Curriculum for Senior Elementary (French Immersion)

The Senior Elementary curriculum offers an open-ended and integrated approach to learning.  The curriculum is designed to lead the students to abstract work and exploration beyond the walls of the classroom.  The Montessori curriculum helps students to develop critical thinking, problem solving, and social skills, which are qualities needed throughout life. 

Our French immersion environment is one in which the French language is learned naturally by the students.

Language: 

The Montessori Language curriculum is designed to enhance the students’ skills in reading, spelling, comprehension, writing, creative writing, grammar, sentence analysis, literature, poetry, and verbal communication.  Students also study word families, word origins, and their meanings.  Handwriting skills are reinforced through practice, journaling and class work.  Children are also exposed to a variety of literature and poetry.  The study of literature allows the children to discover the elements of style and how it may be incorporated into their own writing.   Language is integrated into all aspects of the curriculum through written comprehension materials and oral presentations.

Mathematics:

The students refine their understanding of mathematical concepts through the use of hands-on materials while moving further into abstract thinking.  The curriculum covers an integration of math facts, arithmetic, graphs, fractions, proportions, word problems, rounding, averaging, statistics, algebra, and geometry.

Cultural Studies: 

History, Geography, Biology, Botany, Zoology, and Science are all inter–related in a Montessori curriculum, and they are not introduced as separate subject areas in the classroom.  The ultimate goal is to inspire an appreciation of the mechanisms of life, and to develop a feeling of responsibility for the environment.

History:

In History, the children learn about prehistory, archeology, ancient civilizations, history through art, World history and Canadian history.

Geography:

Children learn about physical, political, cultural and economic geography. Students learn about the earth’s atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere.  They study continents and major regions of the Earth, and explore maps and mapping.

Students also look at how humans interact with the environment to satisfy their basic needs, and they study different cultural celebrations.

Biology:

Children learn about cell structure, physiology, internal anatomy, classification, and adaptation.

Botany and Microscopic Study:

Students study plants, their structure, classification and role, as well as cells and how they work together to perform special functions.

Zoology:

Children explore further the animal kingdom classification, physiology, nomenclature of the external and internal parts of vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as functions and characteristics of different types of animals.  Children investigate animal routines and how they are designed for survival.

Astronomy and Ecology:

The students learn about the solar systems, ecosystems, and biodiversity.

Matter and Energy:

Children explore the nature of matter and energy, elementary chemistry and physics. 

Technology:

The students learn about basic machines, their history and applications.

Science and Experiments:

Through the Science curriculum, the children have the opportunity to do many experiments, and learn about many fascinating topics.  

The Arts:

The Arts curriculum encompasses the following: Visual Art, Music and Drama.  The curriculum is designed to develop and enhance art appreciation, creativity, expression and communication.  

Music: 

The Music curriculum covers the basic elements of music by exploring melody, rhythm, beat, tempo, etc.  Children are given an appreciation for a wide range of types of music and instruments.  Students also have the opportunity to use the Montessori tone bars.

Drama: 

In Drama, students learn the necessary skills needed to convey thoughts and feelings to an audience.  The drama program helps teamwork while integrating reading, writing, memorizing and public speaking skills.  In the spring, the children put together a drama production.

Visual Art: 

The children are exposed to various media, techniques and styles of art.  They also learn about famous artists and how their work has influenced our culture.

Physical Education and Health Sciences: 

In a non–competitive atmosphere, the children participate in physical activities, games and sports.

The activities are designed to promote physical fitness, develop motor skills, and encourage students to work as part of a team.  Students also learn about food, food handling, nutrition and the diverse factors that contribute to health.

Going-out: 
Off-site excursions occur throughout the year and are organized by the students themselves.  These excursions are extensions of studies our students are pursuing in the classroom.  They allow children to apply their skills and to continue their learning and growth outside the class.

Social skills:

Children at this age have an emerging social consciousness.  In the elementary classroom, great emphasis is given on helping students take responsibility for their own conduct in relationships as well as in caring for the school environment.  The classroom provides opportunities for group meetings to discuss conflict resolution techniques, express feelings, develop solutions, create class rules, and learn to respect other. Students make a positive contribution to the larger community by helping our community locally, nationally and internationally throughout the year.