A Sense of Purpose

THE ELEMENTARY-AGED CHILD

Elementary-aged children seek to explore the universe through the use of imagination and reason. They wonder at the nearly unimaginably big and the extremely ancient. Their curiosity is directed not just at the basic facts, but at the "why" and "how." They are ready to increase their concentration and attention, enhance their organizational skills and increase their self-direction. They seek challenging work and take pride in mastering it. They become more interested in social interaction and bonding with peers. They enjoy broadening and deepening their understanding through group work. Using their imaginations, they begin to perceive the complexity of the universe. They become more concerned with fairness and justice.

COSMIC EDUCATION LOCALIZED: A PLACE-BASED MONTESSORI ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM

The Elementary curriculum is organized around questions that fire the imagination: Who am I? Where did I come from? Why is life this way? Cosmic Education (meaning comprehensive, holistic and purposeful) focuses the community on both the wonders of the natural world and the accomplishments of humanity. This enables students to develop a sense of their own place in the universe, their individual responsibility and their potential to enhance the natural and cultural environments in which they live.
Through an emphasis on engagement with place, students have the opportunity to consider how the universal is reflected in the local. Frequent field trips enable students to explore how Earth’s geologic past is exposed in local streambeds and how the age of hunting and gathering cultures was expressed in peoples who once lived in present-day Georgia. Students also have the opportunity to explore aspects of local culture through participating in Chattahoochee Hill Country community celebrations and helping harvest crops on a nearby organic farm.
Students’ studies of nature and people emphasize both the tremendous diversity that abounds in the world and how that diversity is expressed locally. Cosmic Education emphasizes the connections between all content areas. In the study of history and culture, we seek to delve beyond superficial racial and cultural differences to show how all human beings are driven by the same set of Fundamental Needs.
Rather than following the traditional method of presenting facts as belonging to individual subjects, Montessori "presents the universe to the child" in the form of epic stories. Through the telling of Great Stories, Montessori education takes the children from the whole to the parts and back to the whole again. In this way, each academic area emerges naturally from the whole narrative and continually refers back to it.

LANGUAGE ARTS

The language arts curriculum is designed to enhance the students’ skills in reading, comprehension, writing and speaking. Language lessons are connected with history, literature, science, math and geography. Writing develops in connection with exploration, research and experimentation. Creative writing allows children to acquire a valuable tool for self-expression. Reading becomes a tool to expand their world and satisfy their curiosity. Routines are set in place for read-aloud, Writer’s Workshops, Reader’s Workshops and quiet-reading time.

MATHEMATICS

A sequence of lessons brings the child naturally to the point of understanding abstract mathematical operations. Working with Montessori math materials, children can concretely experience concepts traditionally taught much later, including fractions, squared and cubed numbers, multiples and factors. Well-crafted geometric solids and shapes enable children to discover area and volume formulas on their own. Binomial and trinomial cubes provide a hands-on way to explore complicated algebraic concepts. As with all subjects, close attention is paid to state standards, so that children can be confident that their abilities will easily transfer to a variety of settings.

THE SCIENCES AND SOCIAL STUDIES

Science and history are presented hand in hand. One is taught in order to encourage logical thinking and exploration of the environment, the other to provide perspective. The elementary curriculum helps convey humanity as a work in progress. Just as we have evolved physically, our ideas have evolved alongside us and continue to do so. This perspective encourages children to develop both an appreciation for those who came before us and a sense of responsibility for those who will follow.
The science curriculum is primarily place-based, emphasizing the local bioregion. Students study earth, environmental and life sciences through active experimentation. The place-based social studies curriculum emphasizes the history and culture of the local area with an emphasis on Georgia and United States history.

OTHER AREAS

Art is integrated into every area of study as free expression, technical illustration, design and decoration. Music and drama are part of the daily life of the class. Physical education includes activities such as yoga and soccer, with an emphasis on building skills to develop control of movement, enhance personal confidence and teach the techniques and values of teamwork and cooperation.