The Elementary program offers a continuum built on the Primary experience. In the Montessori elementary, the child's own questions provide the basis for exploration of the world. Because those questions are heeded and nurtured, the child truly connects with knowledge. Subject matter is made relevant to the child's personal learning journey, providing an inner motivation. A Montessori education does not give a child a collection of isolated facts, but rather shares a vision of interrelated knowledge and a love of learning.
The mathematics materials developed by Maria Montessori leads the child through progressive, sequenced activities, emphasizing concepts while preparing the child for abstraction. The developing child yearns to organize and classify. And the whole world obliges with toes to count, temperatures and amounts of rain to check, and clocks to read.
The elementary Montessori language arts program places great stress on the development of strong skills in composition and creative writing. Students are asked to write continuously, emphasizing at first the development of an enjoyment of the writing process, rather than the strict use of correct grammar and spelling. However, formal grammar, spelling, and sentence analysis are systematically taught.
"The elementary child has reached a new level of development. Before he was interested in things: working with his hands, learning their names. Now he is interested mainly in the how and why... the problem of cause and effect." M. Montessori
When information is processed in some active, musical or artistic way--graphs, posters, drawings, creating maps, songs, plays, and so forth, the knowledge becomes permanent and it strengthens the creative part of the brain. Processing means The Arts!
Social Science is the study of place and how humans have adapted to all of the Earth's environments. Physical geography looks at the outward appearance of the environment. Cultural geography looks at what Maria Montessori called humankind's ability to "continue the works of creation". People have developed incredibly diverse ways to meet their basic physical needs for food, shelter, and clothing. Spiritual needs have been expressed around the globe in a multitude of ways. Through meeting needs, groups of people developed language, tools, transportation, celebration, music, art and crafts.
