Somos Early Learning: Nurturing Young Minds Through Montessori and Bilingual Education

Somos Early Learning is a Montessori and Bilingual center for early ages, located in Germantown, MD. It offers a unique approach to early childhood education, focusing on creating a nurturing and stimulating environment where children can develop a love for learning.

A Montessori and Bilingual Approach

Somos Early Learning School embraces the Montessori method, recognizing that children learn best through their own experiences and interactions with others. The school is consistent with the belief that next to learning from their own experience, the child learns best from other children. This approach fosters independence, cooperative learning, and a sense of community within the classroom. The bilingual component introduces children to the Spanish language in a natural and engaging way, mirroring how they learn their primary language.

Programs Offered

Somos Early Learning offers two programs tailored to specific age groups:

Pre-primary Class: Designed for children aged 2 to 3 years old.
Primary Class: Caters to children aged 3 to 5 1/2 years old.

The Five Core Areas of Learning

Each classroom at Somos Early Learning is carefully designed to provide an enriching environment. Each classroom is comprised of the following five areas of learning:

Practical Life: Activities that help children develop independence, coordination, concentration, and a sense of order. These activities might include pouring, sorting, cleaning, and dressing. The Program is for children ages 2 - 5 years. The teacher/provider works to meet the needs of the children by designing the environment for optimal curiosity and learning opportunities. The teacher will plan and implement activities based on the expressed curiosities. Our curriculum provides learning opportunities in several areas: Language Development, Self-Care, Task Development, Creating Order in their Environment, Guiding in Self-Sufficiency, and Independence.

Read also: Unlocking Potential with Early Learning
Mathematics: Hands-on materials that introduce mathematical concepts such as numbers, shapes, and patterns.
Geographic/Science: Activities that explore the world around us, including geography, science, and nature.
Sensorial: Materials that refine the senses and develop observational skills.
Language: Activities that promote language development, literacy, and communication skills.

Our classroom is comprised of the following five areas of learning: Practical Life, Language Arts, Science, Grace / Courtesy, Fine Arts, Motor Skills, History/Geography, Math, Sensorial, Spanish, and Music.

Enrichment Programs

To further enhance the learning experience, Somos Early Learning offers enrichment programs in:

Spanish: Immersion in the Spanish language and culture. We know the importance of starting a second language in Early ChildhoodChildren learn and use Spanish in the same way they learn their primary language, it’s the best language learning environment for children. We always maintain the highest standards of excellence.
Art: Encouraging creativity, imagination, and self-expression. The importance of Art in the early years is very beneficial for the children's learning. Art encourages kids to explore their imagination, creativity, and self-expression. Art is a natural activity to support children's free play.
Yoga: Promoting physical development, flexibility, and mindfulness. Yoga helps children to develop motor skills, improve flexibility, and strengthen their growing bodies.

A Focus on Community and Family Engagement

Somos Early Learning recognizes the importance of family involvement in a child's education. Our Family Resource CentersOur Early Learning programming focuses on engaging the whole family to ensure school readiness. We empower both caregivers and children to build strong family and community relationships and focus on educating and organizing families to advocate and create more equitable and just systems that are representative of our community.We operate Family Resource Centers (FRCs) as part of our strategy to create alternative systems that move families from isolation to connection, provide culturally-relevant programming and resources,celebrate our community’s language and traditions, and serve as a hub for community organizing, political education, leadership development, and root cause analysis.

Family Workshops: We have a variety of bilingual parenting and youth workshops throughout the year at our Family Resource Centers with focuses on literacy, school readiness, child development, finances, healthy habits, positive discipline, etc. Workshops are typically 10-12 weeks.

The Somos Curriculum®

The Somos Curriculum® is a comprehensive, Proficiency-oriented curriculum for Novice and Intermediate learners of Spanish. The Spanish language is inextricably linked to its speakers and their cultures. The Somos Curriculum is acquisition focusedFrom day one, The Somos Curriculum provides suggestions and example scripts to help teachers use the target language in class. The Somos Curriculum is a complete curriculumWith detailed, daily lesson plans and step-by-step instructions, The Somos Curriculum is a pathway to learning about teaching for acquisition.

I have never been so in love with a Spanish curriculum. Every activity is designed well and is comprehensible to students. I love being able to use the plans without needing to create my own materials but having the flexibility to do so if I want to. This curriculum is so engaging. My students love that they are using the language instead of just memorizing vocabulary and completing conjugation charts. They also enjoy all the cultural elements. Somos has been a game changer in my classroom. My students are engaged every day and they love the lessons, activities, and games. The curriculum begins to build their confidence from Day 1. SOMOS is great for SPAN1 and also great in learning to navigate and use CI.

The Somos Curriculum has literally been a lifesaver for me this school year! It is so fun and so thorough! The curriculum uses songs, stories, and really fun things to help students learn how to communicate in Spanish! This curriculum was worth every penny! The resources provided are top quality and the plans themselves are very well thought out and developed. My students love the movie talks, all the musical activities, and even the notes and daily warm ups are entertaining. My students loved the material. Each unit had a memorable story and/or a song that students would remember for weeks! Also, the small amount of target vocabulary used is not threatening to students, specifically to those with special needs. I love using Somos in my classroom! It makes my job so much easier with already made plans, slides, and student work. It is also so easy to modify to fit students' needs. My students were engaged and speaking, reading, writing in Spanish for the first time. They used to hate Spanish, but now they love it. Proficient language learners can talk about topics, for purposes, with accuracy; The Somos Curriculum is designed to achieve this result.

Language connects. By focusing instruction on high frequency words, learners are able to explore both simple and complex cultural products, practices, and perspectives - even in the Novice curriculum. In The Somos Curriculum, culture is not an afterthought. Authentic resources create a context for the language, motivate the learner, and offer students an insider’s view to the target culture. In each unit of The Somos Curriculum, students engage meaningfully with authentic resources, which reinforces the direct relationship between the language classroom and the outside world. Different from a traditional curriculum, The Somos Curriculum does not have a specific grammar focus for each unit. The daily lesson plans provide suggestions for using contextualized grammar instruction such as Pop-up Grammar and Grammar in Context to help students understand the meaning of the grammatical forms that they observe in the language. Martina Bex originally developed The Somos Curriculum while teaching her middle-school Spanish students in Anchorage, Alaska. When introducing new vocabulary, it feels natural to tell students, “Repeat after me!” At The Comprehensible Classroom, this is a habit we have worked hard to break. Repetition v.s.

Location and Facilities

Located at 13700 Schaeffer Rd, Germantown, MD 20874, Somos Early Learning boasts bright classrooms and a private playground. The facilities offer bright classrooms, and we have a private playground. Your children will feel safe, get plenty of one-on-one attention, and develop a love for learning through our unique Montessori approach to care.

Hours of Operation

Somos Early Learning operates from Monday to Friday, 7:30 AM to 6:00 PM.

Staff Qualifications

The dedicated staff at Somos Early Learning is highly qualified, with certifications and training in:

CPR training
Child Development Associate (CDA)
Certified Teacher
Early Child Development Coursework
Early Childhood Education (ECE)
First Aid Training

The staff includes experienced Montessori teachers such as Ms. Esmeralda Mendoza (Primary Class) and Ms. Anny Gonzalez (Pre-primary Class), as well as pre-primary teacher Ms. Nancy Mejia. our staffMs. Esmeralda Mendoza, Montessori Teacher - Primary ClassMs. Anny Gonzalez, Montessori Teacher Pre-primary ClassMs. Nancy Mejia, - Pre-primary teacher

Philosophy and Values

At Somos Early Learning, we believe in the value of human diversity and the fair treatment of all people. It is our number one goal to provide the kind of environment and the kind of influences that encourage all children (including children under IFSP/IEP Plans) to become creative, independent, responsible, well-rounded, self-directed adults who can make decisions for themselves. Aligned with Dr. Maria Montessori's educational method, our school it's consistent with the belief that next to learning from their own experience, the child learns best from other children. Therefore, we have created a mixed age group where the younger children imitate older, and older children reinforce leadership skills by sharing their knowledge with the younger children. Each classroom is scaled down to a child’s size and provides an enriching and stimulating environment.

Our desire is for excellence in meeting the needs of children and their families for nurturing, growth and development, relationships, and understanding. Our values and beliefs about children are deeply rooted in the history of Early Childhood Education and the Montessori Method.

Curriculum Design

Dr. Maria Montessori mentioned that our achieving success for all children depends, among other essentials, on providing a challenging, interesting, developmentally appropriate curriculum. It is understood that very young children need to play a significant role in selecting their learning experiences, materials, and content. Somos Early Learning curriculum plans, therefore, do not focus on games, tasks, or activities, but on how to best create a social, emotional, and intellectual climate that supports child-initiated and child-pursued learning and the building and sustaining of positive relationships among adults and children. Our curriculum is designed to meet the needs of each individual child. Through the Montessori philosophy, we recognize each stage of development presents challenges and opportunities to teach children the beginning practices that foster independence and create lifelong learning. A Montessori-rooted curriculum combined with the Creative curriculum will be employed as well as the use of community resources to enhance learning. Age-appropriate unit of studies, year-long projects, rotation of lessons, etc.

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