Who We Are
You know that feeling when you walk into a school, and something feels right? The hallways are calm but alive. Children are moving with purpose, working with their hands, talking to each other with real confidence. A guide kneels down to listen to a three-year-old explain something very important about a caterpillar. That feeling is what families across the Twin Cities find every single day at Step By Step Montessori. Since 1991, we have been serving families throughout the Minneapolis Metro Area from eight welcoming campuses in Brooklyn Park, Chaska, Corcoran, Maple Grove, Plymouth, Saint Anthony, Edina, and Wayzata. We know that finding the right school is about so much more than location, hours, or tuition. It is about trust and knowing your child is in the hands of people who genuinely love this work and who will know your little one by name, by temperament, by the things that make them light up.
Parent Reviews
Robertha G.
April 8, 2025
I kids been attending Step by Step for a weeks now and they love it there.
Annie C.
March 11, 2025
Friendly, respectful, caring, and resourceful
Courtney D.
September 4, 2024
The teachers!
Latrice H.
July 10, 2024
Very helpful with payment plans and the teachers on preschool are very excellent with education awareness
Our Story
Step By Step Montessori opened its doors in Plymouth, Minnesota, in 1991 with a simple purpose: to provide every child in the Twin Cities area with access to a genuine, high-quality Montessori education without the price tag that often comes with it. More than three decades later, that idea has grown into eight campuses, thousands of alumni, and a community of families who keep coming back, sometimes sending two or three children through our doors.
What has never changed is the heart of what we do. From the very beginning, we have believed that children are not just empty vessels waiting to be filled with information. They are naturally curious, driven, and capable of far more than most people realize. Our job is to prepare the right environment and then get out of the way a little, while staying fully present in the moments that your child needs us.
This belief shapes everything you will find inside a Step By Step classroom. The low shelves. The purposeful materials. The mixed-age groups where a five-year-old helps a three-year-old pour water carefully into a narrow-necked bottle, and both walk away with something valuable. The three-hour uninterrupted work cycle that gives your child the gift of real concentration, not just the appearance of it.
School Leader Sheri Papke of our St. Anthony campus, who has been part of the Step By Step community since 1997, describes these classroom moments beautifully: "I have always believed that great early education starts with relationships. When guides truly know each child and family, learning naturally follows. I loved seeing that lightbulb moment, when a child realized they could do whatever they had been working to master, whether putting sounds together and reading their first word, or feeling the joy of sweeping up their own spill."
Today, Step By Step Montessori is proud to be part of the Endeavor Schools family, a nationwide network of more than 100 schools united by a shared commitment to excellence in early childhood education. This partnership strengthens our resources and professional development while keeping us firmly rooted in our local communities.
Our mission is to provide a safe, loving environment where your child can learn and grow. We are passionate about nurturing the whole child and inspiring a lifelong love of learning. In practice, that means creating classrooms where your little one feels emotionally secure enough to take healthy risks, confident enough to try something hard, and joyful enough to keep coming back for more.
We want every child who walks through our doors to feel that this place was built for them. Not for a generic idea of a child, but for them, their pace, their curiosity, their particular way of making sense of the world. When that feeling is present, children do not just learn, they flourish. As Kim Dornfeld, who has led our Corcoran campus for 23 years and brings over 35 years of experience in early childhood education, puts it, "Good leadership creates an environment where children and teachers feel trusted, capable, and inspired to learn and grow."
Inside every Step By Step classroom, your child will find a world built around their curiosity. Our curriculum is grounded in the Montessori philosophy, which means hands-on learning, self-directed exploration, and real work that builds real skills. Practical life activities teach your little one to care for themselves and their environment. Sensorial materials build the kind of precise observation and focus that later becomes strong mathematical thinking. Language, geography, botany, zoology, music, and foreign language are all woven into the daily rhythm of classroom life, not as separate subjects, but as interconnected parts of one rich, meaningful world. We also believe that fine arts belong at the heart of education. Creative expression strengthens your child's awareness of their own ideas and deepens their appreciation for the ideas of others. One of the structural features parents often ask about is the three-hour uninterrupted work cycle. We know it sounds different from what most preschools offer, and that is exactly the point. Research from the Association Montessori Internationale shows that uninterrupted work periods allow children to move through natural stages of engagement, from initial exploration to deep concentration to genuine mastery, in ways that fragmented schedules cannot support. The result is a child who knows what it feels like to finish something, to really finish it, and to feel proud. That sense of completion and capability is one of the most powerful gifts we can give your little one in these early years.
What Makes Our Montessori School Different?
Something we hear from parents all the time after they tour our campuses is that they expect to see children sitting at tables, listening to a guide at the front of the room. Instead, they see children moving with intention. They see a four-year-old carefully rolling out a floor mat before beginning their work. They see a kindergartener patiently showing a younger child how to carry a tray. They see quiet, purposeful activity, and they feel something shift in how they understand what learning can look like.
That shift is what the Montessori method is built on. According to the American Montessori Society, Montessori education helps children build concentration, confidence, collaboration, and independence from an early age, and those qualities contribute to long-term academic and personal success. We see this play out every day in our classrooms. Children who come to us at six weeks leave at six years with a confidence and love of learning that their families tell us carries right through elementary school and beyond.
A big part of what makes this possible is the consistency of our guides and our classroom communities. Because our mixed-age classrooms keep children with the same guide for multiple years, your little one does not have to start over with a stranger every fall. They build a genuine relationship and trust, and, as it turns out, trust is the foundation on which everything else is built. According to Harvard's Center on the Developing Child, this kind of responsive "serve and return" interaction between children and caring adults helps build strong brain architecture that supports healthy development and lifelong well-being.
As Karla Torres, School Leader at our Plymouth campus with 9 years of early childhood education experience, puts it, "What makes us different is how much we truly trust your child. We are not rushing them or pushing them into things they are not ready for. We give them the time, space, and support to figure things out on their own, while still being there to guide them. You will see children here doing things independently that surprise a lot of adults, and that confidence stays with them."
Early Childhood Leadership and Staff
Before enrolling, many parents tell us their biggest question is not about curriculum or accreditation. It is about people. Who will be with my child every day? What are they like? Do they really care? Our guides are Montessori-certified, experienced, and genuinely passionate about this work. Our Lead Guides hold certifications from the American Montessori Society or the Association Montessori Internationale, with many also holding degrees in early childhood education. All staff complete a comprehensive onboarding program and participate in multiple professional development days each year, including Conscious Discipline training, CPR and First Aid certification, and coursework through platforms like CGMS and RISE. Our guide tenure is exceptional by any measure in this industry, and it shows in the relationships your child will build inside our classrooms.
Melony Haslip
Melony has 25 years of experience in early childhood education and leads our Chaska Campus with deep care for every family who walks through the door.
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Kim Dornfeld
Kim has led our Corcoran Campus for 23 years and brings over 35 years of experience in early childhood education to her work. She is a steadfast believer in following the child, and the community she has built at Corcoran reflects that philosophy in every corner of the building.
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Stacey Richman
Stacey has spent 30 years in early childhood education and came to Step By Step convinced that Montessori produces something truly different in children.
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Rachel Thao
Rachel has over 10 years of early education experience and leads our Maple Grove Campus, which has been voted Best Preschool in Maple Grove four out of the last five years.
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Karla Torres
Karla brings 9 years of experience to our Plymouth Campus, the original home of Step By Step Montessori. At the heart of her leadership is a commitment to helping every child develop a "can-do" mindset.
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Sheri Papke
Sheri has nearly 30 years in early childhood and Montessori education and has been part of the Step By Step family since August 1997. She leads our St. Anthony Campus with the philosophy that a school must first be a "home away from home."
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Heidi Johnson
Heidi brings around 15 years of experience in education to our Wayzata Campus, along with 20 years of organizational leadership across other industries. She is currently working toward her own AMS Montessori teaching credential because she believes a growth mindset must start at the top.
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Achievements & Accreditations
Step By Step Montessori is proud to uphold the highest standards in early childhood education. All of our locations are APPLE-accredited and hold a 4-Star Parent Aware rating, reflecting our strong commitment to quality, safety, and accountability. These accreditations demonstrate that our school consistently meets rigorous standards designed to support your child from infancy through kindergarten in a safe learning environment. Our Montessori-certified guides are highly trained in the Montessori method, in accordance with the American Montessori Society and the Association Montessori Internationale. Across our Campuses, we are proud to share that, based on national academic and developmental measures, 98% of students who complete their Montessori cycle meet or exceed national first-grade readiness benchmarks.
"The direction in which a child starts their education will determine their future. These years are the most crucial to building a love of learning. At Step By Step Montessori, we are committed every single day to making that beginning a great one."
- Stacey Richman.
Endeavor Schools is a community of more than 100 schools across the country, brought together by a shared commitment to caring for children during the most important years of their lives. Each school is thoughtfully connected to its local community, creating environments where children feel safe, supported, and encouraged to grow. Behind every classroom is a team of educators and parents who understand how much these early experiences matter, and who are dedicated to helping children build confidence, develop essential skills, and find a genuine love for learning. At the heart of Endeavor Schools is a focus on one simple goal: to give every child the support and foundation they need to thrive, both in school and in life.