Woodland
Montessori School
From the ages of 6-12, children are highly attuned to a wider world than what they knew in early childhood and they relish the challenges of coming to know and participate in this larger realm. The students’ years in the Children’s House have provided them with a strong foundation, so that when they enter the Elementary Program, they come in as confident learners ready to branch out and learn bigger things. They’re asking why things work the way they do, searching for answers about the world and abstract knowledge.
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Our curriculum responds to this new development. The students’ attention, as they age, begins to turn outward, and they need to be together with their peers in a new way, exploring larger concepts and working in small groups in search of reasons, connections and patterns.
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The curriculum in the Elementary Program addresses these “essentials” of human knowledge—the “how things work.” The curriculum aims to address the vast network of interrelated information, and the guides appeal to the students’ intellectual imaginations through a multi-faceted approach. The Elementary Program introduces the students to a wide
range of subjects through a story-telling tradition called The Great Lessons. Beginning each school year, the guides give a series of dramatic presentations that forms a foundation for studying math, language, history, and science. The stories inspire individual and small group research, as well as student projects, which students can later share with their peers.
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The Elementary Program at Woodland consists of one elementary classroom. All students are expected to complete specified work in each of the following, and they are given time to choose additional work in subjects that most interest them.
Practical Life
As students age, they become increasingly ready for new challenges in the area of practical life skills. To address this development, our program includes activities such as planning and cooking meals, planning and conducting short trips off campus (including trips to conduct off-campus research for projects), physical education, conflict mediation, and student-led traditions for promoting a positive culture at school. Essentially, students become increasingly responsible for maintaining the environment and their relationships with others.
Sensorial
Sensorial activities build on the foundation formed in the Primary Program, continuing to refine the five senses through the use of tools and experiments that ground abstract concepts in the experienced world. Students often venture on field trips around campus or in the classroom, finding and then classifying objects, all while learning and working with scientific nomenclature. Additionally, learning to conduct experiments presents this age group with specific challenges that require development in observation and articulation of the world.
Elementary Program
Ages 6 - 12
Language
Elementary students often have a particular love of literature and creative writing. The Junior Great Books Tradition of Shared Inquiry, which is adopted as part of our Montessori Method, provides a unique and beneficial structure for discussing ideas and information discovered through reading books. In particular, the stories convey timeless themes based on human interaction, posing those types of questions that don’t have a “right” answer, but are meant for the development of critical thinking. Additionally, student research motivates extended writing projects and provides opportunities to practice oral presentation skills. This is all grounded in traditional Montessori material that ground abstract concepts in grammar through enjoyable activities.
Math & Geometry
The math materials used in the Primary Program, including sensorial materials that allow children to enumerate numbers, pave the way for a seamless transition for students as they move into the elementary years. Materials that are familiar from the Children’s House continue to be used for more advanced lessons, in addition to the introduction of new materials. The materials, used in a specific order, support the students in the natural transition from working with concrete, sensorial activities to working exclusively with pencil and paper. This is achieved by introducing new concepts through the concrete materials, practicing the lesson with increasingly abstract representations, and then eventually moving to using only the handwritten number when the materials are no longer needed. The presentation of the curriculum in this manner allows students to pursue the memorization of math facts, while also working with new, highly complex concepts, all while preparing them for any future transition into a more traditional school system.
Geography & History
Elementary students are naturally drawn to the awe-inspiring topics of our universe, including the natural forces of our world that have been at work over a vast expanse of time. The history of human civilization, as well as the study of the fundamental needs of all cultures throughout history, have a similar appeal for their expanding minds.
During the Elementary Program, our students study the natural occurrences that shape life on the continents, while beginning to connect how those factors relate to political geography and world economics.
History and geography are incorporated, with the students always particularly interested in accomplishments of historical figures who helped shaped our world. Likewise, the students take seriously issues of fairness and justice in history, and current events, as well as within the classroom and their own families.
Science
Scientific study in the Elementary Program includes work in physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, and ecology. Through their studies, students gain a deeper understanding of scientific concepts in these areas, as well as the interdependence between each subject. As stated in the aforementioned section on sensorial materials, explorative activities, research, and experiments comprise a large part of their scientific study.
Creative Expression
Encouraging self-expression through the visual and performing arts help students in this age group gain self-confidence. Activities in this area include exploration of art forms, with opportunities to have practiced work showcased at the school for other students, staff, parents, guardians, etc., view and enjoy.
