Enrichment Programs

At MSLF, our distinctive enrichment programs serve to enhance our Montessori curriculum. They extend beyond the traditional Montessori classroom, providing opportunities for exploration, skill refinement, and social interaction. Our enrichment programs help children develop important skills like problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, teamwork, and independence. They can provide students with new experiences and help them view the world in a different way, bringing their classroom learning to life.

The enrichment activities that our children engage in can have a big impact on their success in the classroom, helping them develop into people who are successful in life.

Explore the distinctive enrichment programs MSLF has to offer

OUTDOOR EDUCATION

“We must study the correlation between life and its environment. In nature everything correlates. This is the method of nature. Nature is not concerned with the conservation of individual life: it is a harmony, a plan of construction. Everything fits into the plan: winds, rocks, earth, water, plants, man, etc. ”

- Dr. Maria Montessori, Citizen of the World

Students work daily to care for and learn about our land. Our Outdoor Classroom encompasses 5.5 acres of prairie, wetland, woodland, and oak savanna, where there is always purposeful work to do. Through managing invasive species and encouraging native plants, they learn what makes a healthy ecosystem.

More about our Outdoor Classroom

LANGUAGES

"If we adults had no language, no power to communicate with one another, the world would be a very different place. Every man who is born has this gift from nature, this power to develop language. We all achieve language in the same way. ”

- Dr. Maria Montessori, The 1946 London Lectures

MSLF offers two languages as a part of our Enrichment Programs: Spanish and Mandarin.

Spanish is offered to all classrooms from Toddler through the Adolescent Program.

Mandarin is offered to all Primary children and as a supplemental program at the Elementary level, with a focus on cultural exploration.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION & MOVEMENT

“Children develop their brains as well as their bodies through movement, and in the process of concentration, self-discipline, and perseverance with an active interest, the foundations of character are laid. To give our children a fine start in life we must see that their surroundings satisfy their need for activity and development, remembering at the same time that our own part is not that of instructor and interferer but of helper and friend."

- Dr. Maria Montessori, Maria Montessori Speaks to Parents

Movement and physical education are key enrichment programs at MSLF. Toddler and Primary children have movement work during the morning work cycle, an option that is particularly important for young learners, as it aids in development of concentration, balance, and perseverance. Older children have PE in the afternoons, using our ample outdoor space as much as possible for running, games, and relays.

MUSIC

“To make the hearing of music an intelligent act and not like the mechanical process, which appears when children read, in loud monotone, books which they cannot understand and of the meaning of which they have no idea, preparatory exercises are required. We get this preparation through various exercises in the audition of various scales for the recognition of key, and in exercises on the interpretation of rhythm.”

- Dr. Maria Montessori, The Montessori Approach to Music

Our music enrichment program provides students with an introduction to various musical instruments, sounds, and genres to nurture their appreciation of music.

COOKING & GARDENING

“Education should... include the two forms of work, manual and intellectual, for the same person, and thus make it understood by practical experience that these two kinds complete each other and are equally essential to a civilised existence. ”

- Dr. Maria Montessori, From Childhood to Adolescence

MSLF’s school garden is an important part of the Outdoor Classroom curriculum. Students at every level learn the basic lesson of how to plant a seed and care for its growth into a plant. Utilizing our garden beds, greenhouse, and individual classroom patio containers, plants are grown year round.

The school garden at MSLF provides ingredients for cooking lessons in our Learning Kitchen. Students bake, dehydrate, preserve, and prepare a wide variety from their harvests. Many of these items are offered for sale at our markets.

Markets are a regular event at MSLF. Students harvest and wash vegetables to prepare them for market. Elementary students run the market by promoting and selling. Valuable lessons are learned as the students add up the totals for market shoppers, receive cash payments, make change, and learn the importance of customer service. Students from every classroom have an opportunity during the school day to shop at the market, as well.