The San Francisco Montessori Academy Curriculum is divided into five core areas of study.  It is structured around the child's self0initiated impulse to become engaged and learn from his or her surroundings.

Practical Life:
This area of the curriculum is designed to invite the young learner to act and work on real life tasks that foster independence, coordination, order and concentration.  It is in a sense the doorway to the Montessori curriculum.  Some examples of activities from the Practical Life portion are: Flower arranging, cutting/pasting, tracing, zipping, and working with magnets.

Sensorial:
The basic sensorial exercise inspires careful observation and calls attention to specific qualities requiring identification of similarities and contrasts.  The mind must judge, compare, classify and draw conclusions.  These exercises tend to fascinate children because they are difficult enough to represent a real and meaningful challenge  Some examples of activities from the Sensorial portion are: The Pink Tower, Binomial Cube, Color Wheel, Constructive Triangles and Sound Cylinders.

Mathematics:
Mathematics in the Montessori classroom can be separated into a few major categories: beginning counting, advanced counting, the decimal system, rational numbers (fractions), and the operations of addition, multiplication, subtraction and division.  Concepts are presented in a very concrete way so that children 3-6 are not only able to count, but skip count, square numbers and work with numbers in the thousands.  Some examples of activities include: Red and Blue number Rods, Sand Paper Numerals and Spindle boxes.

Language:
Montessori language curriculum is an integrated approach that combines phonetics and whole language.  The child is first introduced to letters and sounds.  After several sounds are mastered, he can begin to encode (spell) and decode (read) words by linking these sounds together.  Some examples of activities include: Sandpaper letters, Sequencing Cards and Moveable Alphabet

Science, Geography, Art and More:
The Montessori approach to science cultivates children's fascination with the universe and helps them develop a lifelong interest in observing nature and discovering more about the world in which we live. The youngest students work with specially designated maps and begin to learn the names of the world's continents and countries.  Examples of activities include: Puzzles, Globes/Maps, Velcro Skeleton.