Elementary Curriculum
Amherst Montessori School’s Elementary program unites Lower (grades 1 through 3) and Upper Elementary (grades 4 through 6) students in one classroom providing Montessori's characteristic mixed aged environment where peer-to-peer mentoring, leadership, and collaboration abound. The intentionally intimate learning environment with under twenty students means that each child's learning is individualized.
Inquiry is the hallmark of a Montessori Elementary education. This is a time for students to use the skills they have gained in our program to answer their many questions about how they fit into their surrounding environment - in the Elementary classroom and the greater world around them.
Children ages 6 to 12 are constantly thinking about the why and how of what they encounter in the world and the Montessori Elementary curriculum capitalizes on this natural enthusiasm for learning in numerous ways, but is grounded in what we call the Great Lessons. These incredible lessons are part experiment, part dramatic storytelling, and are designed to ignite each student's curiosity about the past, present, and future of our world. The Great Lessons introduce our main curriculum areas - culture (biology, geography, and history), mathematics, and language - and are presented multiple times during a child's elementary tenure to offer increasingly deeper explorations of all areas of the curriculum throughout first through sixth grades.
Many parents considering Montessori may think of the hands-on materials used in our classrooms. Concrete materials are offered throughout our Elementary program as students are introduced to new concepts in mathematics, geometry, grammar, word study, language, and the cultural curriculum. Younger elementary students continue to use concrete, self-correcting materials, while older students who begin to reach abstract level thinking shed concrete materials when no longer needed.
Elementary children are often concerned with fairness and equity, and explore moral behavior through games and organized social activities, complete with rules and hierarchies, often invented together on the playground and during recess. As one of our teachers likes to say, "Fair isn't always equal." In addition to the academic curriculum, students in the Amherst Montessori Elementary program benefit from a robust social emotional curriculum to explore these concepts and help each child learn to self-advocate, develop flexible thinking skills, respectfully disagree, and truly listen with empathy and understanding.
The Enrichment curricula serve to support the whole child in body, mind, and spirit. Elementary students participate weekly in art, physical education, Spanish, and a hands-on creative exloration of self-sufficiency through "Homesteading."
The entire school community - teaching staff, administrators, and specialists - embraces the spirit of the elementary child and works to encourage the development of independence, compassion, and confidence throughout the 6 to 12 curriculum.
To closely explore our Elementary curriculum, please click here to download a detailed PDF.