Preschool

Montessori’s Grace and Courtesy supports a key component of Willowwind’s mission - character development. Our early childhood program fosters students to become independent, self-confident, self-advocating, and self-disciplined learners. In an effort to help students thrive as community leaders and global citizens, our program aims to grow the child’s concentration, problem-solving skills, conflict resolution strategies, patience, and a sense of order and process. Teachers guide students in growing and learning this way, while also supporting them in developing a joy for learning. Students are encouraged and supported through a variety of social and emotional regulation strategies, including access to a Peace Corner, where they are able to learn and develop means for self-regulation in a safe and engaging space.

Practical Life exercises teach independence and concentration. Students strengthen fine and gross motor skills, develop physical coordination, and encourage care of self, classroom, and environment. Practical Life works include pouring, sorting, tweezing, scooping, food preparation, handwashing, dish washing, dusting, and sweeping. Activities are designed to transfer from left to right in order to prepare children for future work with reading and writing.

Sensorial works engage and sharpen the five senses. Students explore size, shape, color, dimension, texture, sound, scent, and taste. Montessori’s iconic sensorial works include knobbed and knobless cylinders, red rods, brown stairs, pink tower, binomial and trinomial cubes, sound shakers, mystery scent matching, and taste testing. Willowwind also incorporates options such as play-dough, hammering, beading, puzzles, and much more. Sensorial activities continue to enhance fine and gross motor skills and develop the pincer grasp, which will later be used to achieve a pencil grip.

Willowwind integrates a wide variety of arts, geography, and cultures into daily lessons with our rotating "Cosmic" and “Continents” curriculum in order for students to learn about their connection to the universe. With a diverse scope of artists, mixed media, and a focus on global citizenship, students celebrate all walks of life! From celestial events, like Winter Solstice, to classical and current artists, students explore, mimic, and create their very own masterpieces. Additionally, community members are invited to come and share their insights and experience with day-to-day life, festivals, and holidays from around the world. Each year welcomes different celebrations and activities, as they reflect the current attending families. Activities are always supplemented with age-appropriate lessons and books.

Willowwind's preschool offers a variety of literacy works geared toward many language and reading skill levels. Students begin by building knowledge of sounds and gaining familiarity with letter representations and shapes, rhyming, word play, and initial letter sounds. Students engage with our Letter of the Week curriculum and work with sandpaper letters, name tracing, the movable alphabet, letter books, listening centers, and storytimes to further hone their early literacy skills. Students are also introduced to American Sign Language and often explore signing along with songs and common phrases. Preschoolers are also free to explore books on their own in the classroom libraries and select books from the ICPL Bookmobile during monthly visits.

Math works introduce symbol recognition, symbol and quantity association, place value, decimals, and fractions, along with basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. By using tangible manipulatives such as the red and blue rods, sandpaper numbers and counters, colored bead stair, and golden bead material, students engage with numbers and mathematical concepts in concrete ways. Learning becomes more abstract as students progress through the program, preparing them for the elementary mathematics curriculum.

Woven throughout the classrooms are a multitude of hands-on materials introducing basic science concepts. We aim to cultivate curiosity by offering opportunities for experimentation and observation. Students engage with a variety of science topics, including light and shadow, engineering with ramps and pathways, magnetism, water-color paints, floating and sinking, plants and seeds, body movement, and Earth science. Willowwind's preschool science curriculum takes into account students’ interests and encourages them to ask questions, conduct experiments, and share their discoveries.

Willowwind Montessori Preschool incorporates additional exploratory experiences into the curriculum regularly. Art, Music, Physical Education, Social Emotional Learning, Early Childhood Group Discussion, and mentor time with older buddies offer valuable and age-appropriate exposure to art, culture, and STEAM ideas while also fostering a sense of community with Willowwind’s K-6 community. Students attend weekly visual art classes with a teaching artist, as well as physical education and music classes. The Iowa City Public Library (ICPL) provides a monthly early childhood story time, as well as a visit with the bookmobile. Our weekly Early Childhood Group Discussion time allows students across preschool and kindergarten to interact and grow together as a community.