Mildenhall Montessori Schools

Elementary

The Elementary program consists of Lower Elementary (Grades 1 to 3) and Upper Elementary (Grades 4 to 6). The Elementary Program continues to follow Maria Montessori’s principle of the three-year age groups, allowing the classroom to continue to be a social community that learns to work together. The children continue to use self-correcting Montessori materials during the Elementary Program. A major role of the teacher is to observe the work undertaken by each child and to direct each child in completion of each stage of the work and undertaking the next stage. At the end of each three-year cycle (the end of grades three and six), our students have accomplished at least the Ontario public school curriculum to that grade.

Lower Elementary

The Lower Elementary classroom is in many ways an extension of the Casa classroom yet in many ways a completely new environment. The children come into their Lower Elementary classroom equipped with rich experiences based in the real world of their senses, which they explored and developed in the previous setting. They now apply this experience in a new and more abstract way as they begin to order their minds by developing their reasoning skills, imagination and ability to analyze and classify.

The materials presented offer a large amount of choice, as certain concepts can be explored, manipulated and acquired through a variety of materials. The cultural subjects are expanded to include history, geography, biology, zoology and science, which the child is now ready and eager to explore through hands-on experiments, timelines and classification exercises. Through stories and visual aids, the Lower Elementary students learn of times past and people who have made contributions and changes to society throughout history. The materials are also designed to allow several children to work with them together at one time, meeting the need of the six-to-nine-year-olds to socialize in a meaningful way with their peers. The overall goals of the Lower Elementary program are to arouse interest and enthusiasm, “to sow the seeds of culture”, which will germinate later, while also building upon and expanding the academic skills acquired in the Casa or Primary program.

Upper Elementary

The Upper Elementary program is less materials-based than the Lower Elementary program and addresses more advanced areas of interest such as literature, anthropology, archeology and the organization of human civilization. The students are encouraged by their teachers to take much more responsibility for their academic learning. They begin by keeping a daily journal to plan and record their classroom activities as a concrete initiation into time management and responsibility. Through frequent conferences with the teacher, the students monitor their own progress, and guidance is offered toward achieving academic balance. An important part of the Upper Elementary program is the children’s organizing and going out on their own to visit the Royal Ontario Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario and other museums and galleries to supplement their classroom experiences.