Curriculum | Kia Mena Montessori

At Kia Mena Montessori Pre-School, we embrace the Montessori ethos to create a well-rounded and engaging curriculum. Every week, in collaboration with the children, we select a topic to explore. Activities across all areas of the pre-school are thoughtfully adapted to align with this theme, ensuring that learning is both relevant and exciting. From artists to volcanoes and transport, our topics are designed to spark curiosity and inspire hands-on learning. For a closer look at the activities and projects we undertake, visit our social media pages, where we share regular updates of what’s happening during each topic.

The Montessori areas featured in our curriculum include:

Practical Life

Practical Life activities mirror the real-world tasks children see adults doing every day. These activities help them gain control over their movements, develop hand-eye coordination, and build essential life skills.

Our Practical Life area includes:

Pouring, scooping, and transferring activities to develop fine motor skills
Dressing frames to practice zipping, buttoning, and tying shoelaces
Food preparation, washing up, and setting the table
Tidying and caring for the environment, including sweeping and plant care

By allowing children to master these skills at their own pace, we help them develop self-discipline and a sense of achievement.

Sensorial

Sensorial activities are designed to allow children to refine and develop each of the 5 senses individually. Activities can be graduated to meet each child’s individual needs and encourage a sense of independence as children are encouraged to solve each self-correcting activity themselves.

Our sensorial area includes:

Sight – Sorting and grading by size, shape, and colour
Touch – Exploring textures, temperatures, and weights
Sound – Recognising sounds through shakers and musical instruments
Smell and taste activities – Identifying scents and flavours to refine sensory perception

Language

The Montessori method encourages a writing approach to reading, with children developing their pencil control and awareness of letter formation at the same time as phonic awareness.

Our language area includes:

Sandpaper letters – tracing letters with fingers for better letter recognition
Moveable alphabet – Encouraging early spelling and word building
Insets for design – Developing pencil control and pre-writing skills

Mathematics

The Montessori approach encourages children to learn maths through movement and manipulation rather than memorisation. Children work through concrete materials before moving on to more abstract concepts.

Our maths area includes:

Sandpaper numbers – tracing numbers with fingers to reinforce number formation
Number rods and beads – Introducing counting and quantity
Pattern and sequencing activities

Cultural

The cultural area introduces children to the world around them fostering an understanding of different cultures, animals, geography, history, art and much more through a variety of engaging activities.

Our cultural area includes:

Classification cards – Teaching children key facts about various subjects such as sorting animals into classes or naming parts of a volcano
Puzzles – Focused on exploring the world
Geography – Maps, flags and cultural traditions from around the globe
Science – Investigating lifecycles, ecosystems and conducting different experiments