Montessori Elementary Curriculum: When to Tell The Five Great Lessons

One thing has been well established by our experience: that facts are of less interest to the child than the way in which those facts have been discovered. Thus children may be led to the history of human achievement, in which they want to take their part. ~ Maria Montessori, To Educate the Human Potential

The telling of the Five Great Lessons is a much-loved Montessori tradition. The stories are typically told at the beginning of the Montessori school year (within the first eight weeks) to Year 1 and other lower elementary students (6-9s), with upper elementary students (9-12s) invited to join in. Many upper elementary students choose to hear the stories every year in the Montessori classroom. These older students often reflect on what they have learned since last hearing the stories.

Each Montessori teacher will tell the stories in his/her own way. Although there have been a great many interpretations of the five Great Lessons over the last century, the fundamental purpose of the lessons remains the same: to inspire awe, excitement, and curiosity in the students. To that end, the stories are best told passionately, with a sense of drama and wonder, using gestures, actions, animated facial expressions and vocal tones. This is one of the few instances where the Montessori teacher takes center stage!

The Montessori Five Great Lessons span about 15 billion years and follow the development of the universe, earth, life, and the inventions of written language and numbers. Here is a brief outline of each lesson: