Sparrow Creek School is a small, intimate, creative environment, for young children 3 to 6 years of age. We offer a traditional Montessori program.
THE MONTESSORI APPROACH
Montessori practical-life materials involve children in precise purposeful movement, allowing them to concentrate, to work at their own pace uninterrupted and to complete their work. Children have the satisfaction of performing "real" activities: cooking, sweeping, washing, and polishing. The tasks appeal to children because they are fun and they recognize them as having importance in the community.
DEVELOPING THE SENSES
The young children discover, classify and order their world through their senses. Children need well-developed faculties for concentration, observation and discrimination. Through the Montessori sensorial materials, children educate their senses by matching and sequentially ordering objects of different dimensions, shapes, colors, sounds, smells, tastes, textures and temperatures.
ART AND FANTASY PLAY
Each day there are special group times set aside for listening and the telling of stories, for movement education and for musical activities. An entire section of the classroom is devoted to art. The children may choose to express themselves through many different mediums such as collage, painting, printing, drawing and carpentry. Some of the children may choose to entertain themselves and their friends with the puppet house. Still others may enjoy learning to play guitar. The art and fantasy equipment inspires children's imagination and aids in their development.
OUTSIDE ENVIRONMENT
Our classroom opens out onto a year round garden and fruit orchard, giving children the opportunity to make their own joyful discoveries while playing and working in nature.
THE KINDERGARTEN YEAR
The three-year cycle of the Montessori primary class is completed in the kindergarten year. Based upon the skills the children have gradually built up during the previous two years, they now have an opportunity to maximize the development of self-esteem and self-confidence. They learn important lessons about leadership by helping the younger children. The exploration, concentration and self-discipline experienced within the prepared environment of the Montessori classroom teaches independence and prepares children for academic learning in the Kindergarten year in the areas of math, reading, writing, botany, science, history, time, music, geology, carpentry and fine arts. As a special preparation for first grade, the kindergartners meet as a group each afternoon. They write books and explore the peoples, animals, and plants of the world.
Sparrow Creek School is a non-profit public benefit corporation established to serve the children of Marin County. It is operated on a non-discriminatory basis according equal treatment and access to services without regard to race, color, sex, religion and national or ethnic origin.
