
Meant to inspire and ignite the child’s imagination, the Five Great Lessons are a catalyst for the Montessori elementary curriculum. Told too quickly, the lessons become meaningless, causing the children’s imaginations to jump from one concept to another. When we imagine, we are using abstract thought to think of things that cannot be seen. The follow-up lessons that come from each of the Five Great Lessons are used to materialize these abstractions. In other words, the children prove the existence of the wonders of the universe through concrete exploration.
What’s the Rush? When Presenting the Five Great Lessons, Slow Down
The Five Great Lessons are thought to be the catalyst of the Montessori elementary cultural curriculum. From the origins of the universe t...
Montessori Today: Chapter 7: Freedom and Responsibility — Before Going Out
In the second plane, the children complete the foundation of their social selves. Through their reasoning minds and powers of imagination,...
Montessori Today, Chapter 7: Freedom and Responsibility — Student Work Journals
The Montessori teacher’s specific responsibility is to aid human development through awareness of the children’s needs at each stage of sel...
Montessori Today, Chapter 6: The Elementary Teacher — Work or Play
… the best [educators] could do was to compromise, reducing hours in instruction to the minimum, cutting out from the curriculum grammar, ...
Montessori Today, Chapter 5: The Classroom Environment
The environment must be rich in motives which lend interest to activity and invite the child to conduct his own experiences. —Maria Montess...
Montessori Today, Chapter 3: The Age of Reason
The next period goes from six to twelve. It is a period of growth unaccompanied by other change. The child is calm and happy. Mentally, he ...
Montessori Today, Chapter 3: The Age of Morals and Ethical Thinking
It is at six years that one may note the beginning of an orientation toward moral questions toward the judgment of acts. The preoccupation ...
Montessori Today, Chapter 3: Montessori’s Second Plane of Development
Instead of dividing schools into nursery, primary, secondary, and university, we should divide education in planes and each of these should...
Circle of Inclusion: The Development of Organized Work Patterns in Children
In a previous blog , we discussed the value of inclusion and how Montessori’s tenet of following the individual needs of the child makes i...
Academic Materials That Provide a Concrete Representation of the Abstract
In a previous blog , we discussed the value of inclusion and how Montessori’s tenet of following the individual needs of the child makes i...
Upper Elementary Field Trips: A Passage to Abstraction
The child's development follows a path of successive stages of independence, and our knowledge of this must guide us in our behavior ...
A Teacher’s Perspective on Normalization in the Montessori Elementary Classroom
Maria Montessori observed that when children were given freedom in an environment suited to their needs, they flourished and reached their...
Planning Going Out Activities in the Montessori Elementary Classroom
Exploring and absorbing the world beyond the classroom are integral components of the Montessori elementary experience. At the start of eac...
A Teacher’s Perspective: The First Week of a Successful Montessori Elementary Year
In my Montessori elementary classroom, I spend the first week of school building on the foundations that I set on the first day — further e...
A Teacher's Perspective: Work Periods on the First Day of Montessori Elementary
In our previous blog , we discussed the first part of the first full day of school during which the students were introduced to the routine...
A Teacher’s Perspective: First Day Circle Routines for Montessori Elementary
The first day of school is very exciting for both students and teachers. I always look forward to the first day when I am able to greet st...
Command Cards for Montessori Elementary Students
There are two main types of shelf work in the Montessori environment. The first is the Montessori materials themselves. The second consists...
Fairness and Character Development in the Montessori Environment
Elementary-age children, who are in the second plane of development, have an increased sense of justice and moral order. To them, following ...
Practical Life in the Montessori Elementary Environment: Sewing for Charity
In the Montessori lower and upper elementary environments, teachers often offer practical life activities and materials for sewing, quilt...
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