When students move from the Primary level to the Elementary grades, it seems everything gets bigger. The children themselves have grown and acquired a greater need to interact in groups, so their classroom, furniture and materials have been appropriately designed and sized as well.

What has grown more than anything, however, is the students' capacity and desire to discover the world and their place in it. Elementary children possess powerful intellectual curiosity and imagination. They have entered what Maria Montessori called the second plane of development, and are eager to acquire new concepts and experiences. No longer are they simply asking what, but using developing powers of reasoning and abstract thought to ascertain why, how, when, and where.

Curriculum

At Hollis Montessori School, a cohesive six-year curriculum is designed to meet the developmental needs of students ages 6 to 12. Classrooms are divided into Lower Elementary (grades 1 to 3) and Upper Elementary (grades 4 to 6).

Dr. Montessori chose five Great Lessons to be shared with the children - covering the beginnings of the universe, origins of life, evolution of humans, development of language, and history of mathematics. These broad narratives entice the students' curiosity, and allow them to begin discovering and connecting elements in the body of human knowledge. The Elementary teacher's goal is not to rely on a syllabus, but to guide students using lessons, materials, and experiences, both inside and outside of school. A brief summary of the topics presented in each area over the 6-12 age span follows.

Geography

• Origin of the universe
• Creation stories of various cultures
• Structure of the universe
• Origin of Earth: sun and solar system
• Geological composition of the Earth
• Effects of Earth’s rotation
• Time zones
• Longitude and latitude
• Effects of Earth’s revolution
• Solstices, equinoxes, and seasons
• Temperature zones
• Geography nomenclature (land and water forms)
• The atmosphere
• Winds
• Interaction of heat, wind, water, wind and snow
• Ocean currents
• Erosion by water and wind
• Oceans and rivers
• Vegetation in different zones
• Human populations
• The water cycle
• Political geography (continents, countries, cities)
• Types of government
• Imports and exports
• Flow of trade
• Money
• Interdependence of humans beings in society
• Geology (composition of the Earth, plate tectonics, earthquakes, rock cycle)
• Chemistry (phases of matter, atom, table of elements, physical characteristics of materials, lab equipment, procedures and safety, molecule modeling, ions, acids, bases, types of reactions, experimental method, measurement science)
• Physics (energy, force and motion, simple machines, sound, electromagnetic spectrum, electronics, light)

History

• Planetary history
• Timeline of life (geologic timescale with associated evolution of life)
• Timeline of human beings (pre-historic humans)
• Fundamental needs of human beings
• Phases of history (nomadic, agricultural, urban)
• Ancient civilizations (Sumer, Egypt, Greece, China, Indus Valley, Rome, Mayans, etc.)
• Human migrations
• United States history
• Child’s own family history
• History of other subject areas

Language

Grammar and Mechanics

• Phonology of English
• Word study (affixes, compound words, word families)
• Etymology
• Nouns (number, gender, classification)
• Articles (definite and indefinite)
• Adjectives (classification, positive/comparitive/superlative)
• Verbs (tense, mood, voice, verbals, complete conjugation of regular and irregular verbs)
• Prepositions
• Adverbs
• Conjunctions
• Interjections
• Analysis of simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences
• Cursive penmanship and calligraphy
• Spelling
• Punctuation

Reading and Expression

• Origin of writing and the alphabet
• History of spoken language
• Interpretive reading
• Memorizing and reciting poetry
• Reading aloud
• Oral presentation skills
• Sentence structure in writing
• Paragraphs
• Rhetorical devices
• Expository writing
• Writing stories with dialogue
• Journaling
• Writing letters
• Writing persuasive essays
• Writing poetry
• Writing biographies
• Dramatic improvisation
• Producing plays
• Research skills
• Literary genres

Mathematics

• Basic numeracy
• Adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing positive and negative integers through billions
• Associative, commutative, distributive laws
• Order of operations
• Multiples and common multiples
• Factors, prime numbers, prime factorization
• Lowest common multiple and Greatest common factor
• Tests of divisibility by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11 and 25
• Long multiplication
• Long division
• Fractions (equivalence, adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, reducing, converting to decimal fractions, mixed numbers)
• Decimal fractions (categories, adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, powers of 10, percentage, converting to mixed numbers)
• Powers of numbers (concept, arithmetic and geometric interpretations, algebraic laws of exponents, scientific notation)
• Squaring and cubing binomials, trinomials and quadranomials numerically and algebraically, with applications to squaring of 2,3, and 4-digit numbers
• Square root and cube root (concept, algorithm for calculating roots of numbers of arbitrary size)
• Measurement (length, weight, time, force, unit conversions)
• Non-decimal bases (concept, counting, adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, conversion to a different base)
• Balancing equations and solving for one unknown
• Ratio and proportion (concept, ratio as fractions, cross-multiplication, word problems)
• Distance, rate and time problems
• Principal and interest problems
• Graphing (interpreting and creating histograms, line graphs, pie charts, graphing functions)
• Cartesian coordinates

Geometry

• History of geometry
• Congruence, similarity, equivalence
• Polygons (concepts, nomenclature, relationships, sum of angles, types of triangles)
• Theorem of Pythagoras
• Circles (concepts, nomenclature, computing circumference)
• Lines, rays, line segments, parallel lines
• Angles (parts, types, measuring with a protractor, complementary/supplementary, etc.)
• Transformations of triangle, rhombus, trapezoid, pentagon and decagon to equivalent rectangle
• Generalization of Pythagorean Theorem to other polygons
• Area of plane figures (rectangle, parallelogram, triangle, trapezoid, rhombus, decagon, circle)
• Solids (building models, nomenclature, polyhedra, lateral and total surface area)
• Volume (rectangular prisms, other right prisms, pyramid, cylinder, cone, sphere, ellipsoid)
• Curve stitching
• Geometric construction with compass and straight edge

Biology

• Plant anatomy and function
• Botany nomenclature
• Classical taxonomy of the plant kingdom
• Using dichotomous plant keys
• Body function of vertebrates
• Classical taxonomy of the animal kingdom
• Modern classification (Archaea, Eubacteria, Eukaryota)
• Cells
• Human body (major systems, nutrition, physical education)
• Ecology (major biomes, food webs, interdependence)

Art and Handwork

• Art History (major schools and artists)
• Drawing (line, perspective, shading, proportion, pencil, charcoal)
• Painting (basic color theory, water color, acrylic)
• Making dioramas
• Weaving
• Sculpture
• Handwork (crochet, knitting, quilting)

Music

• Singing
• Rhythm (clapping, reading rhythmic notation, rhythmic dictation)
• Ear training (matching pitches, ordering pitches, interval training)
• Music theory (musical notation, keys, transposition, scales, circle of fifths, composition)
• Listening (listening games, classical literature and composers, classical forms)
• Movement to music
• Playing instruments

Let us give [the Elementary child] a vision of the whole universe. All things are part of the universe and are connected with each other to form one whole unity. This idea helps the mind of the child become fixed, to stop wandering in an aimless quest for knowledge.