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a student kneels on a cloth mat while working with wooden montessori learning materials

Lower & Upper Elementary: 1st-5th Grades

Program Summary

Elementary classrooms are tailored to the learning and development of the 6-11 year old child:

  • 6-9 year-olds in Lower Elementary
  • 9-11 year-olds in Upper Elementary.

The Montessori elementary classroom is built on the understanding that children at this stage of development:

  • Have logical, reasoning minds and are able to think abstractly.
  • Have an active imagination to support learning.
  • Have a strong sense of justice and fairness.
  • Are building their social skills through cooperative work and learning.
  • Need to be physically active.
students dressed as important public figures engage in conversation
elementary students work with montessori materials to learn math concepts
an elementary student stands in a montessori classroom

Outcomes

The Montessori elementary classroom provides a unique, interdisciplinary context for learning. Math, Language, Science, Geography, History, Music and Art are all introduced as part of the great breadth and depth of human experience. Working in small groups with specially created Montessori materials, elementary-aged children develop a deep understanding of fundamental concepts in each of these subject areas. As the child becomes increasingly able to work on an abstract level, reading, writing and math become tools for learning about the world.

Throughout the elementary years, the children in the Montessori classroom learns through guided exploration and discovery, rather than through rote learning, using the tools of research to analyze information and to understand subject matter for themselves. Above all, the curriculum in the elementary years is designed to capture the imagination of the child and engender a lifelong love of learning.