienically accommodate breastfed and formula-fed babies, finger foods, jarred meals, homemade purees, etc.
We provide comfortable chairs for breastfeeding mothers who would like to nurse their babies on site. Parents are also welcome to drop off expressed milk anytime during the day. To ensure a smooth transition into a group setting, breastfed babies should be successfully bottle feeding for at least one month before they join the younger infant class; older infants may alternatively take milk from a regular cup. In our effort to encourage independence, we offer your child the opportunity and guidance to self-feed as soon as he or she is ready.
Sleeping
Our nap rooms provide each child a dedicated crib for younger infants or a low cot for older infants in a designated, peaceful area where noise is minimized, and tranquility is heightened. We work with parents to replicate techniques that work best at home for your child’s sleep patterns, while sharing tips from our experts for optimizing your child’s sleep. While pacifiers are permitted when your infant enters the school, we will gently and respectfully wean your child from these in an effort to promote oral health and self-soothing. We also help prevent tooth decay by refraining from placing bottles in cribs, or having children fall asleep while drinking a bottle. We will rock or hold a newly enrolled infant who needs such comforting to fall asleep; however, we will work with these parents to help the infants develop self-regulation in sleep habits. Our goal is for your child to recognize sleep as a peaceful opportunity to self-soothe and rest because he or she is tired, just as a child will eat when hungry. If your child arrives asleep in a car seat, he or she will be gently placed in a crib. Children will have the opportunity to awaken from sleep naturally, rather than being awakened by an adult.
Communication
It is our priority to have close parent communication because we are all partners in caring for your child.
When your child begins in our Infant program, we will ask parents for detailed information on your baby’s sleep preferences (e.g. pacifier use), routine, feeding needs, temperament, etc. We strive to complement the home environment to ensure a sense of security and a smooth transition for your child.
On a daily basis, it is important for us to check in with parents to learn how your child slept the night before, the time of his or her last feeding, etc., so that we can best respond to his or her cues. Parents will receive the same information from us when they pick up their child at the end of each day.
We welcome parents to call and check on their children at any time, to talk informally with teachers at pick-up and drop-off time, to attend regularly scheduled parent-teacher conferences, and to book additional teacher meetings as needed.
Throughout the year, we also encourage you to attend our parent education events to learn more about child development and the Montessori approach to responding to your child’s needs. Our goal is to aid your child’s development by providing you with clear and helpful information as you journey through the infant years.
We look forward to meeting you and your infant!
"Toddler Community"
Children 18 months to 3 years
The first few years of a child's life are crucial to his or her personality and intellectual development. In his acclaimed book, The First Three Years of Life, Dr. Burton L. White says that a child born with the best mental and physical capabilities may not attain even average levels of competence without exposure to appropriate experiences.
Toddlers need not only love, emotional nurturance and a healthy physical environment, but also an environment that promotes their very real need to learn. The Montessori Teaching Method provides a basis for individualized learning activities, appropriate for even the earliest stages of a child's development.
The purpose of the Toddler Community at the Greece Montessori School is to encourage, assist, and protect the normal development of each child. Children in the Program flourish in prepared environments which respect, support and respond to their basic needs for independence, exploration and the building of trust and self-esteem.
We believe that cooperation between the Directress and the parents is crucial in the development of the child. Parental involvement is stressed; parents know their child better than anyone else. Parents and the Directress must feel comfortable in exchanging knowledge and experiences about the child. Informal parent groups and individual parent meetings are held throughout the school year.
During the early years of life, Dr. Maria Montessori believed, "the first thing the child's education demands is the provision of an environment in which he or she can develop the powers given by nature." Quite literally, the school environment is the curriculum. Quite literally, the school environment is the curriculum.
The structure of the curriculum is based on five developmental areas:
Sensory and Perception
The young child absorbs the world around him or her through the five senses, and a rich environment should cater to the child's senses.
Physical and Motor
Along with the mind, both fine and gross motor skills develop rapidly from three months to three years. Attention to these needs supports balanced development. A young child's physical ability and movements are important to his or her environmental involvement, and thus education.
Self-Help Skills
The focus is on helping the child attain and enjoy independence; each individual must learn to self-educate.
Language
The construction of vocabulary is a part of every aspect of the classroom from snack time to manipulating a toy to group activities.
Social and Emotional
A well-rounded and happy child, whose social and emotional development has been supported by responsive individual attention, reacts positively with the environment, copes with frustration, and learns easily.
Dr. Montessori emphasized the need for a rich environment and noted the speed at which children can develop. "If our own adult ability be compared with the child's, we should need sixty years of hard work to do what he or she does in three."
While providing a structured, and thus familiar, environment, the needs of individual children are met. For example, there are many physical, emotional and mental values involved with their work. Through various activities, the child learns to be independent. An individual, at any age, cannot make an intelligent choice or be responsible without independence in thought and action.Toddler Community
Independence will be achieved through:
- Care of the environment
- Development of language skills
- Movement
- Music
- Practical life activities
- Social Interaction
A Montessori trained Directress and classroom assistant will nurture the child's natural curiosity and love of learning. The class size of 11-15 will vary throughout the year as children achieve readiness and progress to the Montessori Primary classroom. The Toddler Community provides a solid foundation, upon which the child's future learning at Greece Montessori can be based.
Dr. Maria Montessori believed that education begins at birth and the first few years of life, being the most formative, are the most important both physically and mentally. Because mental development is these early years proceeds at a rapid rate, this is a period which the child's future learning at Greece Montessori School in Rochester, NY can be based.
The Montessori Primary Classroom Curriculum is designed to be completed during a three-year program for ages 3 to 6 years old including kindergarten.
Exercises of Practical Life:
These activities allow the child independent activity while mastering skills necessary to care for himself and his environment. They utilize and proceed from gross motor coordination to refined motor skills. The sequence of action in each exercise demands left to the right movement which builds concentration and is in direct preparation for reading and math.
Sensorial Development:
Based on Montessori philosophy the children learn through their senses, the specially designed apparatus allows the child to isolate qualities he sees in his environment. Through isolation, he is able to master definitive recognition of differences, sameness, and degrees of gradation, then re-apply them to his environment.
Language Development:
The child's existing vocabulary is extended through vocabulary enrichment, classification, and phonetic sound work. This is coupled with visual recognition of alphabet letters and cognitive association of words. Writing begins with phonetic words as well as reading. Unphonetic words are taught later, as well as the function of words and simple and complex sentences. Diagramming sentences and knowledge of all parts of speech is part of the program. These children usually read on a 2nd to 4th-grade level.
Mathematics:
Once the child knows his numbers 0 - 9 and can count, he proceeds to learn the decimal system and place value of numbers, the terminology units, tens, hundreds, thousands, etc. The four processes of addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division are performed in the progression of using concrete materials to less concrete to abstract.
Cultural Subjects:
These include geography, science, botany, music, and art.
Physical Education:
This includes the use of a gymnasium for organized games, as well as activities in the classroom such as the balance beam, walking, skipping and hopping on the line.
The Wrap-Around Program (WAP) was designed to meet the needs of parents requiring childcare outside of the scheduled school hours. The WAP is committed to offering an environment consistent with the Montessori philosophy that places emphasis on the dignity of the child in a relaxed atmosphere. This program is an extension of the Montessori program, and the policies of the school are also adhered to for WAP.
WAP care is available only to children currently enrolled in the Greece Montessori School.
Use Schedule:
Families are required to sign a contract, making a commitment to a specific fee schedule. This fee schedule is based on a regular program of childcare use. Any change in the schedule of use will require two weeks prior notice in writing to the school administrator. Schedule changes, resulting in a decrease in use from the originally agreed to rate schedule, may not be made more than once in a nine-month (September - May) school year. Failure to provide two weeks required notification of a schedule change will result in fees being assessed at the contracted weekly rate. Attendance on unscheduled days may NOT be substituted for absences on scheduled days.
Parents will be charged according to the WAP rate schedule and are required to follow the same rules as those using WAP regularly. Two weeks advance notice to the Administrator is requested so that adequate staffing may be provided.
WAP recess is defined as those weeks on the GMS School calendar when school is not in session (typically the last two weeks in December, Winter Recess in February, and Spring Recess in March or April.) This program is not offered during school closing and Summer Recess.
Wrap-Around is staffed until 5:30 PM. Parents must pick up their child no later than 5:30 PM. If, for any reason, parents are unable to pick up their child by 5:30 PM, they must notify GMS by 4:30 PM. For all pickups after 5:30 PM, parents will pay the sum of $30 per half-hour or any part of a half-hour after 5:30 PM. If a child is not picked up by 6:00 PM, every attempt will be made to notify parents or the designated emergency representative. In the event no one can be reached by phone at the stated numbers, the Administrator will be called and the appropriate action will be taken.
Parents are billed on a bi-weekly basis at the end of the billing week. If payment is not received by Thursday of the following week a $10 late fee will be charged. Children are not eligible to participate in the program if financial obligations are met as they are incurred. Should the child cease to be a student of GMS, he/she becomes ineligible to participate in the program.
The Greece Montessori Administrator reserves the right to limit the number of children in attendance in Wrap-Around. Priority will be given to contracts with the greatest number of hours used.
Breakfast and Lunch:
Children attending the morning session of Wrap-Around may bring breakfast to eat before the beginning of the school day. Breakfast should be kept simple with no cooking involved. Cold cereal with milk, juice, fresh fruit, bagels, or wholesome muffins are good choices.
Children attending the afternoon session should bring lunch. A refrigerator is available to keep perishable foods cold. Please make lunches nutritious. Avoid sugar and junk food items as well as items from fast food restaurants. No soda, gum, or candy is allowed. Keep lunches simple and nutritious. No "Lunchables" allowed. Pack foods with good vitamins and minerals such as vegetables with dip, sandwiches, soups in a Thermos, salad, fresh fruit, pasta, rice, cheese, and yogurt.
Breakfasts and lunches should be packed in a plastic or cloth lunch box. Boxes must be solid colors, with NO cartoon characters. A Thermos is suggested for hot/cold items. Washable utensils should be packed if needed. Food should be packed in Tupperware or re-sealable containers. Please be sure to use containers that the child can open unassisted.
Greece Montessori School is focused on recycling and caring for our planet's environment. Please use Thermoses for drinks and wax paper/reusable containers instead of plastic bags/wraps for food. In keeping with the Montessori philosophy, allow your child to be responsible for preparing and packing his/her lunch at home (with assistance, if necessary).
Rest Periods
There is a rest period each afternoon. Parents should provide a sleeping mat with a plain cover sheet. No cartoon character sheets are allowed. You may also provide a blanket or other comfort item if needed during the rest period.
To facilitate sanitary conditions, coversheets are sent home every Friday to be laundered. Please send a clean sheet every Monday.
Daily Schedule:
Before School - 7:00 a.m. to 8:45 a.m.
Breakfast - 7:00 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. (provided by parents)
Free Play
Story Time
After School - 11:45 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Lunch - 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. (provided by parents)
Rest Time - 1:00 p.m. to 2:20 p.m.
Outside playtime (weather permitting)
Arts and Crafts
Snacks
Story Time
Non-competitive activities such as singing, board games, etc.
Please note: The staff will not be able to give children any medication. Parents are invited to drop in whenever necessary to medicate their children.
Information on this page is to be considered a guideline and does not substitute for a written contract. Please see the school administrator for arrangements.
Please call our office with any questions at (585) 227-4830!
July 30th, 2024
Earlier this month, we raised more than $300 from our Chipotle fundraiser night! Thanks to everyone who shared the event with friends, ordered food and supported the event! Next event is this Thursday 8/1 at Bill Gray's (the Latta Road location) between 4-8pm. Save the date, you have dinner plans! READ MORE
July 8th, 2024
We have fundraiser scheduled for tomorrow, July 9th from 4-8pm at Chipotle in Greece. Come by for dinner and help us raise some funds for our playground! READ MORE
July 1st, 2024
GMS is collecting all cans and bottles recyclable in NY for our bottle drive! For the next few weeks, ask your neighbors, friends and family to save their bottles for us. On July 27th between 9-4pm, bring the collected bottles to Greece Montessori School, or have us pick them up from your house. To arrange pick up, call (585) 472 - 2115.
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