Lower Elementary School
Lower Elementary School provides enrichment for children 6 years old to 10 years old. The Montessori curriculum in the Elementary consists of areas of study that are studied interconnected with each other. This is what Maria Montessori called the “Cosmic Education”. She believed that there were two things necessary for raising peaceful human beings: an awareness of interdependence and the sense of gratitude that comes from that awareness. By providing a holistic, therefore Cosmic education, children receiving these lessons learn to be grateful to previous generations so that they may benefit from their knowledge. Children study areas such as History, Botany, Geography, Zoology, Biology, Geometry, Math and Languages and figure out their connections. A common example will be the study of History and its connection to Geography and then to Botany and Zoology. These areas will be discussed deeper in the next paragraphs.
The Lower Elementary Classroom
Cultural Areas
The historical Great Lesson on the Timeline of Life introduces children to the story of life on Earth and how it has changed and evolved over time. This lesson connects to the children’s further study of the plant and animal kingdoms. After the Timeline of Life, children study the Coming of Humans which demonstrates man’s journey on a timeline from early humans to modern day humans and the formation of language, the usage of tools, fire, math, art, and so forth. The lesson shows how humans are different from other mammals because of our hands, our minds, and our ability to love. This lesson, combined with a lesson on the Needs of Man, brings meaning and connection to the study of cultures, language, numbers, and geography.
Language
Language is connected to the history curriculum as children study the history of language and how cultures have influenced each other over time as they have branched into different languages. The language curriculum helps children to develop an appreciation of the written and spoken language and to discover the different parts of speech, to analyze sentence structure, and to increase their vocabulary, comprehension, word study, and writing skills. Each of the parts of speech is introduced to children with an interesting story, game, or interactive lesson and they are represented by meaningful symbols that help the children to increase their understanding of grammar.
Math & Geometry
Children in the elementary years are moving toward abstraction and the elementary materials allow them to do that at their own pace. They begin performing operations with concrete materials which help to enforce their understanding of place value and they gradually progress to more abstract materials over time. Children can add, subtract, multiply, and divide independently with hands – on materials which allow them to discover answers for themselves and to visually see the meaning behind the problems.
Naps
Typical Schedule
Multilingual
Functionality
FAQs