PROGRAM CURRICULUM

PRACTICAL LIFE & DRAMATIC PLAY

The exercises of Practical Life provide the foundation for all other activities in the classroom. Through exercises in daily living, such as cleaning, pouring, dressing, and polishing, the child gains confidence and mastery of the environment. The exercises of Practical life / Daily Living fall into four major categories: Care of the Self, Care of the Environment, Grace and Courtesy and Control of Movement. Children need to master these in order to live comfortably in the real adult world. These activities help the child develop a sense of order, concentration, coordination, and personal independence.

COMMUNITY TIME

Community Time serves to build community, promote social connection, solve conflicts, and strengthen core values. During this time, children come together in cooperative discussions and camaraderie. We incorporate all other curriculum areas into the Circle experience as well, such as foreign languages, math, language arts, music, art, and social studies. With critical thinking activities, call-and-response, games, and role-playing, students benefit from a highly interactive, collective learning experience.

SENSORIAL

Children from birth to age six are in their “sensitive period” for exploring the world through their senses. We strive to provide children with many opportunities to organize the sensory impressions they’ve been receiving since birth. By careful selection of items of different textures, colors, sizes, and geometric shapes, children discover relationships and exclaim, “This bolt is a hexagon,” or “This cloth is rough.” Sensorial experiences also indirectly prepare children for future exploration of language, mathematics, geometry, art, and music.

MATHEMATICS

Our Montessori mathematics curriculum is designed to offer each student an excellent grasp of mathematics. All of their work with the Practical Life and Sensorial materials brings order to children’s experiences, important indirect preparation for the mathematical mind. The developing child yearns to organize, classify, and abstract. The Montessori math lessons lead the child through progressive hands-on activities, emphasizing concepts while preparing the child for abstractions.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Language is power, and our literacy program, which includes Montessori and non-Montessori materials, is devoted to fostering a love for the written and spoken word. Our program is dynamic and enriched with a broad range of activities such as active listening, public speaking, singing, reciting poetry, chanting, rhyming, reading and writing.

Our classroom offers a colorful, engaging reading experience. From creative charts to book displays filled with favorite children’s literature, we strive to bring language to life!

Children explore theater, storytelling, fiction, non-fiction, folklore and more.

SCIENCE

Science is an exciting subject at Pomegranate Schools. While learning to understand challenging scientific principles, students enjoy working with engaging, hands-on materials designed to stimulate their innate curiosity. In fact, children are born scientists!

We reinforce the notion that science is all around us. With opportunities beyond the classroom, such as educational nature field trips, students have the opportunity to integrate scientific theory into every day relevance. This holistic approach to science supports real understanding and a genuine respect for the intricate workings of our world.

FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Research is clear that multi-lingualism enhances a child’s mind. While fostering global citizenship and cultural awareness, learning other languages improves abstract thinking and cognitive capacity.

At Pomegranate Schools, foreign language is a key element in morning and afternoon circles. Native speakers of Spanish, Mandarin, and Russian, our teachers mindfully integrate foreign language learning opportunities into the classroom environment. Students enjoy hearing new phrases and applying them in daily interactions, both inside the classroom and beyond!

In our after-school program, students have the option to receive additional instruction in both Spanish, Mandarin, and Russian. These classes utilize textbooks, songs, art activities, games, dialogues, and writing assignments to develop age-appropriate language competence.

SOCIAL STUDIES

An integrated approach to social studies cultivates a strong understanding of–and respect for–human cultures. At Pomegranate Schools, we do much more than simply memorize timelines of dates and events. Our curriculum highlights the development of human societies as a multi-faceted, living legacy with thematic units geared to the interest and inspiration of each class.

Our students create journals that highlight course material with writing, drawing, and collage. They make unique and creative connections. When students latch on to a particular theme in social studies, our teachers encourage them to explore it further, enlivening their experience with many opportunities for expansion. Children have a satisfying, felt-sense of participation and partnership in learning!

EXPRESSIVE ARTS

PEACE /SPIRITUAL EDUCATION (Offered as an extracurricular activity)

At Pomegranate Schools, we orchestrate a stimulating expressive arts program! We integrate visual art, music, dance, and drama into other aspects of the curriculum, too. Scientific illustrations, the mathematics in music, and sculpted figures from history are just a few examples of fine art applications in the classroom.

Art has a powerful impact on the social, emotional, and intellectual health and development of children. Plus, it’s fun! That’s why art is a central aspect to our educational approach.

Maria Montessori was a citizen of the world. Her timeless and enduring work shows us that children nurtured in body, mind, and spirit, would guide humanity toward a more peaceful world. Dedicating her life to the spiritual renewal of humanity through the child, her vision was based on creating an environment where children could fully realize their potentials as individuals and members of communities. As Montessori wrote in The Secret of Childhood, “It is the spirit of the child that can determine the course of human progress and lead it perhaps even to a higher form of civilization.”

Our Peace Education activities help with creating a nurturing classroom environment where children learn to successfully develop cooperation, self-confidence, and conflict-resolution skills.

Additionally, we use Maria Montessori’s principles outlined in her book, The Child in the Church, as well Jerome Berryman’s Godly Play curriculum based on his interpretation of Montessori religious education, to provide an opportunity for families to immerse their children in spiritual formation of their child from early age. Godly Play is an imaginative approach

INDOOR AND OUTDOOR PLAY

Children love to play. Not only does play represent a child’s happy place, it is an essential aspect of healthy development. Through play, children build social skills, stimulate cognitive functions, exercise creativity and cultivate self-awareness. Because play comes naturally to children, they are best motivated to learn in a play-based environment.

Pomegranate Schools integrates play into the very foundation of its educational approach. Our students thrive academically and personally, strengthening self-esteem and confidence, curiosity and innovation. This sets them up for both immediate and long-term success in schooling, as children with positive feelings about their learning environment tend to be better prepared for higher education.

Outdoor play is another important aspect to our program. As a vital outlet for children’s exuberant energy, our backyard is home to a variety of safe and stimulating activities. Spending time outdoors allows children to exercise their bodies, calm their minds, and further develop their connection with mother earth.

GARDENING

Spending time outdoors is a big deal at Pomegranate Schools! It allows children to exercise their bodies, calm their minds, and further develop their connection with mother earth. All students will be exposed to the practical work of developing and maintaining a healthy, productive garden. The garden is meant to provide rich soil for children’s mental, physical, and emotional growth, while offering a biological classroom in which to study the cycles of life as well as about planting, tending, harvesting, and composting while learning to respect food and eating. Additionally, the children will hold a monthly Farmer’s Market for all of the families as an opportunity to learn from early age about the importance of creating value, the process that goes into creating value, and the financial rewards of creating value for fellow human beings.

FIELD TRIPS (TBD)

At Pomegranate Schools, we believe that connecting lessons in the classroom with real-world experience is an essential component of learning. We carefully plan regular field trips that enrich the student curriculum.

AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM

Good Afternoon!

Pomegranate Schools’s after-school and evening program offers children an opportunity to expand their educational and physical development, cultivate personal interests, and explore wider realms of creativity. Program participation also provides new social interactions, as children from different classes come together, and builds school community!

Classes run from one to one-and-a-half hours long, and activities vary on a daily basis. Children will deepen their understanding and appreciation of: music, cooking, art, weaving, sewing, drama, movement, foreign languages, mini golf, soccer, etc. We encourage children to pick classes according to their interests. We are vendor-partners of Inspire Charter Schools and accept their payments toward these extracurricular classes.

Note: In order to maintain the integrity, flow, and quality of the program, please pick up your child before or after the afternoon class, but not while class is in session.

Nutrition & Menu

Beginning in fall of 2017, we will provide a hot lunch program based on an exciting international, mostly plant-based menu. Meals will be created with fresh/organic, unprocessed, non-GMO ingredients. As our garden grows, lunch will also include food the children harvest themselves.

We do not allow children to eat or bring snacks that are high in artificial sugars. Please, no candies, frosted items, or other junk foods.

Children may visit the self-serve snack table during the morning and afternoon. An additional snack will be available during the after-school enrichment program. Water is available at all times.