By Cass Winner, Director of Extended Programs

A child's day at Wilmington Montessori School can be as short as three hours or as long as 11 hours, and we build our  Extended Day programs to meet the wide-ranging needs of children at both ends of that day. Our Extended Day program occupies nine rooms throughout the school, each tailored to the needs of the age group it serves.

Toddler spaces are designed to be as consistent with the school-year rooms as possible, and most staff members also work in school-day classrooms. Early in the year, they help children to get to know the spaces, comforting and guiding them, and allowing them to choose their own work and to move around as much as they need to. As the year progresses, the teachers offer more complex activities - cooking, art and science projects are favorites - and invite the children to participate.

Primary children come to Room 17 after school knowing how to lay out a work rug and clean up when they are finished, how to sit on the circle to enjoy a song or a story, and how to line up to go to the playground. The teachers have chosen a variety of materials for the room - some things the children will recognize from their school-day classroom and some that are different. Just as in the school-day classrooms, shelf work will change as the year goes on, maintaining that ideal balance of consistency and interest. Children from all five Primary rooms are together in the afternoons, so they will enjoy the company of school-day friends and also make new ones. Seasonal art, cooking and cultural projects allow us to celebrate the changes in the world around us, and we spend a lot of time outdoors.

Kindergarten children have their own space in Room 27, acknowledging their readiness for more complex projects, bigger playground equipment and some joint activities with the first and second graders. Materials on the shelves range from hand puppets and wooden blocks to practical life work, movable letters and board games. The  first and second graders have a home base in Room 25, where they enjoy two fish tanks, a wide variety of games, building materials like LEGO and K'Nex, and a teacher who loves to cook.

Third and fourth graders occupy the rainbow room downstairs (Room 24) - a bigger space filled with books, art materials, a LEGO  table and more. Direct access to play space, the garden and the game room across the hall allows them to follow their interests and be as active as they want to be. Next door in Room 22 are the  fifth through seventh graders , who are extra cool but still kind to their younger neighbors, and the groups often play active games or do cooking, art and service projects together.

The  Homework Room (28) is open from Monday through Thursday, with a teacher presiding, ensuring a quiet environment and appropriate support for anyone who needs it.

We are proud of our Extended Day environments and are always working on making them better. It's not unusual to hear a child tell a parent to go away and come back later because he or she is having so much fun.