Birch Lane Montessori Program

The Birch Lane Montessori Program is a high quality Montessori program in a public school setting. Currently the Birch Lane Montessori Program has an enrollment of 240 students in grades K-6, with 10 Montessori classrooms. It was developed in 2000 through a collaborative effort among parents, teachers, and administrators of the Davis Joint Unified School District and members of the Davis Montessori community.

Montessori education stresses a whole child approach, focusing on children’s cognitive, social, emotional, and physical needs. Teachers use individual and cooperative learning strategies, while tailoring lessons and activities to children’s abilities. Montessori education emphasizes teaching and learning from both peers and the teacher through multi-age classrooms and a combination of student- and teacher-initiated activities. By offering freedom within a structured setting, children learn to think critically, ask provocative questions, and adapt to new situations.
The Birch Lane Montessori curriculum encompasses the following areas:
• Language arts, reading, literature
• Math and geometry
• Cultural subjects, including botany, zoology, history, geography
• Practical life
• Sensorial education
• Enrichment, including art, music, physical education, gardening, and computer lab
• Respectful relationships, compassion, environmental awareness, and multi-culturalism.