Additional Educational Opportunities
As an enhancement to Turtle River’s standard curriculum, we offer our students weekly sessions in the following areas:
Art
Offered weekly to Elementary students, the Art Program provides instruction in artistic techniques and varying media, encouraging students to try different ways of creative expression. Art is integrated into the curriculum.
Gardening
Each classroom has its own garden, to reinforce the biology, ecology and sciences programs studied at each level. Through weekly interaction with the environment, students learn about the interconnectedness of our natural world’s plants and animals and take away knowledge and techniques they can implement at home.
Change to Technology
Beginning in 1st grade, Elementary students learn the basics of computer keyboarding, advancing their technology curriculum using “Keyboarding without Tears,” a cloud-based program which allows them to work at school and practice at home. Focus is on hand alignment accuracy and automatically scored lessons coupled with fun games reinforce learning. Internet safety and full computer literacy is integrated.
Physical Education
In Elementary and Middle School, students participate in a Physical Education program which encompasses fitness, health, and both cooperative and competitive games. The focus is on movement and learning about the importance of physical activity as it relates to our overall health and wellbeing.
Music Appreciation
Weekly classes full of musical building blocks to awaken and develop your child’s inborn joy and talent for making music. Children are exposed to music from around the world, different instruments and their sounds, musical play, tonal and rhythmic patterns as well as locomotive movement. Lower elementary moves through learning tempo and tone, to Solfège, ending at Upper Elementary with performing arts.
Foreign Language
As was important to Dr. Montessori, TRM fosters the child’s natural curiosity about new cultures and interest in foreign languages. Lower Elementary students are introduced to conversational Spanish and learn about the many different Spanish countries and cultures through music, art activities, simple vocabulary words, and engaging stories. As they progress to the Upper Elementary program, students learn grammar, more advanced vocabulary, and present their learning with fun projects.
STEM
In collaboration with classroom teachers, STEM teachers design projects to complement the Montessori science taught during the week. Students engage in hands-on projects that include Science, Engineering, Technology, and Math. These activities allow students to problem solve in groups, learn how to experiment, use their creativity, and use their knowledge to create something new. In STEM classes our students understand how science can be found daily in the world around them.