Program Overview

Who are we, and what does it mean to be Montessori?

OCC is a private, non-profit Montessori preschool and kindergarten as well as a licensed before- and after-school care center located in downtown State College.

OCC was founded in 1975 and has grown since then in both numbers of children/staff and in breadth of the program. We gained non-profit status in 1998. At present we have children, ages 2 to 6 years, and 8 staff members, 5 full-time.

We generally follow a combination calendar between Penn State University and the State College Area School District schedule. We offer a summer session of 7-9 weeks depending on when the school year begins and ends.

During the school year, we offer a morning-only program "8:50 - 11:30 a.m., "school-day" (8:50-3:00) and "full-day" (7:45-5:30) programs as well as several flex programs. Kindergarten students attend from 8:50-3:30 and are bused to OCC by the school district.

We are affiliated with the American Montessori Society and licensed and inspected by the Pennsylvania Departments of Education and Public Welfare.

Montessori education uses a "whole child" approach. Activities are designed to promote social skills, emotional and cognitive growth, and physical coordination.

Montessori teachers are trained to prepare the classroom environment so that activities offered are attractive to the child, developmentally appropriate, multi-sensorial, and self-correcting.

Most of the learning in this "prepared" classroom is self-directed: the child moves at his/her own pace, repeating activities until a sense of inner mastery moves him/her on to the next level of difficulty. This helps the child gain self-confidence and independence and discover the joy of learning.

How are Montessori methods applied at OCC?

-Multi-age groupings allow for a broad range of social engagements and deeper learning through mentoring opportunities;
-Practical life materials encourage children to learn how to care for themselves and the environment. These are the daily living activities (e.g., sweeping, polishing, sewing, and buttoning) that develop hand-eye coordination, sense of sequence, and sense of completion. The fine motor skills gained here are precursors to the skilled use of writing implements;
-Sensorial materials (some of which are Montessori manipulatives) stimulate a rich array of grading, sorting, and sensory discrimination activities that develop children's perceptual and sensory abilities, refine their observation skills, and allow for the learning of abstractions;
-Open-ended materials, such as blocks, sand, dramatic play, and art media, encourage exploration and self-expression;
-Literacy and numeracy materials allow for many forms of expression, support the growth of the emergent reader, and lay the groundwork for complex mathematical reasoning;
-Science and cultural experiences enable the child to relish life on this planet as participant and observer;
-Music and movement add to the multi-sensorial experience. They also offer the child vehicles for personal expression and joy.

The goal of Montessori is to develop autonomous, competent, empathic, responsible problem-solvers. Respect for the self, others, and the environment is a core Montessori principle. Other core principles include engaging the whole family in the child's education and educating parents and the community at large about the Montessori philosophy.

We have a full social and educational calendar of events for caregivers and other family members, including a parent education talk series, Thanksgiving and Winter multi-cultural celebrations, a Spring Silent Auction, and a children's art show and family picnic in June.