Programs

Grades 4-6

Three-year Cycle

During the upper elementary years (grades 4-6), students move into metacognition as they use their own growing awareness to apply the tools that they have learned in lower elementary to explore new levels of abstraction and big ideas. As upper elementary students move beyond internalizing basic concepts and learn how to apply them to deeper subjects, our upper elementary teachers model personal and academic passion and curiosity. Additionally, the upper elementary teachers model open-mindedness, demonstrating through community dialogues the cultural value of people with different experiences and histories. 
Through an inquiry lens, they challenge students to see themselves in a wider world, and how their own actions and biases can impact those around them.

List of 4 items.

  • Interconnected Curriculum

    The Montessori Great Lessons in upper elementary are not just about piquing imagination but also about using those stories as launch points to figure out their individual passions. Stories give opportunities for students to explore and construct the interrelatedness of the world and how it relates back to them and their strong sense of justice.  Additionally, encouraging journaling and creative writing also nurtures their souls by giving an outlet for self-expression.

    In upper elementary, outdoor education becomes an integrated part of the Montessori classroom, allowing students to continue to explore the interconnectedness of academic topics and of themselves to the rest of the world. Outdoor education includes additional hands-on study of outdoor skills, science, geography, land use history, and social and environmental justice.

  • Language, Reading, Writing

    Writing in upper elementary includes formalized writing, including proper essay structure, writing focused paragraphs with topic and closing sentences, as well as formulating a thesis sentence in the introduction to dictate the focus of the essay.

  • Math and Geometry

    As students complete upper elementary, they will have covered all the fractions, decimals, and percents concepts, and will have started working on algebra or at a minimum be introduced to foundational algebraic concepts (operations with positive and negative numbers, working with coordinate planes, simple substitution in an algebraic equation). In geometry, upper elementary students study the area and circumference of a circle, perimeter and area for a variety of shapes, mass and volume for three dimensional shapes, and complementary and supplementary angles.

  • Science, History, and Geography

    Science in lower and upper elementary is founded on the great lessons such as the creation of the universe and creation of the earth. Botany and classification of plants and animals are also a backbone of the Montessori science curriculum, along with the Timeline of Life. Upper elementary studies plate tectonics, natural processes of earth (work of water, work of air, work of ice – erosion, glaciations, sedimentation), as well as human anatomy (body systems, their functions, and how they work together). Students get hands-on experience learning about the needs and life cycle of the Coho salmon as they raise the fish to release into the Cedar River.

    History in upper elementary is not Euro-centric. Upper elementary students study patterns of human settlements and societies that cross geographic boundaries, including phases of civilization (nomadic, agriculture/ settlements, urban/nation states).

    As upper elementary students move beyond internalizing basic concepts and learn how to apply them to deeper subjects, our upper elementary teachers model personal and academic passion and curiosity. Additionally, the upper elementary teachers model open-mindedness, demonstrating through community dialogues the cultural value of people with different experiences and histories. Through a inquiry lens, they challenge students to see themselves in a wider world, and how their own actions and biases can impact those around them.