Language arts are interwoven throughout the integrated Montessori curriculum. Each activity offers students the opportunity to enrich and expand their language.

Language acquisition is an important element in our Young Children’s Community where our toddler students are learning to make sense of what they hear every day. What Maria Montessori termed the Absorbent Mind is busy in these 18 month to 3 year old children. The task of the child at this age is to ‘absorb’ his environment, to create the structure needed for more formal language in his next stage of development.  

In a formal way children are introduced to sounds early in their experience in the Children’s House, the 3-6 classroom. Children at this age have a particular sensitivity for reading and writing, and if introduced to it at this age, tend to pick it up quite quickly.

As children move through their early phonetic reading stages they use concrete materials in the classroom to enrich their experience with sound and letters.

As they become more fluent in their reading and writing, Children’s House students often put their new skills to work writing brief ‘reports’ from encyclopedia research.  This lays the foundation for the elementary years when students’ work often takes the form of individual research and reporting.

Parts of speech are introduced to children with hands on materials making what is perhaps traditionally thought of as an abstract and  difficult concept become a colorful and engaging experience. By the elementary years, sentence analysis becomes more complex, providing students an understanding of grammar that empowers them in their own writing.

Literature circles begin and more formal creative writing are introduces in Lower Elementary with the goal of sowing a love of reading and writing. As students become more comfortable in each area, constructive feedback is given to hone skills. But as in every area, children are met where they are. Reading groups are formed based on shared reading level, not age.