Elementary School News Winter 2022

Returning to school after vacation, I was struck by a major difference between my experience in a traditional public school and my experience at Children’s Tree. When working in traditional schools, conventional wisdom among teachers is that children have difficulty returning to school. They need a lot of support returning to the routines of the classroom, and children are unmotivated to work for a few weeks as they would rather still be on vacation.

This couldn’t be further from the truth in our classroom. The children returned to school eager to learn and showed the most independence that we have seen all year. The very first day back, they immediately got to work. Children wrote research papers, conducted experiments on simple machines, and learned about Western Europe. Children practiced their cursive handwriting, eagerly modeled word problems, and explored kinds of angles.

One of the reasons for this difference is that Montessori students are encouraged to follow their passions and learn about content that is personally meaningful to them. Dr. Montessori observed that during each developmental stage, children go through “sensitive periods” during which they naturally feel driven to master particular skills. While younger children may be drawn to small objects or to numbers, during the Elementary years, children become especially interested in developing big ideas about the world. They are interested in history, culture, justice and morality, and how the world works.

Over the past few months, the children in the Willow Room have been studying these topics through our study of Europe. Many of the students have been particularly interested in learning about Ancient Greece. Through reading Greek Mythology, we had the opportunity to learn about how to analyze the message or theme of a story. Other students have taken a more scientific approach, investigating simple machines that formed the basis for ancient technology and which are still used today. Still others enjoy learning about the geography of Europe or about the animals that live in each biome.

Building off of our interest in simple machines, the students are headed to the Eli Whitney Museum and Workshop on January 25 in order to construct their own inventions out of simple machines. Some students have also begun the process of designing inventions for an upcoming Invention Convention. They have been enjoying all of the hands-on learning opportunities that a Montessori school is fortunate enough to offer.

"If you are interested in learning more about what the elementary school is like at Children’s Tree please join us on January 26 or 27 to learn more. Click here for information and to RSVP."

~Ms. Lena