Age	Hours	Teachers	Assistants
1st - 3rd grades	8:30am - 3:30pm Monday - Friday After School available until 5:30pm	Ranjana Patel	Julie Atashi

 

An Elementary Montessori classroom has a three year age grouping. The classroom has a heritage; knowledge and behavior are passed from one level to the next. The oldest children provide leadership, reliable friendship and academic learning. The basic learning activities in the classroom are direct instruction by the teacher, cooperative activity with peers, independent work with materials and resources prepared and displayed in clearly designated classroom areas.

As a child enters the second plane of development during his 6th through 12th year of life, his/her imagination becomes the tool of his/her intellect. The entire universe, all life within it and the interrelationship of humans with plants and animals becomes the focus of the 6 to 12 year old child's education. They become fascinated with a global vision of cosmic events. Therefore, much of the elementary work is based on the five great lessons:

Maria Montessori calls the path whereby the goal of creating a global vision is achieved by a cosmic education. She continues to say:

Thus the way (cosmic education) leads from the whole, via the parts, back to the whole. The children will develop a kind of philosophy, which teaches them the unity of the universe. This is the very thing to organize their intelligence and to give them a better insight into their own place and task in the world, at the same time presenting a chance for the development of their creative energy.

A cosmic education plants the seed that all living things have a cosmic task or an important contribution on the earth. In an Elementary classroom children have daily as well as weekly assignments. Elementary age children are social, so we try to give lessons in groups so they can later choose partners to work with from this group. Children build their skills of reading, writing and arithmetic by using concrete manipulative materials that eventually transition them to abstraction. We practice these skills daily and integrate them into our studies as often as possible.

We try to give a variety of opportunities for each student to present work in a public forum. These opportunities include sharing artifacts and souvenirs from home, reciting poetry, performing musical pieces, and sharing researches and creative writing pieces in final copy form, which they have been working on during the week. We feel that public speaking and presentation skills will be used many times over a student's educational experience.