Our Program
Montessori education is built upon the belief that all learners are individuals in style, pace and interests and that all children can learn. Desert Sky’s classrooms span two years in the primary level, three years at the elementary level and two years in the middle school program. These mixed-age settings provide several benefits to the student. They more closely model real-life situations where people of varying ages and experience work and live together. Children in this setting also benefit from peer tutoring opportunities that naturally occur. Older students mentor and motivate the younger students. The younger students aspire to what the older students can do. Skills are thus reinforced for not only the younger students but also the older students. The benefits of collaborative learning arrangements extend beyond academic achievement. Montessori environments are designed to enable instruction to progress from the concrete, hands-on exploration to concept development to abstract understanding.
Primary (Kindergarten, 1st Grade)
Desert Sky’s primary curriculum covers concepts taught to children 5 – 6 years old. The concepts are based on the needs and personal interest of each individual.
Practical Life
The children are taught exercises from everyday life. These materials help the child learn to take care of themselves, so they develop independence and concentration. Examples of practical life exercise are pouring, spooning, spreading, hammering and tying shoelaces.
Sensorial
Montessori sensorial activities are those which develop and refine the five senses – tactile, visual, auditory, olfactory, and gustatory senses. These materials help children learn to express and classify their sensory experiences.
Language
Children in the Montessori primary class are taught language in a sequence of lessons. They begin by becoming aware of the different sounds in words. Then they are taught the sounds of the alphabet. They use these sounds to word build with the moveable alphabet and then to read phonetic words. They are introduced to the different rules in language, so they can then begin to spell and read fluently.
Mathematics
The children are taught to count from one to ten using concrete materials. They then will learn to add, subtract, divide and multiply with materials that help them understand what each of these operations truly means.
Culture
The culture curriculum gives our children the opportunity to explore the larger world. The children learn about the people, terrain and animals on different continents. Areas studied include geography, zoology, botany and earth science.
Lower Elementary (1st, 2nd & 3rd Grade)
At Desert Sky Montessori the lower elementary classes welcome 6-9 year-old children mixed together.
Maria Montessori explained this developmental level as: “The elementary child has reached a new level of development. Before he was interested in things: working with his hands, learning their names. Now he is interested mainly in the how and why… the problem of cause and effect”. In the lower elementary class, the teacher helps the children seek out information and provides materials to help them study the universe.
The Five Great Lessons are an important and unique part of the lower elementary Montessori curriculum. They are used to paint a broad picture before moving to more specific study. They consist of:
First Great Lesson – Coming of the Universe and the Earth which includes investigations relating to the basic physical properties of matter, the study of physics, chemistry, astronomy and geology.
Second Great Lesson – Coming of Life which includes investigations relating to the simplest forms of life through the appearance of human beings.
Third Great Lesson – Coming of Human Beings which continues the exploration of life on Earth, focusing on the development of humans from the earliest beings through the use of tools.
Fourth Great Lesson – Communication in Signs which follows the development of writing from its appearance in primitive cultures to its role in modern society.
Fifth Great Lesson – The Story of Numbers which involves the use of mathematics as an expression of the refinement of the human mind and as a response to the specific needs as well as the shared needs of human groups.
Upper Elementary (4th, 5th & 6th Grade)
The Upper Elementary class at Desert Sky Montessori includes a mix of 9-12 year-old children.
At this age, the children not only focus on the acquisition of knowledge but are inspired to think and question. There is an emphasis on research and in-depth study. The Montessori trained adult in the classroom helps integrate the teaching of subjects. In the Upper Elementary classroom, problem-based learning develops the fundamental skills that take students from the concrete learning in Lower Elementary to abstract thinking.
The Upper Elementary curriculum allows students to do in-depth research and to integrate academic knowledge and skills from across the curriculum. Math instruction uses a problem-solving approach that places emphasis on developing mathematical thinking and analysis. Language arts include literature studies, writing, and vocabulary. Individual and group research projects allow students to apply their reading and writing skills to geography, history and science.
Socialization becomes more important as children advance closer to adolescence, and the classroom and curriculum are designed to start addressing this need.
As the children’s social development takes on a more prominent role, individual values are further explored, particularly within the framework of the classroom and school communities. This exploration of self and of place is expanded beyond personal experience through their developing ability to apply abstract thought in all areas and is nurtured through the study of literature and the arts.