Elementary
Midland Montessori Elementary
The Elementary program offers education for six through twelve year-old children in classrooms where students of different abilities work side by side. Each classroom is an active environment. Children receive lessons from the teacher, then go to work individually, in pairs, or in groups. Activity takes place at desks, tables, or mats on the floor. The classrooms are rich in Montessori materials (many of which are used in the Preschool and Kindergarten classrooms) and research resources that support the students' growing interest in their expanding world.
The curriculum includes language, mathematics, studies of the earth, the universe, plants and animals, geography, history, science, human needs, invention, art, Spanish, and music. Academic excellence is achieved in the Elementary program through an emphasis on mastery of skills and concepts, rather than on grades. Students are encouraged to ask questions, research subjects, and draw their own conclusions. Multiple methods for learning and the time needed for success are provided because all children do not learn in the same way or at the same pace.
Children who complete the Elementary program are happy, enthusiastic and ready to embrace and appreciate a lifetime of learning.
The Great Lessons of Maria Montessori
The Great Lessons are a series of five stories told by Maria Montessori to elementary age children. These stories are the nucleus of Midland Montessori's cultural curriculum and serve to provide a common vocabulary and understanding of some basic questions that children have. The stories provide an overview. The students then investigate further using science, social studies, mathematics and language.
Reading and Language Arts
The elementary language arts program at Midland Montessori School uses a phonetic approach to reading and spelling: associating letters with sounds. Knowing the sounds of individual letters allows the student to blend them into words. This provides a decoding approach to reading and an encoding approach to spelling. Great attention is devoted to reading comprehension, sentence analysis, vocabulary, and rhythmic reading. The program incorporates the memorization of poetry, creative writing, writing summaries of stories, writing book reports, and choral speaking. There is time set aside each day for the classroom teacher to read to the students. The reading instruction follows a developmental program of instructional material. The students also read many of the children's classics, as well as, a wide range of books of literary value.
Spelling and grammar are also important aspects of the elementary language arts program. Spelling dictation and the colored, moveable alphabet are used in spelling instruction. Formal grammar lessons include the parts of speech, punctuation, sentence analysis, and composition.
Mathematics
With the use of manipulative materials, the children in lower elementary proceed into more difficult operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Other concepts covered are fractions, time, money, measurement, and geometry. Many word problems are incorporated into the math program.
In grades four through six, the students continue more advanced work with basic functions, as well as, more advanced work with fractions and geometry. Decimals, ratio, percentage, proportion, and algebra are part of the 6 th grade math curriculum.