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.

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.

Please contact us to receive more information about our school.

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

7:52 Doors open
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 hoping to provide breakfast, lunch and a snack each day when we have reached our enrollment goal.

Our Calendar

Our typical school year will be a 10 month cycle from August 1- June 1. This year we are hoping to start in early January (exact date to be determined based on building finishes) and end May 29, 2020.

Spring Break will be March 30- April 3, 2020.

Additional holidays observed are Martin Luther King Day (1/20/20), Presidents Day (2/17/20), Memorial Day (5/25/20).

Summer camps will run weekly from June 1 – June 30.  We will be hosting a two week summer camp in July.  See our summer camp page for more details!

Download our School 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.

Enroll Now

Attend an Information Session

The application process begins with attending an Information Session where you will learn about Echinacea Montessori and the Wildflower Network.

Complete an Application

Please fill out our online application.

Meet our Teacher Leaders

After filling out an application, you will have an opportunity to sit down one-one-one with our Teacher-Leaders to learn more about our school. We look forward to getting to know you!

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 = $1300 per month
  • Scholarship Tuition = $1000 per month
  • Colorado Child Care Assistance Families = Voucher + $10-100 per month
  • After-Care Tuition = $300 per month
  • Toddler (2.5-3 years old) Half Day Tuition = $900 per month
  • Yearly Materials Fee: $250

News & Events

Upcoming Info Sessions

Tuesday, January 14th from 11:00-11:30 a.m. at the Byers Library, 675 Santa Fe

Wednesday, January 15 from 11:00 a.m. -12:00 p.m. at the Ross-Broadway Library, 22 E Bayaud

Tuesday, January 21st from 11:00-11:30 a.m. at the Byers Library, 675 Santa Fe

Wednesday, January 22nd from 11:00 a.m. -12:00 p.m. at the Ross-Broadway Library, 22 E Bayaud

Tuesday, January 28th from 11:00-11:30 a.m. at the Byers Library, 675 Santa Fe

Wednesday, January 29th from 11:00 a.m. -12:00 p.m. at the Ross-Broadway Library, 22 E Bayaud

Upcoming Events

Come join us for a volunteer work day! On Saturday, January 24 from 9:00 a.m.- 3:00 p.m. at 300 Elati Street. You will have the opportunity to chat with our teacher leaders Sarah and Amanda, while helping to get the school ready for opening.  Sign up here

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)

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.