Casa History
In the summer of 1991, four Montessori teachers and one Orff music teacher were discussing their vision of the ideal preschool and kindergarten. They all imagined a warm, beautiful and orderly environment based on Montessori principles and curriculum but also incorporating a full Orff music program.
They envisioned a place where young children could spend a few intensive hours of learning, or just as comfortably, stay an entire day away from home while parents were at work. A setting where both children and adults would feel welcome to participate and to learn, to be influenced by the environment and in turn to exert their own influence upon it.
From their experience in Montessori schools and in raising their own children, they knew about the critical need families have for a more practical and accessible form of Montessori care. They realized too, the difficulty of adapting an Orff music program (originally developed for the elementary years) into a preschool setting.
With these challenges in mind, the Children’s Centre for Montessori & Orff opened later that same year, founded by the five teachers and housed within the new St. Ignatius Education Centre. The program was so well received by the community that a second location opened in 1998, in the newly built Centro Caboto. Casa Montessori & Orff offers the same blend of solid Montessori and Orff tradition that the original school provides and is appropriately situated in the heart of the Italian Community Centre. In the fall of 2008, Casa Montessori and Orff expanded into the Elementary Years, and in 2011, a third location at 80 Fennell Street was opened in order to house a growing elementary and preschool program. In 2013, the original preschool program: The Crescentwood Children’s Center for Montessori and Orff was amalgamated into Casa Montessori and Orff at 80 Fennell Street.
In 2018, all current programs (the Bambini classroom, the two 3-6 year old classrooms and the lower Elementary Grades 1-3 and upper Elementary Grades 4-6 classrooms) will be amalgamated into the Centro Caboto Centre at 1055 Wilkes Avenue.
New for 2018 will be a year round Infant Toddler Program at The Fennell Street location for children ages 3 months – three years.
