6 to 12 years (Grades 1 – 6)

FloMont World School offers a Montessori Lower Elementary Program for grades 1-3. Each mixed age lower elementary class is taught by two certified Montessori Elementary teachers and an assistant. 

At age six, the child moves to what Montessori calls the Second Plane of Development, which encompasses the years from 6 to 12. There are enormous changes in the needs of the child from those of the First Plane, the years from birth to 6. The child is no longer centered on himself and his family but now has a great need to explore society and the world. If the First Plane is the age of “what,” this Second Plane is the age of “why,” “where,” “who,” “when,” and “how.” The child of this age wants to know how everything came to be. In the Montessori lower elementary classroom, we give the child the history of the universe, the world, the coming of plants and animals, and the emergence of humans on Earth.

This is also the age when the child develops a moral sense, learning what is right and wrong. He sorts out what is “good” and “bad” and what is “fair” and “not fair.” He strives to find how he can play an important and meaningful role in life.

Children are interested in the world outside the classroom. We send them out to explore with a purpose by giving them the tools to research with their minds and imaginations. Field trips are scheduled frequently. We try to bring the world into the classroom by inviting musical ensembles, puppet shows and local people of interest to share their talents with us.

The elementary children are given opportunities to work together or alone, to pursue individual or group interests. Their teacher facilitates creativity, independent thinking, and personal responsibility.

Lower Elementary Core Curriculum

The core curriculum in the Lower Elementary Program consists of Language, Mathematics, Science, Geography, History, and Foreign Languages. Some examples of what each area entails can be found below.

Language

• Nuances of grammar, defining parts of speech, construction of sentences, study of root words, prefixes and suffixes.
• Recognition and correct usage of punctuation, capitalization and paragraph writing.
• Comprehension exercises.

Mathematics

• From previous concrete math experience, children begin moving toward abstraction of concepts on the Elementary environment. Lessons include understanding and performing operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division with and without using materials.
• Finding lowest common multiples & highest common factors and creating a factor tree for a given number. Calculating square roots and working with fractions.
• Understanding concepts of money, time, weight, height, length, volume and capacity.
• Geometry lessons include classification of lines, angles, triangles, quad laterals, trapezoids, polygons and circles

Science

• Study of the universe, solar system, planets, constellations and celestial bodies.
• Origin of Earth, study of plate tectonics and formation of landforms, water forms and atmospheric layers
• Zoology covers classification, description, timelines and parts of vertebrates & invertebrates using specimens.
• Botany lessons include identification, type, shapes, parts, location, life cycles and preservation of plants and animals
• Chemistry helps with identification of three states of matter , chemical and physical changes in matter and introduction to the periodic table of elements
• Physics lessons deal with topics like electricity, magnetism and gravity.

Geography

• Study of regions, climates, flora and fauna particular to each region.
• Study of maps, boundaries, borders, countries and cities.
• Physical geography topics include identification of continents, oceans, mountain ranges, landforms, latitudes & longitudes, equator and time zones.

History

• Concept of time, history of the earth and its creation, timeline of life and man, needs of man, societies and civilizations.

Math, Language Arts and Foreign languages are covered in the morning. The children are given a great deal of free choice in determining their educational paths but there are supportive limits. As the children develop independent work skills, we negotiate certain requirements while seeing that all the core areas are covered during the year. The children work with the teachers to determine how and when their goals will be met as they assume more responsibility and need less supervision.

We adhere to the Montessori curriculum but we feel we must also reflect the Indian Education Board standards of performance, so that when our students leave for other schools they will be secure in their new environments. To ensure this, we administer informal and internal checkpoints to the children yearly to teach them test taking skills and strategies that they will need in the future.