When I enter our Primary classroom, I am amazed by the humming and buzzing created by students moving around and connecting with each other and with the materials on our shelves. They are busy exploring and learning on so many different levels each minute and every day. Montessori classrooms emphasize self-regulation, personal responsibility, and social harmony. The structure of a Montessori classroom gives our students important opportunities to: gain independence thrive in a safe, inclusive community take personal responsibility for their actions feel in control of their being sel ..read more

"Practical Life is the area of the classroom in which children get to fulfill their developmental and psychological needs by practicing and experimenting with the world around them. " Dr. Maria Montessori, the founder of the Montessori pedagogy, believed that children are naturally eager to engage in purposeful activities. She observed that children take immense joy in imitating adults and yearn for opportunities to be involved in meaningful tasks. Dr. Montessori saw the work of everyday life as the means for intelligent movement and found that movement without purpose is fatiguing to childre ..read more

Boston-area families choose Wellan for both educational excellence and our warm, inclusive community. Wellan’s preschool, elementary, and middle school programs each placed first as a Boston Parents “Family Favorite” in 2023. For more than ten years, Boston Parents Paper has given readers the chance to nominate and vote for their personal “Family Favorites” throughout Boston, Massachusetts, and New England. Categories cover many services valued by families, including schools, camps, pediatricians, and more. Wellan Montessori School placed first in the following categories: Independent Presch ..read more

Did you know that some early fish had lungs and could move around on land? Veronica, a second grade student in LE2 can tell you all about it. https://video.wixstatic.com/video/ce578f_f369284920854b98a1b2ee019f500ffd/1080p/mp4/file.mp4 Lower Elementary students are captivated by animals, from their own pets to those found in the far reaches of our world. They can tell you all sorts of interesting and minute facts about animals you didn’t even know existed. This is the starting point for the Lower Elementary biology study, which makes for an exciting three years! Lower Elementary students seek t ..read more

Boston-area families choose Wellan for both educational excellence and our warm, inclusive community. Wellan’s preschool, elementary, and middle school programs each placed first as a Boston Parents “Family Favorite” in 2022. For more than ten years, Boston Parents Paper has given readers the chance to nominate and vote for their personal “Family Favorites” throughout Boston, Massachusetts, and New England. Categories cover many services valued by families, including schools, camps, pediatricians, and more. Wellan Montessori School placed first in the following categories: Independent Presch ..read more

As we come to the end of another school year at Wellan Montessori School, we feel proud of all our students as we look back at how much they have grown and accomplished this year. From research, to creative writing, to experiential learning projects, our students approached academic challenges with the kind of confidence and intrinsic motivation the School strives to instill in them. One such project completed this year by Wellan’s Middle School Voyager students — who collaborated with three local nonprofit organizations to raise awareness about food insecurity through art — illustrates how W ..read more

The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, “The children are now working as if I did not exist” (Montessori, 1967a). In essence, the Montessori Method was developed with a first principles lens on learning and development. Maria Montessori did not look to attain some perceived efficiency of delivery, as in the traditional setting. Nor did she prioritize summative assessment, as an attempt to quantitatively rank, compare, and track student performance. Instead, she focused entirely on the learners and their needs. She observed, she designed, and she iterated. Montessori d ..read more

JFK, 1993: A slight woman with a long maroon coat descends a bustling stairway in an airport terminal. As she walks down the hall, the lighting grows so dim she cannot read her ticket. She wonders if she is in the right place. She turns to ask, but she can find no one in this hallway who speaks English. It’s all Russian and Ukrainian — which almost makes sense, since she’s on her way to Ukraine, except that she’s still in New York. Her mission? To help a small team of invested Ukrainian educators and administrators set up a model Montessori school and teacher training center in the very recen ..read more

Austin Matte, one of our Beginner Bridge teachers, originally wrote this blog post for the Upstone Montessori School blog — a school based in Nashua, NH that Austin will be opening in fall of 2022! We are so excited for Austin and wish him the best of luck in this exciting new chapter — until then, we feel very lucky to have him here at Wellan until the end of the school year. If you know anyone in the Nashua area looking for a Montessori school, spread the word about Upstone! Thanks for sharing this blog post with us, Austin! A child’s parent stopped me as I was walking by the other day. “Hi ..read more

Black History is a crucial part of American History. By Kindergarten, most students know who Martin Luther King Jr. is, and that he was a peaceful advocate for equality and justice in the United States. At Wellan, classes dive deeper into Black History education, studying the successes and struggles of many different influential African American figures and why it is so important to study them. This month, Lower Elementary teacher Kayla Hindle taught her students about Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American justice appointed to the United States Supreme Court in 1967, as well as Mae Je ..read more