Since its opening in 2005, the Alef Bet Montessori School has been leasing space at the Aish Center for Jewish Learning in North Bethesda. Last year, it leased a second building at Ken Gar Park in Kensington. All the while, the school for prekindergarten through sixth grade has been seeking its own facility.
Beginning Dec. 2, the first day back from school following the Thanksgiving break, all the students will be housed at 5701 Grosvenor Lane in Bethesda, the former Weller Road Elementary School. The building is being leased from Montgomery County.
“We are thrilled and filled with joy to move into a new building,” declared Ayelet Lichtash, executive director and founder of the school.
The school currently has 73 students but enrollment is expected to grow at the new location, which features larger classrooms and more outdoor play space.
The staff, parents and community volunteers are expected to help pack up the equipment and furniture at the two current locations and move it all to the new site.
The school offers hands-on learning to allow children to explore and includes math, reading, arts, prayers and the daily parsha. Students move from station to station when they are ready. Rather than tests, students prove to the teacher that they have mastered a skill by teaching that skill to a fellow student.
Alef Bet Montessori School is accredited by the Maryland Department of Education and the Association Montessori Internationale and is a member of the Washington DC Association of Independent Schools.
