A young girl playing with a dominoes set on a striped rug in a brightly lit room with wooden shelving in the background.

Lower Elementary

6-9 Years Old • 8:15 am – 3:00 pm, Monday – Friday


The Lower Elementary Program offers a continuum that is built on the Children’s House experience. The integrated studies of the arts, geography, history, and the sciences become the core of the curriculum with the intention of engaging the imagination of the child in developing a global perspective.

Expanding learning through language, math, and the arts

The materials for language, grammar and math further expand and deepen the child’s understanding of the concepts in their movement towards abstraction. There is an emphasis on the six traits of writing, research with primary sources, grammar and sentence analysis, spelling and oral expression/speech. In math, the materials work to help the child discover the correlation between arithmetic, geometry and algebra.

Dr. Montessori believed that all children should spend time in nature. All of our Lower Elementary students enjoy daily recess at the beautiful Spring Park across the street from the school, and our Physical Education classes are provided in this vibrant setting. To enhance focus, concentration, wellness, and emotional self-regulation, yoga classes are also part of the curriculum. The arts are regularly integrated as well.

  • The Coming of the Universe and the Earth (The big bang and the formation
    of the earth)

  • The Coming of Life (The emergence of life from single celled organisms to modern day humans, plants and animals)

  • The Coming of Human Beings (The Story of Human Beings and what makes us special)

  • The Communication in Writing (The story of the development of the written alphabet)

  • The Story of Numbers (The history of mathematics and our numeric systems)

The unfolding of the Montessori curriculum begins with the 5 Great Lessons, which provide a framework for all other areas of study. These exciting lessons, given at the beginning of each year, are designed to ignite the children’s curiosity. Each area of study is brought to life for the children through hands on experiences. The children explore biology through activities such as collecting leaves in the forest and caring for classroom pets. The children observe scientific demonstrations and have the opportunity to do individual experiments on a daily basis. These foundational experiences will aid the children in becoming scientifically literate citizens who love and care for our planet.

In a Montessori classroom, all mathematical concepts are introduced with concrete materials. The children move from a concrete understanding of each operation to an abstract understanding at their own pace. In Language Arts, grammar is connected to symbols, and we appeal to the child’s reason by providing not just spelling rules, but historical context as to why they exist. History is told as a story of human ingenuity and instills a sense of gratitude and appreciation in each child. Presenting traditional subjects in this way helps to foster a deep love for learning.

The 5 great lessons

    • Botany

    • Zoology

    • Ecology

    • The Systems of the Human Body

    • An introduction to the microscope


    • Maps and Directions

    • The Seven Continents

    • Landforms

    • Cultural Geography

    • Economic Geography

    • Using an Atlas

    • The United States

    • The Relationship Between the Sun and the Earth ( day and night, the 4 seasons)

    • The Foundations of Chemistry (atoms & molecules, the states of matter, chemical reactions)

    • The Atmosphere (weather, rainbows, clouds)

    • The Hydrosphere ( rivers, oceans, the water cycle)

    • The Lithosphere (rocks and minerals, volcanoes, mountains)

    • The Age of the Earth

    • Early Human Beings

    • The Common Needs of all Human Beings

    • Local History

    • Heroes throughout history

    • Social Studies

    • Civic engagement

    • Social Justice

    • Grammar

    • Sentence Analysis

    • Handwriting Without Tears

    • Small- group and 1:1 individualized reading instruction

    • Small-group spelling instruction with fun and varied practice

    • Various Modalities of Writing (poetry, letter writing, reports)

    • Book Making

    • Calligraphy

    • Thank You Cards

    • Place Value

    • Multiplication

    • Measurement

    • Telling Time

    • Addition

    • Subtraction

    • Fractions

    • Decimals

    • Area

    • Surface Area

    • Volume

    • Angles

    • Lines

“The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, 'The children are now working as if I did not exist.”

~ Dr. Maria Montessori