Echinacea Montessori School

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Welcome to Echinacea Montessori School, a Wildflower School in Denver. We provide an authentic Montessori education for children ages 2.5-6 in a small school setting.

Echinacea Montessori School is a member of the Wildflower Network of schools. Wildflower is an ecosystem of decentralized Montessori micro-schools that support children, teachers, and parents. Wildflower aspires to give all children and families the opportunity to choose high quality, beautiful learning environments as they follow life’s unfolding journey.

Apply here for enrollment! 

Location & Hours

Location

Echinacea Montessori School
300 Elati Street
Denver, CO 80223

Contact Us

info@echinaceamontessori.org

(720) 549-0282

Hours

Monday – Friday, 8:00 – 3:00pm

Before & After Care

Monday – Friday, 3:00pm – 5:30pm

Transportation

Children are dropped off by parents or caregivers.

Daily Routine

7:55 Staggered drop off due to COVID-19 Regulations
8:00-11:00 Work Period/Morning Snack
11:00-12:30 Outdoor Time and Lunch
12:30-12:45 Settle/Quiet Time
12:45-2:45 Nap/Afternoon Work Period
2:45-3:00 Transition to Home/After Care
3:00 Dismissal
3:00-5:30 After Care Program

Lunch & Snacks

We are excited to provide breakfast, lunch, and a daily snack for a low cost to all families.   Our catering program through Little Angel’s Catering will have a monthly menu here

Our Calendar

We run on a 10 month calendar with summer camp options in June/July.

2020-2021 School Year Information:

First Day of School~ Monday, August 17, 2020

Last Day of School~ Friday, May 28, 2021

We follow DPS for holiday breaks such as Thanksgiving (11/23/20- 11/27/20), Winter Break (12/21/20-1/3/21), and Spring Break (3/29/21-4/2/21).

Additional holidays observed are Labor Day (9/7/20), Martin Luther King Day (1/18/21), Presidents Day (2/15/21), Memorial Day (5/25/20).

2020 Summer camps will run weekly from June 8 – August 14 and are open to all children ages 2.5- 6 years old. See our summer camp page for more details!

Download our Echinacea Montessori 20-21 School Year Calendar.

Our Teacher Leaders

Sarah Johnson
Founding Echinacea Montessori Teacher Leader

Sarah Johnson is originally from the Midwest where she received her BA in Sociology & Education from DePauw University and her Master’s in Education from Northwestern University. Sarah began her career in Chicago’s inner-city schools with a passion to bring equitable education for all. She was an elementary and middle school math teacher for over a decade before before finding Montessori. As a mother of two young children, Sarah fell in love with Maria Montessori’s focus on fostering independent, confident children. In the past year, Sarah has completed her MACTE Montessori training and Director’s license through the state of Colorado. In her free time she enjoys being outdoors with her family.

Amanda Clarke
Founding Echinacea Montessori Teacher Leader

Amanda Clarke has worked as a teacher for twenty years, the majority of which in a public Montessori school. Her teaching coincided with her daughter beginning Montessori primary where they learned about Montessori together. She earned her teaching degree from Lesley University in 1997 and her formal AMI Montessori training in 2015 in Denver. Her goal is to continue to support and guide children in exploring and expanding their environments with confidence, learning about themselves and others. Amanda loves to travel, reading, and being outside.

Tatenda Blessing Muchiriri
Resident Teacher

Tatenda Muchiriri was born in Zimbabwe and discovered his love of Montessori when he moved to China.   While in China he had the opportunity to work with children for seven years before moving to Boulder, Colorado in 2015.  He is passionate about Montessori philosophy and received both his AMS Infant/Toddler and Early Childhood credential through Montessori Education Center of the Rockies.  Tatenda is heavily involved in Colorado’s education community.  He was an AMS Emerging Leader’s Fellow, serves on the board of the Colorado Montessori Association, and will be joining the Moonshot edVentures fellowship this year.  When he is not working with young children, he is usually reading a good book or trying a new recipe.   He loves traveling to different places and learning about people’s culture and food. 

Enroll Now

Take a School Tour

The application process begins with taking a  School Tour where you will learn about Echinacea Montessori and the Wildflower Network.

Complete an Application

Please fill out our online application.

Enrollment Cycle

We are currently open for enrollment.   August 17th is the first day of our 2020-2021 school year.   We intend to keep the class size very small to adhere to the CDC recommendations for COVID-19.

Non-discrimination Policy

Echinacea Montessori School is a nonprofit organization and does not discriminate by race, color, national or ethnic origin, creed, religion, sex, disability, age, marital status, sexual orientation, or status with regard to public assistance. Furthermore, Echinacea Montessori School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.

Anti-Bias Anti-Racist Statement (ABAR)

Tuition Prices:

  • Full tuition = $1350 per month
  • Scholarship Tuition = $1050 per month
  • Colorado Child Care Assistance Families = Voucher
  • After-Care Tuition = $300 per month
  • Yearly Materials Fee: $250

We are a Denver Preschool Provider and all families with a child 4 years of age can receive tuition credits to lower their tuition.   We will help all families fill out the application to receive this credit!

News & Events

School Tours

We have 2 schools tours this summer at the school (please wear masks):

Wednesday, June 24th from 4:00-5:00 p.m.

Wednesday, July 15th from 5:00-6:00 p.m.

Resources

Videos & Podcasts

A Montessori Morning (5:00)
Travel a child’s 3 hour work period in 5 minutes to get a sense of the concentration level, independence, social aspects, and flow of each morning in a Montessori classroom.

Executive Functioning Skills (8:06)    How Montessori classrooms help refine essential executive functioning skills for the rest of a child’s life.

My Day (18:57)Experience the Montessori approach through three primary children as they journey through their morning work periods.

The Alphabet of Life (7:13) 
Dr. Silvia Dubovoy, Ph.D., on the personality of the child.

Dr Steve Hughes: Montessori and the Future of Education (3:30)

Articles

Books

Montessori Madness! A Parent to Parent Argument for Montessori Education by Trevor Eissler

The best-selling parent education book on the Montessori method, Montessori Madness! is widely used by schools, teacher training centers, and parents as an accessible introduction to Montessori. This book traces the journey of our family as we wrestle with questions of how best to educate our children. It explores why we eventually chose Montessori school and what we have since discovered. 

Also available now in e-book format: iBook, Nook, and Kindle! 

The Secret of Childhood by Dr. Maria Montessori

The book The Secret of Childhood is divided in three sections, dealing in turn with early childhood development, the author’s educational method, and the relation of the child to society. Also available online free from Archive.org

Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius by Angeline Lillard Ph.D

Current scientific research provides astounding support for her major insights. Lillard presents the research concerning eight insights that are foundational to Montessori education and describes how each of these insights is applied in the Montessori classroom. In reading this book, parents and teachers alike will develop a clear understanding of what happens in a Montessori classroom and, more important, why it happens and why it works.

Chapter One: Free Download (PDF)

Anti-Racism

Wildflower School’s Statement: Justice for George Floyd

Echinacea Montessori’s Anti-Bias Anti-Racist Statement

Embrace Race: A Nonprofit Dedicated to the education of families and children about race.

This Book is Anti-racist https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780711245211 by Montessori elementary teacher Tiffany Jewel provides “20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do The Work”

https://www.knowthyselfinc.net/ provides “materials that give children a mirror reflecting the essential parts of their identity, and a window allowing them a greater understanding and appreciation of the people around them.

Should we talk to a 5-year old about George Floyd? This 20-minute instagram live with Britt Hawthorne is super helpful. She first outlines what skills children under 6 have about their own identity before approaching conversations about police brutality and violence.

Teaching Tolerance:  A resources we use at the school and subscribe to their magazine.

A list of articles about talking to our children about differences: http://www.childrenscommunityschool.org/social-justice-resources/

Podcasts

Books

  • Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves (via Britt Hawthorne)
  • This book is anti-racist by Tiffany Jewell
  • How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
  • White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
  • So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
  • We Resist, We Raise our Voices by Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson

Wildflower Schools

Echinacea Montessori is a member of the Wildflower Schools Network

Wildflower is an ecosystem of decentralized Montessori micro-schools that support children, teachers, and parents. Our schools aspire to give all children and families the opportunity to choose high quality, beautiful learning environments as they follow life’s unfolding journey.

About Wildflower Schools

Wildflower is an ecosystem of decentralized Montessori micro-schools that support children, teachers, and parents. Our schools aspire to give all children and families the opportunity to choose high quality, beautiful learning environments as they follow life’s unfolding journey.

Our aim is to be an experiment in a new learning environment, blurring the boundaries between home and school, between scientists and teachers, between schools and the neighborhoods around them.Our schools are small and teacher-led, with deep parent engagement. At the core of Wildflower are 9 principles that define the approach.

Our network is supported by a foundation that works to build capacity, systems, tools and research to grow and strengthen the network.

Learn more about our story.

Our Principles

Blurring the boundaries between home-schooling and institutional schooling, between scientists and teachers, between schools and the neighborhoods around them. At the core of Wildflower are 9 principles that define the approach.

Read about them here.

Our Network

After the first Wildflower school was created in January of 2014, there was intense interest in the school and the approach. This interest led us to open-source the model and help other family groups and teacher-leaders to create new Wildflower schools. Each teacher-leader at each Wildflower school serves on the board of at least one other Wildflower school, creating a community of schools that are linked by both a shared philosophy and a network of shared relationships.

View our network.