| Our
logo is a representation of Montessori's Five Great Lessons
and was designed by Libby Delana, a Newburyport resident.
The child, as the focus, is juggling five objects - the World
represents the Story of Creation, the Shell represents the
Coming of Life, the Hand represents the Story of Humans, the
Hieroglyphics represents the Story of Language, and the Infinity
Sign represents the Story of Numbers.
Montessori uses its Five Great Lessons as an introduction
to all topics, providing a "Big Picture" to
demonstrate how the sciences, art, history, language,
geography are interrelated. From that point, students
are introduced to increasing levels of detail and complexity
within these broad areas.
The
Story of the Creation of the Universe describes how
minerals and chemicals formed the elements; how matter transforms
to three states of solid, liquid, and gas; how particles joined
together and formed the earth; how heavier particles sank
to the earth's core and volcanoes erupted; how mountains were
formed and the atmosphere condensed into rain, creating oceans,
lakes, and rivers. From this story, students are introduced
to lessons in physics, astronomy, geology, and chemistry.
For example, they learn about light, heat, convection currents,
gravity, galaxies, planetary systems, the earth's crust, volcanoes,
erosion, climate, and physical geography.
The Coming
of Life explains how single-cell and multi-cell forms
of life became embedded in the bottom of the sea and formed
fossils. It traces the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and the Cenozoic
periods, beginning with the kingdom of trilobites and ending
with human beings. The teacher indicates on a timeline where
vertebrates began, followed by fish and plants, then amphibians,
reptiles, and birds and mammals. This lesson is the basis
for lessons in chemistry, nutrition, categories of animals
and plants, care and requirements of different animals, and
their interrelationship with an ecological system. Students
are introduced to formal scientific language of zoology, botany,
and anthropology.
The
Story of Humans introduces human beings and their
unique endowments of intellect and will. The aim is
for the children to imagine what life was like for early
humans. This lesson is the basis for lessons in prehistory
and the emergence of ancient civilizations. Students
are introduced to an analytical tool to compare cultures.
They learn how climate and topography influence culture
and political geography.
The
Story of Language describes the origin, structure,
and types of writing and speaking. It begins with a
discussion of the Egyptians, who had two kinds of symbols,
one for ideas and one for sounds. The story goes on
to describe the Phoenicians, who used the Egyptian's
sound pictures but not their idea pictures. Next, it
describes contributions of the Hebrews, Greeks, and
Romans. From this lesson, students use grammar materials,
which help them examine how language is put together,
and refine capitalization and punctuation. Students
are introduced to the study of the origin of English
words from other languages, the meanings of prefixes
and suffixes and different forms of writing such as
poetry, narrative, and plays. Older children may study
Egyptian hieroglyphics or American Indian picture writing.
The Story
of Numbers emphasizes how human beings needed a language
for their inventions to convey measurement and how things
were made. The story describes how the Sumerians and Babylonians
had a number system based on 60, which is the reason for our
60-second minute and sixty-minute hour. Greek, Roman and Chinese
numbers are introduced. The story describes how our Arabic
numerals are similar to numbers found in a cave in India from
2,000 years ago. These Indian numerals had something that
no other number system had, the zero. This story is the basis
for the children's learning of mathematics, which is integrated
into all studies. For example, large numbers are needed in
measuring time and space in astronomy; negative numbers are
needed when measuring temperature changes; and triangulation
was needed to reestablish property boundaries after the Nile
flooded ancient Egypt. |