The Elementary child emerges from the first plane of development in which he/she felt the secure environment of the Children’s House to a new sense to “take on the world” or more accurately, the universe, as Margaret Loeffler so simply stated in her article “ The Essence of Montessori in the Elementary Years”.  This new child has increased abilities to concentrate, has greater interest in doing meaningful work; is self-disciplined and has greater ability to self-regulate. The elementary child is sociable, and has a keen desire to be a responsible member of a community.

The Elementary Years – ages 6-12- embrace the needs of this child.  You will see the following in our Elementary programs:

Community Meetings: Children take active participation in the day in and day out inter workings of the elementary classroom.

Independent Study:  Children are given work plans and assignments to be completed by the end of each day or week. They learn to organize their time to allow for these lessons.

Teamwork:  For many students, the first years of the Elementary program are the very first opportunities to work as a team member. 

Small group lessons:  Teachers work one on one and in small groups to deliver specific lessons to each child.  These lessons capture the imagination through lots of story telling and beautiful materials, and hands on opportunities.

Fieldtrips:  Children have many opportunities to go out into the field to learn first hand how things work.  Upper Elementary programs plan traveling adventures that may take them across the state  or across the country.

Research projects:  Research is the course of study in all curriculum areas.  Children are empowered to select a topic they are interested in and create a way to teach this information to their friends.  Power Point is a favorite for many of our students.

Enriched Curriculum: During the six years of elementary classroom experience, the elementary child moves through exciting studies in History, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Geology, Language, and Mathematics.  Work in the Montessori classroom is supplemented by  multi-sensory extensions using such materials as Wilson’s Research- based language curriculum- Fundations, SRA, Saxon Math, McMillan’s new hands-on science text, Lucy Calkins  writing program, and Scholastic’s Text Talk, and  EPS Wordly Wise for advanced vocabulary study, EDUSS, and Study Island on line  assessment and test prep.

Each week includes greatly anticipated “specials” such as Spanish, Music, Sign language, and an excellent physical education program aligned to Arizona state standards. Art Masterpiece brings fine arts study into each classroom by trained parent volunteers. All children are members of the Junior Master Gardening Program and spend hands-on time in our vegetable and flower gardens learning about plants, composting, water conservation, zero landscaping, and solar cooking.  Feeding and maintaining the goats, chickens and rabbits provides great experience and authentic practice in taking responsibility. In addition, each class during the month will have the opportunity to participate in Mind Lab- an hour of game playing for the purpose of developing life skills for making good choices, working as a team,  and developing strategies for higher level thinking. 

Character Education:  Monthly celebrations in our Peace Garden focus on the important virtues that are needed for our community to work peaceable together. Families participate in this virtues study through home projects assigned by each teacher.

The end result is the education of the whole child- a child who has the opportunity to be uniquely different, and reach his/her academic potential with personal success,  and who has developed a passion for lifetime learning.

Hours of operation:

School Hours
8:00 am- 2:45 pm

Extended Day Hours
7:30 am-6:00 pm