Upper Elementary Curriculum
(The Reasoning Mind— Ages 9-10)
This is a period of strong intellectual curiosity. Children begin to think more abstractly, question the world, and develop a sense of morality. They enjoy working in groups and are capable of deep concentration and imagination.
+ Practical Life
The purpose of Montessori’s Practical Life activities in the Upper Elementary environment is to give students the opportunity to develop the skills needed to be an independent human as they grow older into adulthood. Students at this level of maturity and developmental plane like to make things with an end product in mind, where they feel appreciated and fulfilled, like they’ve made a difference in someone’s life. Practical Life also fosters responsibility, empathy, and interpersonal skills as they learn to take care of their environment and community. Upper Elementary students will have the opportunities to learn, plan, and work with the following:
Sewing machine
Quilting (may be donated to charities)
Knitting (socks, blankets, or hats for babies/children in need)
Assembling furniture
Woodworking
Laundry
Creating websites
Photographing for newsletter or yearbook
Caring for garden
Cooking
Shopping (using money)
Washing cars
Car maintenance
Painting Walls
Building playground
Beach Cleanup
Reading to younger children
+ Language
Our Upper Elementary Language curriculum is designed to enhance students’ skills in listening, reading, comprehension, grammar mechanics, vocabulary, spelling, and writing. Students learn and participate in all forms of writing where they are given opportunities to develop foundation skills within projects such as, book reports, essays, poetry, or research papers. Integrated across the entire curriculum, and explored deeper throughout The Great Lessons, students’ language skills are strengthened within their work and understanding of its history and evolution throughout time. Upper students begin to understand connections in vocabulary through latin and greek roots, teaching students to break down words to unlock their meaning.
Some Language materials include:
Library books
SRAs
Grammar Boxes
Skyscrapers
Sentence Analysis, diagramming, and charts
Wordly Wise books
Keyboarding
+ Mathematics
Montessori students advance into the Upper Elementary program with a solid math foundation and an in-depth, conceptual understanding for mathematical concepts, enabling students to think critically and logically. Upper students have gone through the spiral curriculum of concrete concepts such as place value, multiplication, and fractions, which they revisit, but with an increase in abstraction. The Upper Elementary goal over a three-year cycle is to guide students in developing a more strategic and sophisticated understanding of math by deepening their basic operations and problem-solving skills, and fluency in basic procedures and algorithms more effectively on paper.
Some Math materials include:
Pythagoras Board
Bead Cabinet
Division Test Tubes
Fraction Circles
Multiplication Checker Board
Algebraic Pegboard
Arithmetic Trinomial Cube
Geometric Sticks
+ Culture
History is revisited in its logical sequence and interwoven throughout The Great Lessons, as students gain greater understanding for the concept of time. History is taught as a group, with stories, visuals, such as geologic timelines, as well as timelines of the study of human evolution and civilizations. From these macro, “big picture,” presentations, students develop many questions that Guides may not go over in detail. From these inquisitive inquiries, students have the opportunity to dive deeper into their own curiosities, events, or wonders of the world as part of their follow-up work or project. These independent assignments help students to become more engaged and motivated by their learning, providing autonomy and great responsibility. Students’ geography foundation, laid in the Early Childhood program, is built upon each year, as students learn to identify countries, flags, types of maps, landforms, and other defining physical feature. The Upper students also begin their State Study research, where they gain more knowledge in the states that make up the United States. The integration of cultural studies help students make connections between the past, present, cause and effect, as well as their own unique lives in the modern world.
Some Cultural materials include:
Waseca Biome Maps
Pin Maps
Puzzle Maps
Continent Folders
Timelines
+ Science
Tied to The Great Lessons, the Science program at Casa Ranch, is very much interconnected across our curriculum, where students come to appreciate and understand science as life and our natural world. As their minds grow more complex and knowledge more profound, students’ observational skills spiral up through the years, where classifying, describing, drawing, and writing has become a familiar process to their learning journey. Upper Elementary students develop a foundation of scientific observation, vocabulary, and have a better understanding of the importance of scientific discoveries, technology, and sustainability. Students learn scientific concepts through experiential lessons and active engagement by conducting experiments, collecting and interpreting data, or researching, students get to explore different paths of interest within their environment and beyond.
Scientific inquiry in our environment encompasses:
Botany
Zoology
Biology
Geology
Physics
Chemistry
Scientific Method
Technology
+ Entrepreneurship
Our self-directed curriculum and compassionate guides help to foster Upper Elementary students' confidence, self-guidance, collaboration and time management skills. Our curriculum ties itself into building great minds that encourage curisotity and independence as we integrate entrepreneurship education into subjects such as, cultural studies, science, math, language, and the arts. Our Upper Elementary students are taught basic business skills within their subjects of study.
Some Entreprenurial lessons include:
Goal Setting
Small Business Skills
Business Model
Entreprenurial language
