We welcome infants as young as 8 weeks old through kindergarten, making us one of the few Montessori preschool programs in Portland that walk alongside your family from the very beginning of your child’s development. Our Infant program serves babies from 8 weeks until they begin to crawl, and the Wobbler classroom carries your little one through the next stage until they are walking confidently on their own. From 18 months, your Toddler grows through four beautifully named classroom environments, Cattail Marsh, Meadow, Arctic, and Desertland, before moving into our Primary rooms for 3 to 6 year olds who are fully independent in the bathroom and emotionally ready. We recommend reaching out early, particularly for our infant and toddler programs, as spaces fill throughout the year.

The first step is to schedule a tour so your family can walk through our classrooms while our little learners are actively working, meet our guides, and ask any questions you have in person. After your visit, our team walks you through the application and documentation process, and every new family attends a dedicated orientation before their child’s first morning. Angela Serves, School Leader at Montessori of Alameda, with more than 15 years in the education industry, personally prioritizes the onboarding experience because she believes that joining our community should feel calm, supported, and full of genuine connection from the start. We also invite families to join us at an open house throughout the year for a warm, informal introduction to our school before committing to a formal tour. You are always welcome to reach us directly at admin@montessoriofalameda.com or (503) 335-3321 with any questions along the way.

Toilet training is not a requirement for our Infant or Toddler programs, and our guides work alongside your little one to support that development in a natural, unhurried way that follows their own pace. In our Primary classrooms, which serve children ages 3 to 6, full bathroom independence is required before your young learner joins those rooms. The Primary environment is built around independence in every area of daily life, and bathroom readiness is a meaningful part of that foundation. If your toddler is still working toward this milestone, our Toddler program is the perfect place for them to grow and reach it comfortably. Our guides never apply pressure to this process, and we approach every milestone with patience and true respect for each child’s individual timeline. We are always happy to have an honest conversation about where your child is right now and which classroom environment feels like the right fit.

Each program at our school is thoughtfully shaped around where your child is developmentally, with the Infant program providing a calm, movement-rich environment for young infants from 6 weeks, focused on secure relationships, freedom of movement, and the early foundations of language development and cognitive development. Our Toddler program, welcoming children from around 18 months to 3 years, builds on that foundation through independence, language exploration, emotional growth, and hands-on practical tasks that give your toddler a real sense of capability and belonging. Our Primary classrooms for children ages 3 to 6 bring the full breadth of the Montessori curriculum to life through practical life, sensorial exploration, language, mathematics, and cultural studies, all within a bilingual Spanish-English environment where your preschooler moves freely and works at their own pace. All three programs share a deep commitment to child-centered learning and a nurturing learning environment that makes Montessori of Alameda feel like a community.

The Montessori curriculum at our school is organized into five interconnected areas: Practical Life, Sensorial exploration, Language, Mathematics, and Cultural Studies. Each is designed to support the holistic development of children ages 3 to 6. Your preschooler moves freely through the classroom, choosing meaningful work that interests them, with each material introduced through an individual or small-group lesson before your child uses it independently. The structure is embedded in the environment and daily routines rather than imposed through a rigid schedule, which means your young learner is constantly exercising self-discipline in the most natural, joyful way possible. According to the American Montessori Society, Montessori education supports the development of the whole child by nurturing cognitive, emotional, social, and physical growth through hands-on, self-motivated learning experiences. This is what learning at your own pace looks like in practice, and it is something you really have to see to appreciate fully.

Cognitive development refers to how your child thinks, explores, and builds their understanding of the world, encompassing the development of knowledge, skills, problem-solving, and the disposition to engage confidently with new ideas. In our classrooms, cognitive development happens through your child’s curiosity and self-directed exploration, supported by Montessori materials to make abstract concepts concrete and teach one skill at a time in a self-correcting way so your young learner can identify and address their own mistakes independently. According to the Harvard Graduate School of Education, curiosity prepares the brain for learning by activating attention, memory, motivation, and deeper understanding, making children more ready to absorb and retain new information. A University of Virginia study published on ScienceDaily found that children enrolled in Montessori preschool programs showed stronger outcomes in reading, memory, executive function, and social understanding by the end of kindergarten and continued to improve relative to their peers over time. At Montessori of Alameda, by the time they complete their Montessori journey with us, 98% of our students meet or exceed first-grade readiness benchmarks, based on internal assessments aligned with national standards. We are deeply proud of both the numbers and the curious, capable children behind them.

Practical Life is one of the most foundational areas of the Montessori curriculum, and it often surprises parents to discover how much actual learning is happening when your little one washes a dish, pours water, or folds a napkin with care. According to the American Montessori Society, Practical Life activities help young children develop independence, concentration, coordination, and confidence through meaningful, real-world tasks, and they also strengthen the motor skills, order, focus, and sequencing abilities that later connect directly to reading, writing, and mathematics. At our school, every practical life task is a real task with a real purpose, so your child experiences genuine accomplishment through hands-on work rather than simulated exercises designed only for show. These activities also support problem-solving and build a deep sense of responsibility and capability that your preschooler carries far beyond the classroom walls. It is one of the clearest examples of how our educational approach develops the whole child, not just academic knowledge in isolation.

Every classroom at Montessori of Alameda is a living bilingual Spanish and English environment. Spanish is woven into daily life through songs, stories, conversations, games, and group activities led by native Spanish-speaking guides, so that your child absorbs both languages through authentic, meaningful experiences. Language development is one of the most powerful processes in our classrooms, particularly during early childhood, when the brain is most receptive to acquiring new language skills. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, the first three years of life are the most intensive period for acquiring speech and language skills, with critical windows when the brain is uniquely able to absorb language, making our English-Spanish Montessori school in Portland, especially valuable for your child’s development, during those years. Research from Cambridge University Press also shows that children who can distinguish sounds at six months of age are better equipped to acquire reading skills by ages 4 and 5. This is why our infant guides are so intentional about rich, responsive language interaction in both English and Spanish from the very beginning. Your child builds language naturally through immersion and experience, which is exactly how bilingualism takes root.

At Montessori of Alameda, kindergarten readiness is not something we focus on only in the final weeks before transition. It is the natural outcome of everything that happens in our classrooms every day, from infancy onward. According to the Institute of Education Sciences, children who attend high-quality early childhood education programs develop stronger language, reading, writing, and math skills, and are significantly less likely to require special education services or repeat a grade later in school. Angela Serves, our School Leader, captures it, “As a community, we work side by side with families to encourage independence, self-motivation, and social skills that will help every child in the future.” At our school, based on internal assessments aligned with national standards, 97% of students are reading at or beyond a first-grade level before they leave our Primary program, and 98% meet or exceed first-grade readiness benchmarks in mathematics. This is because our educational approach builds both academic knowledge and the confidence, curiosity, and focus to use it.

Your child is greeted warmly by their lead guide at the classroom door from 7:30 a.m. for before-care, with the regular school day beginning at 8:00 a.m. The heart of every morning is the uninterrupted work cycle, a protected stretch of time when your young learner chooses their activities, engages deeply with materials, and moves through the environment at their own pace. According to the Association Montessori Internationale, uninterrupted work periods help children develop independence, self-discipline, focus, and intrinsic motivation by allowing them to follow their natural learning rhythms, which is something you can genuinely see in the calm, purposeful energy of our classrooms. Throughout the day, your child also enjoys time in our outdoor environments, daily music, including rhythm instruments, movement, poetry, and storytelling, and a healthy, organic snack time that is itself a meaningful practical life experience. The school day closes at 5:30 p.m., and guides are available at pickup to share real, specific observations about what your child explored and discovered that day.

Our indoor and outdoor environments are carefully prepared to support your child’s exploration, movement, and development across every dimension of their growth. Inside, each classroom is a warm, home-like space with child-sized furniture, open shelves stocked with accessible materials, soft and interesting decor, and a mural representing a natural biome that grounds your child in the living world around them. Outside, our campus includes age-appropriate play structures, a covered sports court for active play year-round, raised garden beds where your little one grows edible flowers and vegetables, and grassy areas for open exploration. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, regular physical activity improves children’s attention, memory, and brain health, supporting stronger learning outcomes, which is exactly why our outdoor time is protected and intentional every single day. A strong focus on outdoor play and environmental education runs through everything we do, and it is one of the things families tell us they notice and love most about our school.

Language is woven into every part of the day at Montessori of Alameda, from the moment your child arrives and is greeted by name, to the songs, stories, poetry, and rich conversations that fill our classrooms from morning to close. Our guides speak to young infants and toddlers frequently, describing actions, naming emotions, and narrating the world around them, because according to Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child, naming what a child is seeing, doing, or feeling helps build important language connections in the brain even before children fully understand words or begin speaking. Most babies recognize the basic sounds of their native language by 6 months of age, making those early months a deeply formative window for language acquisition.

In our classrooms, play and learning are not two different things, and we never treat one as a reward for completing the other. When your toddler spends 20 focused minutes carefully pouring water from one container to another, they are playing and building the concentration, hand strength, coordination, and sequencing skills that directly support later reading and mathematics. According to the Child Mind Institute, play supports children’s cognitive, social, emotional, physical, creative, and language development while also fostering the positive emotions that contribute to overall well-being. Every classroom at our school includes music, movement, rhythm instruments, poetry, and storytelling every day, because joy and curiosity are not extras in our educational approach. They are at the very center of how your child grows and learns here.

We serve only healthy snacks made with whole wheat ingredients, organic fruits, or organic vegetables, and our entire campus is 100% nut-free to protect every child in our community. We do not serve anything high in salt, sugar, or processed ingredients, and out of respect for the wide range of family preferences among our families, we do not serve animal products. Snack time in our classrooms is also a meaningful practical life moment, where your little one practices serving themselves, pouring water, and caring for the shared space around them, building true capability and a sense of responsibility in the process. If your child has specific dietary needs or allergies, we ask that you share them with our team during the enrollment conversation so that everything is in place before their first morning. Your child’s safety and well-being around food is never something we leave to chance.

We take the safety of every child in our community seriously, from how we organize our indoor and outdoor environments to the daily supervision across every space on our campus. Our classrooms are clean, well-maintained, and thoughtfully arranged so your child can move through their environment with independence and without unnecessary hazards. We are a 100% nut-free school, and that commitment applies to every classroom, every snack, and every shared space. Angela Serves, our School Leader, personally walks through health, safety, and allergy expectations with every family during the tour, enrollment meeting, and orientation so that nothing is uncertain before your child’s first day. Our indoor and outdoor environments are regularly checked to ensure they continue to meet the physical and developmental needs of the children who use them.

Montessori of Alameda follows the immunization requirements set by the state of Oregon, and all enrolled children must be up to date on immunizations in accordance with Oregon state law, or have an approved medical exemption on file. Angela Serves, School Leader, shares that immunization questions are among the most common concerns parents bring before enrollment, and she addresses them personally during the tour, enrollment meeting, and orientation so every family feels fully informed. We believe that clear, proactive communication from the very start is part of building the trust that makes our community feel genuinely safe for every child and every family. Our approach is never to surprise families with requirements after the fact. Everything is discussed openly and early, so that by the time your child walks through our doors for the first time, you already feel completely confident.

Our guides are attentive observers who pay close attention to how each child in their care feels throughout the day, noticing shifts in energy, comfort, or engagement, and responding with honest care. If your little one develops a fever, appears unwell, or needs more support than we can provide within the classroom, we will contact you promptly so you can come and be with them. We ask that families keep children home when they are showing signs of illness, both for the comfort of your own child and for the protection of the wider community we all share. Our commitment to your child’s well-being extends beyond their learning and includes an expectation of clear, honest communication between our team and your family.

All of our lead guides and staff are trained in Conscious Discipline and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), and these frameworks shape everything about how our team responds to behavior in our classrooms. Rather than relying on punishment or external control, our guides approach behavior as a form of communication, helping your child name what they feel, understand what they need, and practice making respectful, community-minded choices in a safe, consistent environment. Angela Serves, our School Leader, personally discusses the behavioral approach with every family during the tour and enrollment process because she understands how important it is to parents who trust our team with their child’s daily emotional experience. According to the Association Montessori Internationale, Montessori environments support positive behavioral, emotional, moral, and cognitive development by creating vibrant learning communities guided by trained Montessori educators. For young infants and toddlers especially, consistency and calm responsiveness are the foundation from which all other development grows.

Families at Montessori of Alameda receive daily updates about their child’s learning experiences, sharing which materials they engaged with, what they explored, and meaningful moments from their day that you might not otherwise know about. Every month, your family also receives both a community newsletter and a classroom-specific newsletter, so you always have a broader sense of the life happening in your child’s environment and across our school. Angela Serves, School Leader, describes the connection between school and home as one of the most important things she works to protect: “We send daily updates about the children’s learning experiences, and parents can support us by talking at home about their child’s day and creating a sense of unification between the school and home.” Guides are available at pickup to share real, specific observations about your child, and you can reach us by phone or email any time something is on your mind. This consistent, honest communication is not just something we offer. It is part of how our community actually functions.

Parent involvement at Montessori of Alameda is genuine, purposeful, and woven into how our community works from one month to the next. Every month, guides reach out to families to ask for volunteers to come into the classroom to read a book, lead an arts and crafts activity, or share music with the children. All of these opportunities are posted on our shared school calendar, so your family always knows what is coming up. Angela Serves shares that some of her proudest moments as a School Leader are when parents recognize and deeply appreciate the true effort their child’s guide puts into everything, because that recognition is what community is truly built on.

Relationship is the foundation of everything that happens in a Montessori classroom, and it begins from the very first moment your child arrives in our care. For young infants, relationship-building starts during the responsive daily rituals of feeding, diapering, and play, with guides speaking gently, naming emotions, and singing songs that help your baby build trust and feel genuinely secure. According to Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child, simple back-and-forth interactions like talking, eye contact, and responsive touch strengthen the neural connections essential for communication and social skill development, and the absence of those responsive relationships can meaningfully disrupt healthy brain development and increase stress. For toddlers and primary-age children, that relationship deepens through the daily rhythms of classroom life, from quiet moments beside a child at work to outdoor play, circle time, and the consistent presence of a guide who really knows your child. Our School Leader, Angela Serves, also invests in her team through professional development days and collaborative experiences throughout the school year because she knows that the quality of the adult-child relationship is what makes every other part of our environment possible.

The families who join Montessori of Alameda consistently describe the same feeling, that it does not feel like a service they are purchasing. It feels like a community where their family truly belongs. Angela Serves, our School Leader, captures our purpose clearly as, “Guiding children during one of the most important stages of their development with intention, independence, respect, and trust in their abilities is what being part of early childhood education means to us.” According to the Learning Policy Institute, high-quality preschool programs help close achievement gaps and create stronger long-term learning outcomes for families from all backgrounds. We are proud that our community reflects that commitment to every child and every family. Our philosophy runs deeper than an educational approach. It is a shared set of values about how children deserve to be seen, supported, and celebrated throughout every natural moment of their learning.