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The Third Plane of Development:
Upper Elementary program (Ages 9 - 12)
Why Montessori at the Upper Elementary School Level?Some regard Montessori education to be important only at the preschool (Casa) level. However, the work of developing into fully formed, self-reliant, and responsible individuals continues beyond this period. Children at the elementary school level have a whole new set of needs that call for the continued sensitivity of the teacher. From birth to age six, children are sensorial explorers, studying every aspect of their environment, language, and culture. From age six to twelve, children become reasoning explorers. They develop new powers of abstraction and imagination. They utilize and apply their knowledge to further discover and expand their world. During this time it is still essential that the child carry out activity in order to integrate acting and thinking. It is his/her own effort which gives him/her independence, and his own experience which brings him answers to how and why things function as they do. The teacher’s role is to prepare an appropriate environment with those materials which have value and purpose, and to foster and protect the child’s endeavor to explore. The teacher serves as a guide and is the link between the child and the environment.
Upper Elementary Curriculum
Mathematics: In the Upper Elementary program the passage from the concrete to the abstract is fundamental in the understanding and teaching of the Montessori Curriculum. Students build from what they have studied in the Lower Elementary program. They are also introduced to new concepts such as square root, cubing and powers of numbers, just to name a few. In Upper Elementary the ability to translate what they have learned to real world experiences is essential.Geometry: Geometry is also taken to the next level in the Upper Elementary program. Students study and explore Transitivity, Insets of Equivalences as well as Area and Perimeter of many different shapes. They also learn about Volume of different objects. All work begins with the concrete, and as students build a solid understanding of the concepts, they are taught how to translate the information into everyday experiences.
Language: In Upper Elementary classroom, children use the “Writing Process” steps in all that they create. They are introduced to a wide variety of genres and are given ample opportunity to create interesting work using the”multiple intelligences” as a guide. They also work on a wide variety of projects, plays and art to translate what they have learned. They are also given an opportunity to practice public speaking whenever presenting information to their peers. They learn grammar and spelling rules through the skyscraper material.
Culture: Botany, Zoology, History, Geography and Science are the core subjects that encompass the cultural program. Each subject area provides a wide variety of information that helps students learn about the world around them. Through the cultural subjects, students learn to master researching skills and recording information in a variety of ways. Language development is key in this area and students are given opportunities to share their finding with their peers on an ongoing basis.