Early Elementary Curriculum
(6-9 Years Old)
The six to nine year old curriculum, in Montessori terminology, is called cosmic education. This means that the curriculum does much to expand the child’s awareness of the world. Academically, much work is done in the elementary class to support the discoveries that children make regarding their vision of the whole and the connections between the individual and the larger human family.
In order to encourage independence, organization, self-discipline, and responsibility for their own learning, the children in the six to nine classroom keep a log of their daily work and grow into formulating weekly, monthly, and yearly goals that are organized into work plans. These are written in consultation with each child and are reviewed weekly. For children who need more structure, certain work in the work plan will be highlighted. It serves as a wonderful record-keeping device and supports evidence of real growth. When children are supported and encouraged individually, they gain the self-esteem and self-confidence to hear and accept the contributions of others.
The six to nine curriculum offers a wide array of subject matter:
The math curriculum consists of operations, facts, fractions, counting, geometry, measurement, and abstract work.
The science curriculum consists of Physical Science and Life Science (Botany and Zoology).
The language curriculum encompasses reading, grammar, spelling, and handwriting.
The history curriculum covers the Fundamental Needs of Man, time lines (personal and cultural), the Year and its Parts: Months, Days of the Week, Time (hour, half-hour, quarter-hour, five minutes).
The six to nine curriculum introduces the children to The Great Lessons. The first of these lessons is the Creation Story (The Earth and Its Beginnings) which is covered in September. Later in the year comes the next Lessons, The History of Language and The History of Math. These are followed by the remaining Great Lessons, The Timeline of Life and Early Humans.
The Montessori six to nine class encompasses a method of learning and discovery of the child as an unique individual. It gives the child a learning phenomena that will produce an explosion of awareness, culminating in the realization that the universe in which we live is wondrous and unique.