Our program focuses on nurturing both fine and gross motor skills through engaging activities that promote movement and coordination. These activities, integrated into our daily routines, help our students to build strength, balance and dexterity. Through gym class, music and movement class and outdoor play, students develop their gross motor skills. To support fine motor development, children engage in different activities during the day: learning centers, threading beads, building with blocks, solving puzzles, drawing, ripping, pre-writing skills. These activities enhance hand-eye coordination, strengthen hand muscles, and improve precision, providing a solid foundation for writing and tool use.

We integrate sensory play to engage the tactile system, promoting sensory processing and cognitive growth.  Activities like working with playdough and exploring sensory bins encourages students to discover different textures and materials, supporting creativity and learning.

By building a strong foundation in motor and sensory skills, we ensure that our children are fully prepared to advance to the higher cognitive challenges typical of the elementary stage.

Research has consistently shown that language is fundamental to the learning process, as it helps structure ideas and facilitates communication. At Mater Salvatoris, language development is central to our approach. In the early years, we focus on building comprehension and expressive oral language skills through stories.

Classic tales like Goldilocks, Pinocchio, and Little Red Riding Hood bring joy to the classroom while teaching valuable lessons about virtue and learning. To further support language development, we incorporate puppetry and theater, helping students develop skills like sequencing, cause-and-effect reasoning, prediction, and emotional recognition. 

At Mater Salvatoris, we lay the foundation for effective oral communication while focusing on key factors that will later influence the development of comprehensive and expressive written language. These include visual and auditory perception, lateralization, and phonological awareness. Through story-telling, rhymes, and other activities, we help children develop the essential skills of attentive listening and auditory analysis. When it’s time to begin reading, our children are already equipped to blend sounds into words and eventually construct sentences, gradually developing a love for independent reading. 

At Mater Salvatoris we emphasize the exploration of our environment through foundational Science and Social Studies content and vocabulary, which enables students to comprehend and articulate the world around them in a structured and meaningful way. These activities not only build vocabulary and expressive language skills but also develop comprehension, accurate pronunciation, and the logical association of ideas using oppositions and similarities. From an early age, students are encouraged to present their ideas about the topics they’ve learned, fostering both communication and critical thinking.

Writing is also introduced intentionally from a young age, through both fine and gross motor exercises. We focus on developing stroke/line directionality, hand-eye coordination, and visual convergence, with activities that are part of  our “around-the-classroom” circuit, designed to strengthen these foundational skills.  Students engage in hands-on activities like tracing letters and numbers on sandpaper, which provides sensory feedback that strengthens muscle memory. They also practice forming characters with paintbrushes, starting with broad, sweeping motions and gradually progressing to more precise strokes on the chalkboard. This progression supports the transition from large motor movements to refined writing skills.

Our circuits offer sensory and kinesthetic learning experiences, allowing students to trace letters and numbers by physically walking along their shapes. This full-body movement enhances letter recognition and number formation while supporting the development of gross motor skills and reinforcing cognitive connections.

At Mater Salvatoris, we recognize the vital role mathematics plays in our daily lives, and we are committed to helping children understand its relevance. To achieve this, we introduce them to the five key areas of mathematics: properties and relationships of objects, numeration, operations, measurement, and geometry. To make these concepts tangible, we bring materials into the classroom that children can touch and manipulate. These include everyday, unstructured items, as well as tools like cuisenaire rods, base ten blocks, fraction strips, and geometric solids, allowing students to explore mathematical ideas hands-on.

This approach helps students visualize abstract concepts and fosters a deeper understanding of topics such as place value, fractions, and geometry. We also incorporate Floor-Based Learning, where students participate in large-scale activities, such as walking along number lines or creating geometric shapes on the floor with chalk. These kinesthetic experiences enhance spatial awareness and support the internalization of mathematical principles.

We adopt a Learning Centers approach, where students participate in focused activities that target specific subjects or skills: Mathematics, English Language, Fine Motor Skills, and Science and Social Studies.  This method fosters independence, collaboration, and active learning, empowering students to explore concepts at their own pace and based on their individual needs. It also encourages the development of problem-solving strategies, allowing students to engage in meaningful, hands-on experiences.

At Mater Salvatoris fluency in languages is fundamental to a thorough education. We offer Spanish classes from the early years. Learning a second language from an early age helps our students to develop their minds, as well as the social and communication skills they need to succeed within a multicultural and diverse society. Students benefit from immersion in the language, and begin to integrate comprehension and expression skills, setting the foundations of the skills that they will develop through the Elementary Years.

Mater Salvatoris  incorporates in its own method some strategies from Maria Montessori. During this time, students reinforce different skills through play. 

Through sensory and manipulative materials, students will discover and learn to do things by themselves, under the guidance of the teacher at the beginning, and acquiring autonomy, self-esteem and confidence, and developing different abilities and strategies, both mind and fine motor skills,  that will improve their academic performance.  

The goal in the early years is for students to appreciate and enjoy music, learning it in a fun and creative way, as well as learning famous composers and compositions. Music enables children to communicate and express themselves non-verbally, to develop their sense of rhythm and gross motor skills; enhance their math skills, literacy, and brain development; and develop their cooperative skills and learn to perform as a part of a whole. 

At Mater Salvatoris we awaken children’s interest in science through STEM classes. The acronym stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Science: Students learn to make observations, ask questions and make predictions; Technology: Starting in Kindergarten, students are introduced to coding through fun and engaging activities; Engineering: In STEM class, we foster creativity and problem-solving skills using different strategies with manipulatives, such as building blocks; Math: Students engage in hands-on activities that involve counting, patterns, and logical thinking.