Elementary

A Sense of Wonder

Children from the ages of six to twelve are fascinated with the workings of the wider world. The teacher's presentations at this level appeal to the child’s sense of wonder, inviting them to learn more about the universe and its marvelous details. Children follow up on these presentations with their own research projects, chosen according to their own interests and passions.

The Social Child

During this stage of development, children are finding their place in their society. Rather than fight this social tendency, a Montessori elementary level education embraces it, allowing children to work in small or large groups. Although the teacher holds children individually accountable for their own work, this opportunity for collaboration allows children to find joy in new studies and to inspire others.

Beyond the Walls of the Classroom

Children in the Montessori Elementary Levels have the opportunity for “going out” experiences—walking to the Lake Bluff Library and chaperoned trips of small groups to museums, colleges, and local businesses to expand on research projects.

Freedom and Responsibility

The teacher presents new material to small groups of three to six children. In the remainder of their time, children choose their own work, either working with something they have been taught or launching out on their own explorations and research. Weekly individual meetings and a daily journal keep the students focused on their work and help their understanding of time management.

Academic Expectations

Individual and group presentations from the teacher, as well as focused one-on-one instruction, prepare the students for each succeeding grade in accordance with national academic standards.

Engaging With the Montessori Curriculum

Forest Bluff School utilizes the full and ambitious Montessori elementary level curriculum. Hands-on materials lead the students to a deep, abstract understanding of math, grammar, biology, earth science, geometry, and history. Children learn music theory and composition, a variety of art techniques, and have the daily opportunity for outdoor play and exercise.

Your Child’s Reading

This is a short list of good books for children who are learning to read to themselves, typically around the time they enter the Montessori Elementary Level. While encouraging your children to read to themselves a little each day, continue to read to them, in addition, for at least 30 minutes. During this early reading stage, your children are sounding out words and drawing on their memory of phonograms and puzzle words. Our goal now is to help them decode sentences while looking for meaning. It is important, therefore, that the lines of chosen books mean something, as opposed to simple readers. Around age six, children delight in using their imagination, so the world of literary fantasy is opened up to them.

Expanding Their Studies

The older Montessori elementary level children advance their studies in all major academic areas, still structuring their days as suits them best and learning to take increased responsibility for their studies. Additional areas of study at this age include physics, chemistry, and essay and poetry writing.

The Path to Abstraction

Although hands-on materials are still used frequently for further clarification, by the end of this level most children have moved to a fully abstract understanding of all concepts. They are now completing their work on paper but with the deep understanding that comes from their years of working with tangible representations of complex concepts.

Your Child’s Reading

The upper elementary level booklist comprises high quality recommended books for 9- to 12-year-olds. At this age, it is just as important as ever that children read books with complex themes, admirable characters, meaningful dialogue, and challenging vocabulary. Some of these books begin to deal with issues which might be frightening to certain children, so parents should ensure that the content is appropriate for each individual child.

Our elementary students read every day at school during a “silent reading” period and the teacher reads to the class as a whole every day as well. Equally important, at this age, children are expected to read for an hour at home each day, with an additional 15 to 30 minutes reading time when a parent reads aloud to them. 

The books on this list are suggestions, and students are welcome to read other books for their school and home reading times, as long as those books are of similar literary quality. Children this age still need a great deal of help in choosing books that will contribute to their literary education, and we ask parents to be involved in the selection process. 

Every related study shows remarkable benefits for students growing up in homes with great emphasis on reading good literature. Among the benefits demonstrated by research are preparation for testing and performance in writing ability, language expression, vocabulary, spelling, and comprehension.