Chesapeake Montessori School is comprised of two campuses. Both are located minutes from downtown Annapolis, Maryland. The Main Campus serves children from age 18 months through 6th grade. The Upper Campus serves adolescents in 7th and 8th grade.
Main Campus
Our lush, 7.5 acre Main Campus reflects our commitment to indoor and outdoor learning environments. It includes two academic buildings. One building houses two Young Children’s Communities and two Primary Communities. It is intentionally designed as a homelike setting and includes a full kitchen, which is utilized daily by the communities. The other building, dedicated in 2009, houses two Elementary classrooms, a library, a multipurpose room, and administrative offices. It also includes a full kitchen that the children prepare snack in each day.
We enjoy the four seasons of central Maryland and try to spend time outside in all but the most severe weather. The changing colors, smells, and textures of the environment encourage and enhance exploration with all the senses and feed students’ imagination and curiosity. Our students enjoy natural play spaces, a nature trail, gardens, sport court, and playing fields.
Students feed birds, cultivate gardens, and study many aspects of the natural world. They are also part of our planning process in expanding our organic gardening program to teach children more about planting and harvesting vegetables within the community.
At CMS, the natural environment is an extension of the classroom and complements the philosophy that children who spend time outside develop a sense of place within the environment. Work in the outdoors can be an extension of classroom work in botany, zoology, science, art, mathematics, geometry, and music. It is also the work of caring for our environment; raking leaves, shoveling snow, preparing garden beds for planting, turning the compost, or simply breathing the fresh air.
Upper Campus
Approximately 3.5 miles north of Main Campus, on Ritchie Highway, is our Upper Campus. The Upper Campus is a 3.5 acre working farm, which includes a schoolhouse, wood shop, chicken coop, art studio, and a small green house. The schoolhouse includes a small lecture space, equipped with a smart board, two classrooms, a study hall, and a kitchen.
Maria Montessori envisioned the original project-based learning for adolescents – the success of this land-based farm program is a testament to her vision.
As a natural outgrowth of our programs and efforts, CMS is a designated Maryland Green School and a certified Monarch Waystation. Both of these honors commit us to exceptional environmental practices.