Montessori Love of Math and Language IV

While the classes will be structured around academic topics, these classes will also provide the children with social opportunities. The teacher will invite all of the children, individually, to successfully participate and share their understanding. This will be a very fun and interactive continuation to those just returning to their school careers, both academically and socially. 

There is no previous experience necessary, but it is highly suggested that the children attend the "Montessori Love of Math and Language III" class before continuing on with this course. Children will need to have a basic understanding of letter sounds, diagraphs, and the family of numbers. This is an inclusive class where the teacher encourages English second language learners, differently abled, and neurodiverse children to participate in this class as well. Through inclusion and fun shared experiences we will build a richer and more joyful classroom. 

Each day we will interact with Montessori materials, books, songs, and games to solidify our understanding of math and language. The children will continue counting, manipulating materials, and writing that encourages their interaction and solidify their understanding in concrete experiences to builds a strong foundation for future abstract concepts of math. This class furthers the manipulation of Montessori materials to explore concepts of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division and leading to abstraction. This class will also touch on fractions, word problems, and touch on geometry. 

We will focus on reading independently. The class will focus on manipulating new vocabulary and using it in appropriate context. This includes inviting the children to listen to share their verbal language, as well as inviting exciting opportunities for the learners to use their written language. 

Reading can often be a stressful experience for children. Through building a foundation of letter comprehension and vocabulary the children are ready to begin composing their own writing. This class will build confidence with composition. The teacher will provide material for the children to use at home and continue the things they learned in class at their own pace.  Through structured activities, the children will become active writers and solidify their command of the English language. By the conclusion of the course, each child will have begun developing a strong hand for writing and confidence with recording their thoughts on paper. 

We will also begin manipulating numbers in a more abstract fashion. As the children have been introduced to addition and multiplication using beads, we will move into using more abstract materials. We will also continue exploring subtraction and division using beads. Once the children have mastered the concepts, we will move into exclusively using abstract materials and recording our problems. 

A broad overview of the curriculum, which is flexible based on the needs of the child, are as follows:

We will begin each day with a greeting, review any lessons needed, introduce a new lesson, sing a song/read a book/play a game solidifying new concepts, introduce the other new lesson, and finish our class checking in with each student (this provides a moment for assessment and solidification of concept understanding). We will create an in depth explorations of authors, genres, or writing techniques each week. 

Week one we will establish introductions and a routine for the class, we will review material from the previous classes and catch up anyone new to this course. We will also introduce new sight words each week. 
Week two we will review the previous week, and the children will begin using the Montessori finger boards to lead to abstract math. We written composition first through illustration and then the children will add written words to accompany their illustrations. 
Week three we will introduce subtraction and division using concrete materials, and the children will continue composing and writing their own stories. 
Week four we will continue subtraction, division, and leading toward abstract math. We will also continue working with composing our own stories and reading independently. 
Week five we will introduce the finger boards for subtraction and division. The children will continue to expand their word with the written word and writing for themselves. 
Week six we will begin the memorization work involved in math. The children will continue to expand their word with the written word and writing for themselves.