DGS Lower Elementary

Heidi Kelly
Oct 9
6 min read

Our little hive is buzzing with activity. September quickly morphed into October, and as always, time is flying by. The children have settled into a routine, and our new students are internalizing the work cycle. Our community is "gelling".

It's no accident that the materials and works you see the children using week in and week out are the same or similar. Our curriculum is a spiral, and children master concepts through repetition. New difficulties are added onto old, mastered concepts. We extend and expand on what the child already knows. Many materials are familiar from primary, and continue to be expanded upon through Upper Elementary. Younger children work with older or more experienced friends. Mastered concepts are solidified through teaching someone else.

The 100 Board is a beloved and familiar material for students rising from Primary. Familiar materials help the younger children feel at home, capable, and confident in their new environent.

Working on the money wheel. This material ties familiar Montessori materials to the new concept of coins, value, and equivalency.

Older students continue to revisit the addition strip board. Repetition creates mastery and eventual abstraction.

Stamp Game can be used for all four operations. These children are working on subtraction.

Completed "computations" are read to the teacher, who confirms correct answers with a calculator. Students make corrections as needed.

Golden Beads are familiar to first graders. Recording numerals is a skill they are building on.

These students have paused a larger number addition computation (place value) to quiz each other on memorization of math facts.

Some 3rd graders reviewing the Checkerboard for large number multiplication.

The snake game is another familiar material from Primary. In lower elementary, they learn to create a 10 addend math problem with beads, record it, solve it with the material, and then check their answer with a teacher for accuracy.

Creating amounts using different combinations of coins. Notice the already familiar Montessori math beads are used to reinforce coin value.

Third graders quiz each week on their math facts with the goal of memorizing as many as possible before moving on to upper elementary.

After completing ten addition math facts using the addition strip board, this first grader is using a control chart to check her own work.

Golden Beads can be used for all of the operations and help children visualize place value throughout their primary and lower elementary years. This student is working on some dynamic subtraction with 4 digit numbers.

Stamp game is as versatile as the Golden beads, but add a layer of abstraction. Place value is now denoted only by color and position. A "1" stamp and a "1000" stamp are the same size, but the child has worked enough with the more concrete materials to understand that they are not the same.

Once the division board is conquered, the child moves on to long division with the racks and tubes materials.

Fractions circles make fractions a concrete and understandable concept. These children are working on finding equivalencies.

These students are refreshing their knowledge of subtraction with the stamp game. When we don't practice something for a while, it's only natural that we need to revisit.

The Decanomial layout is a concrete representation of 1x1 through 10 x 10!

Once children complete the bead layout, they can match the math fact to its concrete representation!

Learning to tell time on an analog clock is a foundational skill

Practice makes progress!

The lower elementary Montessori environment is language rich. Labels are everywhere. Children work both independently, with peers, and through direct instruction in small groups. The teacher is able to target instruction to match the students needs and abilities. Peer learning is always a staple, as is repetition.

These students are working on building vocabulary at the same time they practice essential strategies for decoding multisyllabic words.

Older students gain confidence helping younger friends

Alphabetical order is an essential skill for use of research materials

Games make learning fun. These students are playing "bingo" by matching words with pictures.

Learning the cursive alphabet using the alphabet roll

A first grader tackling variable vowel sounds!

Independent work helps the child build organizational skills in addition to whatever concept is being focused on. This student is matching lower case cursive letters with their uppercase counterparts.

Using guide words is key to mastering the dictionary! This child completed her work and is now using a resource to check that she is correct.

SRA's (some of you may be familiar) allow the children to practice their reading comprehension skills independently. They also require a great deal of self-organization, and reinforce the importance of reading the directions! Students check their own answers for accuracy when their work is complete.

Variable vowels spelling practice! There are lots of different ways (letter combinations) to represent a "long a" sound

These first graders are learning about "antonyms" !

Montessori grammar work is so much fun. Each part of speech is represented by a different color and symbol. These students are working on interjections, but because the work builds on itself, this work includes all the other parts of speech as well. Though they don't realize it, they are also learning about proper syntax, punctuation, and capitalization.

Sudents learning about how set up and complete an SRA

Learning about Homophones using the dictionary and a Montessori material.

More grammar work... articles and nouns.

One of the ways the children find to "extend" a work or add a level of challenge is exemplified here. These 2 so loved their work with analogies that they created their own!

A first grader using the syllasearch work to create mulitsyllable words.

More cursive lower and upper case letter matching

The Interjections work is getting a lot of use.

Enjoying the use a beautiful Montessori material just for the joy of it, even though he's mastered the skill.

The art, science, and history portions of our curriculum are termed "Cultural" works. Much of the work is driven from research on topics of interest. Students pair with a partner to gather, record, and rewrite information. Once this is finished, they practice reciting, and finally, they may choose to make a "model" to represent the topic of their research. Research is ongoing over a period of days or weeks. We've had two pairs of partners who began a research the year before, complete in the following year. We always finish what we start!