May River Montessori adds third building to campus

Maria Montessori developed her now-famous method for educating children by observing them: noticing their behavior and paying attention to the ways they instinctively learn from their surroundings.

Now parents of first- through third-grade students at May River Montessori can do the same thing -- through an observation room in the school's new building, which opened to students recently.

Bluffton's only Montessori school expanded its campus Aug. 19, opening a third building for classroom use just in time for the school's two-week student orientation.

Among the 1,572-square-foot facility's features are a computer lab and an observation room equipped with a two-way mirror allowing moms and dads to catch a glimpse of their children at work.

The private, nonprofit school pursued the expansion at the request of parents, said Sharon Haag, May River Montessori's headmistress. Parents had asked the school to add another grade level so that their children could continue a Montessori education, Haag said.

"We've been hearing this (plea) for years, as Bluffton has been growing," she said.

In spring 2007, Hargray Communications agreed to sell the office building adjacent to May River Montessori, according to Haag. Interior renovations began this summer, and the eight-week overhaul was done by Aug. 1.

The Community Foundation of the Lowcountry provided a $22,250 grant to the school for classroom materials.

With the additional facility, the four rooms in the main building can be devoted to classes for 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds. The cottage behind the main campus houses toddlers enrolled in the school. The new building will serve first-, second- and, for the first time at the school, third-graders.

Since the Montessori method of teaching is built in three-year cycles to allow teachers and students to develop long-term relationships, the addition of the third-grade curriculum makes the Bluffton Montessori system more complete, Haag said.

In Montessori schools, teachers observe students in order to recognize their different learning styles, then encourage children to learn at the pace and with methods that fit their individual needs. That approach, Haag said, teaches students internal self-control and self-motivation for studying.

"They are each on their own path of learning," Haag said in the observation room of the new building.

Working quietly in their new classroom, the students were intently involved in their own activities. Some scribbled in their journals about the question of the day ("When I look in the mirror, what do I see?"), while others hunted for synonyms among words printed on laminated cards.

The school expansion also includes personnel. Four teachers were added this year to serve the 130 children enrolled, Haag said.

"Offering a Montessori education to more children is a wonderful goal to achieve," the headmistress wrote in an e-mail. "I am so proud of our school, (and) we are so fortunate to be in the heart of Bluffton's Historic district."

The school was first chartered in 1987 under the name Church of the Cross Montessori School, according to the May River Montessori Web site. Haag said the campus has been located at various places in Bluffton, from a site on May River Road to The Church of the Cross to the Rec Center on Ulmer Road and now the corner of Calhoun and Bridge streets.