Montessori Science Curriculum

Science from ages 3 to 6

Dr. Montessori passed a deep love for the world of nature on to thousands of students through a program of outdoor education, gardening, and camping experiences. We see this as the foundation of a lifelong interest in the sciences.

We want our students to be fascinated by the universe and to honestly enjoy the process of discovering its secrets and interrelationships. We want them to observe, analyze, measure, classify, experiment, and predict – and to do so with a sense of eager curiosity and wonder.

Science is an integral element of our curriculum. Among other things, it represents a way of life: a clear thinking approach to gathering information and problem solving.

Our program is designed to cultivate our students’ curiosity and determination to discover the truth for themselves. We teach them how scientists go about their work. They learn how to observe patiently, analyze, and work at each problem.

With encouragement and a solid foundation, even very young children are ready and anxious to investigate their world, to wonder at the interdependence of living things, to explore the ways in which the physical universe works, and to project how it all may have come to be.

The scope of our science curriculum includes an introduction to botany, zoology, and physical science.

Scope and Sequence Ages 3 through 6

• Differentiation between living and non-living things. (Ages 3-4).
• Differentiation between animals and plants; basic characteristics (Ages 3-5).
• Observation of animals in nature.
• First puzzles representing the biological parts of flowers, root systems, and trees, along with the anatomical features of common animals. These are first used by very young children and puzzles, then as a means to learn the vocabulary, then are related to photos and/or the “real thing,” then traced onto paper, and finally with labels as a reading experience.
• Nomenclature Cards.
• Botany: identifying, naming, and labeling the parts of plants, trees, leaves, roots, and flowers.
• Zoology: identifying, naming, and labeling the external parts of human beings, insects, fish, birds, and other animals.
• Introduction of the families of the animal kingdom, and identification and classification of animals into the broad families. Introduction to the basic characteristics, life-styles, habitats, and means of caring for young of each family in the animal kingdom (Ages 5-7)
• Introduction to ecology: habitat, food chain, adaptation to environment and climate, predator-prey relationships, camouflage, and other body adaptations of common animals.