LA MATERNELLE
Les Lilas’s La Maternelle, or Cycle 1, program welcomes children ages 3 to 6—petite section (preschool), moyenne section (pre-K), and grande section (kindergarten).
Mixed-age classrooms allow teachers to focus on individual development rather than follow more rigid grade-level standards. Thanks to Les Lilas’s small class sizes, teachers can also personalize the curriculum to keep students truly engaged in their education.
In Cycle 1, we use the Montessori approach to introduce and teach all of our lessons. Following is a brief overview of what our students learn during these 3 years.
WHAT WILL YOUR CHILD LEARN?
READING, WRITING & LANGUAGE SKILLS
At this age, children have the ability to learn a new language just as easily as they learned their native tongue. In no time, they are able to ask questions, talk to their peers, express their ideas, and share their thoughts and feelings in French. Guided by their native French-speaking teachers, the students acquire vocabulary by listening to stories and music, imitating their peers, and repeating native sounds. Though the bulk of the instruction is in French, children also receive 6 hours of English lessons each week, when they read classic children’s literature and modern stories to promote a love of reading. Students learn sight words, grammar, and phonics. They sing songs that reinforce social skills and a variety of learning skills.
ACTION, SELF-EXPRESSION & COMPREHENSION THROUGH ARTISTIC ACTIVITIES
Art
In art children explore a variety of artistic methods sparking their imagination and creativity. Thoughtful approaches to artistic techniques develop their fine motor skills as well as their analytical reasoning. The activities are organized in order to introduce the children to different media including painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, collage, and cinema. French painters are discussed, and field trips to museums reinforce classroom instruction.
Performing arts & music
The children are also exposed to the performing arts and music. They learn songs and develop their auditory, tactile, language, and presentation skills. In preschool, children learn French songs to help reinforce their vocabulary, and they present what they have learned in an end-of-year “spectacle” (performance). Children explore a variety of instruments and begin to learn harmony and rhythm. In kindergarten, children not only recite songs, but they also learn how to recognize notes. A field trip to the museum takes place once a year.
Certified art and music teachers instruct the class in French twice a week.
ACTION, SELF-EXPRESSION & COMPREHENSION THROUGH PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES
In this 3-year cycle, children will discover the joy of movement and take calculated risks through guided physical activities. This skills-based class reinforces fine motor coordination, body awareness, focus, and intellectual reasoning. Students also develop interpersonal relationships, embracing their classmates’ differences and respecting their range of abilities. PE takes place twice a week, with optional, additional after-school sports classes.
DEVELOPING TOOLS FOR MATHEMATICAL THINKING
In preschool, children learn how to count, sequence numbers, match numbers to pictures, classify and combine objects, and order a multi-step project.
Discovery of numbers & their purpose
Students manipulate familiar objects (e.g., dominos, dice) to recognize quantities. They associate pictures to quantities and sequence small numbers. They learn the fundamentals of basic measurement, developing vocabulary such as “more than” or “less than.” Through games and activities they formulate questions and draw logical conclusions.
Exploration of shapes, sizes & patterns
Students learn to classify, group, and organize shapes. To strengthen their analytical reasoning they identify and replicate patterns (e.g., red, blue, green, red, blue, green). They begin to understand basic measurement by comparing the size of objects. The knowledge gained at this level serves as a building block for geometry covered in cycles 2 and 3.
EXPLORATION OF OUR WORLD
Situating oneself in time & space
During circle time, students discuss the days of the week, the seasons, and the daily schedule. This process enables them to gradually comprehend the regular pattern of the school day. Through daily classroom routines they understand the cyclical nature of their day, and what their role is in terms of being part of a class. They bring items from home for “show and tell” to distinguish between what is kept at home versus what is kept at school.
Exploring the living world, objects & matter
Children learn about the different forms of life, the life cycles, and habitat. They plant vegetables and flowers, handle insects and small animals. They also discover their own bodies with respect to function, hygiene, and nutrition.
Children learn to recognize the basic characteristics of matter by cutting, modeling, and assembling materials like wood, soil, paper, cardboard. To make the abstract more tangible, they experiment, observe, and conclude. For example, what happens if you freeze water? How does light affect shade?
Natural hazards such as fire or water are discussed in the context of safety. Children learn how to recognize unsafe situations and are given tools on how to respond.