Curriculum

West Seattle Montessori’s lower elementary curriculum creates a love for learning and sets a foundation for upper elementary and beyond:

Language Arts

• Read with expression and develop silent reading skills
• Learn capitalization and punctuation
• Improve printing, and develop cursive writing
• Dictionary skills
• Understand parts of speech and grammar usage
• Recognition and usage of: consonant blends, Phonetic blends, short and long vowels, prefixes and suffixes
• Write simple reports and creative stories
• Use initiative to share books through varied activities
• Develop consciousness of correct spelling and spacing
• Develop desirable reading habits and attitudes and varied reading interests.
• Sentence patterns and analysis, singular and plural, contractions, homonyms, synonyms, antonyms, compound words, writing creatively.
• Learn keyboarding skills for word processing on computers.

Mathematics

• Recognition of numerals up to 1,000.
• Measurement of length (Metric system).
• Use of money.
• Symbol of Zero.
• Understands greater than/less than symbols.
• Odd and even numbers.
• Understands Calendar weeks, and months.
• Tells time.
• Addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division tables.
• Understands place value.
• Reads and writes 4-digit numbers
• Can analyze and solve written story problems.
• Knows that a number has different names.
• Knows units of liquid and linear measure.
• Understands fractions.
• Understands geometry concepts.

Geography/History

• Elementary understandings concerning the composition of the earth and earth forming process (e.g. rock formation, soil action of water and wind).
• Study of the basic concepts concerning the universe (e.g. earth, sun, planets, stars).
• Study of atmosphere (e.g. weather, seasons, climate).
• Study of the physical and political geography of the continents and countries of the world and their cultures.
• Understanding of the ages of the world from Prehistoric to Modern time.

Art

• Stimulate the awareness of the world around him/her.
• Encourage growth of confidence and skill in the use of various art mediums.
• Development of creativity in thinking and doing.
• Use the elements of line, art, shape, order, form, space and texture, of experiencing feeling, ideas and experiences.
• Enjoy art activities.
• Encourage group cooperation and personal responsibility in use of materials.

Science

• Emphasize the development of scientific aspects of the child’s immediate environment.
• Begin the development of scientific methods of thinking (e.g. defining problems, stating hypothesis, drawing conclusions).
• Opportunity for the development of understanding concerning living and non-living things.
• Provide the development of plant life (e.g. trees, flowers, fruit, vegetable, seeds, bulbs, roots).
• Provide the development of understanding wild and domestic animal life (e.g. pets, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, mammals).
• Provide the development of the human body (e.g. growth, diet, health, disease, exercise, nutrition, and dental health).
• Introduce the child to the physical sciences (e.g. magnetism, light, sound, gravity, chemical, and physical changes, experiments.

Psychological Skills

• Development in length of attention and interest span.
• Development in interest and in tolerance for use of detail and precision.
• Development in self-understanding.
• Development in ability to give and take in workable group situations.
• Development of understanding of needs, wishes, and feelings, of playmates and peers.
• Development of acceptable value system, share, take turns, be kind and thoughtful to others.
• To develop self-discipline.