Recently several folk have asked what a typical day in an Elementary Montessori classroom looks like. Here is what was typical when I taught – and matches pretty well with other classrooms I’ve observed. I would love to hear about your experiences.
Often the day begins with a greeter shaking hands with those who enter the room.
8:00 – begin the day by choosing letter or number work; often finding a friend with whom to sit.
9:00 – wait for a friend to finish her work so you may do number/letter work together.
9:45 – maybe asked to leave your rug in 10 minutes for lesson.
9:55 – come to a small group lesson on geometry or grammar or geology
10:20 – have snack
10:30 – begin work on a project
11:00 – come to lunch circle – This often is managerial – special events, celebration of life, class meeting, etc.
11:15 – go to lunch
11:45 – clean-up lunch room (care of the environment)
12:00 – go to recess My personal enjoyment is a recess with no games or toys. The children learn how to use what is in nature to create items like swords (gasp) when we were reading Romeo and Juilet or baskets woven from vines.
12:30 – come in for silent reading – half hour of reading no budging
1:00 – begin afternoon work or project
2:15 – do class job (care of the environment)
2:30 – come to end of day circle This often involves quizzing as the children come to circle as their class job is complete – ability appropriate words, math, or countries and expands to several chapters of an adventure based book.
2:55 – go to car loop
The Inclusive Atrium 