The Elementary Communities (ages 6–9 and 9–12)
CMS Elementary classes begin at 8:00 am and depart at 3:00 p.m. There are two Lower Elementary classes and one Upper Elementary class. The elementary children have a three-hour work period in the morning for individual and small group lessons and projects, and a two hour work period in the afternoon. The second and third-year students have a physical education class once a week, in which fitness and sports skills are practiced. Elementary students also have Spanish class once a week with materials in each classroom for follow-up work during the week.
The Montessori Lower Elementary classrooms continue the work begun in the Children’s House with some of the early exercises as extensions of the Children’s House materials. Elementary classes continue to bring children of different ages together. The Elementary curriculum is very broad, and requires the guide to have a broad and thorough education of her own.
There are three elements of the Elementary curriculum. One is the mastery of fundamental skills in language arts, math, science, and geography. Second is the presentation of Dr. Montessori’s Great Lessons. The Great Lessons include the story of how the world came to be, the development of life on Earth, the story of humankind, the development of language and writing, and the development of mathematics. These lessons are designed to give children a cosmic perspective of the Earth and humanity’s place within the cosmos. The Great Lessons provide a passage from the sensorial/material level to the abstract. The third element is individually chosen research. Students are encouraged to explore topics that capture their imagination. Students do a great deal of library research and independent reading and writing. While the Elementary classroom is a place for learning, it cannot possibly contain all the answers for the elementary child’s inquisitive mind. For this reason children will be “going out” to do research for their reports and projects. These are not field trips in the traditional sense, because the trip is organized and conducted in small groups by the children themselves. “Going out” is just as much a learning experience as are the lessons and work with classroom materials.
While both Lower and Upper Elementary students study much of the same material, there are marked differences between the two levels and the types of work they do. One of the hallmarks of the Upper Elementary age is that these students will be involved in the planning and responsibilities for their educational activities. This is also a time of passage into abstraction; therefore, there will be more work done on paper, and somewhat less with the materials, but you will not see pages of dittos. The older students have the ability to accomplish "Great Work", which are long projects that may go on for some time before they are concluded and sent home. It is also a time when they are developing a sense of their contribution to society, and preparing for their entrance into adolescence.
