Parents, Come See the Difference
The Plan
Discovery Woods will be a small public school serving 76-102 children the first year, and growing to just a couple hundred students as demand increases. We plan to enroll students in kindergarten through 5th grade in 2010. The following year, 6th graders could attend. We hope to add a 7th and 8th grade five years later. Classes will contain 2-3 grades combined until we grow into the ideal Montessori groupings of: Early Childhood-Kindergarten (Children’s House), 1st-3rd grades (Elementary I), 4th-6th grade (Elementary II) and 7th & 8th grade (Junior High).
A New Kind of School
Montessori classrooms are unique environments filled with beautiful materials built for hands-on learning. Montessori teachers act as partners with their students in multi-age groupings. Each classroom becomes a family-like community that fosters social and academic success, cooperation and respect. Montessori elementary curriculum includes math, geometry, language, geography, science, history, art and music.
Compare the difference between traditional and Montessori classrooms:
| Traditional Classroom | Montessori Environment |
| Single-graded classrooms | Multi-age groupings |
| Whole class instruction | Individual and small group instruction |
| Textbooks, worksheets, blackboard lessons | Specialty multi-sensory materials |
| Students passive, quiet in desks | Students active, engaged in their work, freedom to talk and move |
| Curriculum structured with little regard for child’s interest | Children choose own work from interests and abilities |
| Teacher has dominant role in classroom | Teacher guides students; children are active participants in own learning |
| Instruction pace set by group norm or teacher | Children set own pace to learn information |
| Children guided to concepts by teacher | Children formulate own concepts from self-teaching materials |
| Students leave for special help | Most abilities accommodated in classroom |
| Children expected to go to school to learn district-approved curriculum | Children respected for their intelligence, creativity and imagination |
| Excitement for learning declines each year | Cultivates a love of learning for life |
For more information, visit this Montessori Charter School Web site to see what Discovery Woods hopes to achieve in the near future.
Future Enrollment
Discovery Woods has been provisionally approved to open a charter school by the Minnesota Department of Education. Student admission forms will be made available when the school becomes fully chartered. Enrollment will occur in the late spring to early summer 2010, so please continue to check this website for updates. If the school receives more applications than spots available, names will be drawn randomly by lottery until all grades are filled and a waiting list is generated.
Discovery Woods will be a tuition-free public charter school. It will be open to any and all students, and will not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, national origin, sex, or disability.