The Del Ray Montessori School is a non-profit Montessori School located in the quaint Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, Virginia, we are associated and recognized by AMI/USA (Association Montessori International). Founded in 2011, we serve children ages 18 months through age 12 and their families in the DC metropolitan area.
Creating Opportunities for Independence
The Young Children’s Community (YCC) serves as a bridge between the home and the school, providing a nurturing and loving community for children between the ages of 18 months to 3 years old. Our focus is to encourage the child’s quest for independence and support their emotional, intellectual and physical developmental needs.
Young children want to engage and participate in purposeful, real-life work. In order to meet this insatiable desire, a carefully prepared environment is available with toddler sized materials and furniture, including small sinks, toddler sized toilets, and training potties. In addition, we provide practical life activities such as food preparation, baking, setting the table, washing dishes, self-care, dressing, and toileting. The mixed age classroom allows the children to aid one another in their growth, offering an opportunity to live in a community with their peers to help develop important social skills and communication. Fostering a deep sense of respect, responsibility and resourcefulness is the beginning of a lifelong love of learning.
Children start their day outside, arriving between 8:05 and 8:20, and are greeted by one of the adults. They hang their bag and find connections on the playground and in the garden. They are outside for an hour in the morning, in all weather! At 9:30, they transition inside. Once in the classroom, they hang up their bag and coat and sit on the bench to remove their shoes and put on their classroom slippers. They are invited to use the bathroom and to help put any extra clothing they bring into their cubby box. The children are invited to wash their hands and set their place for snack, which is brought from home. Once snack is completed, the children are gently guided through their day by the two adults in the classroom, who aid them in navigating social situations, provide choices of activities, help with changing clothes and using the bathroom, and introduce them to new activities. At noon, the full-day children prepare for lunch while the half-day children prepare for their dismissal. At lunch, the children prepare their own space at the table, and they eat the lunch that was brought from home. After lunch, children prepare for nap, which spans from about 1:00-3:00. Children are then dismissed for the day at 3:10.
Children who are in the YCC complete activities for learning are introduced to activities that further develop their language, developing fine motor skills, refining gross motor skills, art, music, food preparations, baking, and Practical Life activities that constitute caring for themselves, caring for plants, caring for animals, and caring for the classroom. Students in the YCC are often seen making bread for their snack, washing tables, painting pictures, reading books, showing another student how to get a tissue, and singing. Click below for more details on specific areas of curriculum in the Young Children’s Community.
Language. An enriching language curriculum supports the child’s developing language skills along with sensorial exploration, movement, and the arts. We offer a number of lessons in this area:
Reading books
Naming and identifying real objects
Naming and identifying replicas of objects or things
Language cards
Pictures
Practical Life These activities are designed to help the child develop practical skills to care for themselves and their environment, as well as to strengthen concentration and fine and gross motor skills. The children participate in a variety of activities including:
Food preparation - chopping, slicing, grating, mashing, stirring, peeling, scooping, kneading bread
Care of Self - Washing hands, changing clothes, washing face, brushing hair, brushing teeth, cleaning shoes
Care of Environment - washing dishes, washing cloths, wiping and drying a table, scrubbing a table, drying a spill, mopping, sweeping, crumbing a table, dusting, cleaning a window, polishing wood
Care of Plants - watering plants, cleaning leaves, dusting plants, flower arranging, seed germination, plant transplanting
Toileting - Toileting is a large part of our curriculum. Children at the YCC wear cloth underwear throughout the day in order to receive the feedback they need to understand how bodily functions work when they need to use the bathroom. A toddler sized toilet and sink are available for them to practice this skill. You’ll often find an assistant in the bathroom most of the day in order to guide and assist children with the toilet and clean up as needed. Unique things in this classroom that aid in the child’s knowledge and experience with toileting are:
Highly trained adults who display patience and understanding throughout the natural toileting process.
Separate, individual cubbies for the children to put their clothing in independently.
Toddler sized sinks for washing hands, filling pitchers, cleaning faces, and washing paint brushes.
A real porcelain toddler sized toilet that is the right size and height for a smaller child to navigate independently.
Child-sized stools used for changing clothes.
Art - Art introduces a variety of skills to toddlers. It develops fine motor skills; begins the basics of math as they count pieces and colors; science and creativity abound as they experiment with materials; art boosts self-confidence as toddlers feel good about their creation; and the ability to experiment and make mistakes enables new ways of thinking and problem solving. In our program, toddlers are seen:
Painting at the easel with water-based paint
Coloring using a block crayon or smaller crayons
Gluing shapes onto paper
Using chalk at the chalkboard
Using the shape punch to make new shapes
Sewing using the cards and making different patterns with the strings.
Music - When exposed to music the body and the mind work together and helps toddlers learn the sounds and meanings of words. Both fine and gross motor skills are developed through the use of musical instruments and the ability to move and dance, helping toddlers practice self-expression. Lastly, music helps strengthen memory skills.
A variety of rhythm instruments are available for use like egg shakers, tambourines, hand drums, xylophones, rhythm blocks, and small bells
Listening to different artists or composers for music appreciation
Singing different songs both seasonal and year-round favorites
The YCC Team: Ms. Bland and Ms. Fiegel
