Schedule in my Lower Elementary Montessori Class
I have heard from many Montessorians that it takes seven years to settle into your Montessori classroom. I think this is due to the fact that there are so many aspects that go into the Montessori classroom–especially when you are teaching three age levels. It is a big feat and the first few years can feel daunting.
I never knew if I believed the “seven year rule” but now that this is my seventh year teaching (8th year working in a Montessori school), I kind of believe it. I have settled into a routine pretty nicely. It took many, many tries and years of different things to try to get a classroom into some sort of organization. There are the fundamentals to Montessori, but many teachers teach in different ways.
I tried so many different work plans my first year of teaching. You can read about my work plan journey here, but I have finally used one for the past few years that I really enjoyed. I created it myself and you can access it here.
I mention my work plan, because the work plan is the true schedule to my day. It helps the students to know what to do next and it still leaves it open to be individualized for each student. Another things that helps guide my daily schedule are the maps that I have created so that I can keep track with the students of what they have learned and what they are learning next. This does not keep track of the hours and make students learn certain subjects at certain times (one of the beauties of Montessori).
If you are looking for a time play by play, here is the schedule I try to stick to as a guide:
8:30-11:30: Morning Work Cycle
8:30: students arrive
9:00: Cultural Group
9:00-11:00: Work time/Math/Language Presentations
11:00: Picture Book Read Aloud
11:30-12:00: Lunch
12:00-12:30: Recess
12:30-12:45: Chapter book Read Aloud
12:45-2:30: Work time
2:30-3:00: Reading Work/Silent Reading
3:00-3:30: Recess
3:30: Dismissal
We also have music, art, gym, cooking, chess, and Spanish as specials throughout the week.
I am the teacher for Chess and Spanish. (See how I teach Spanish to my Lower Elementary students here).
For math and language presentations, I present the topics by following the maps I have created or in grade level or small groups. I try to have students complete one work each week from each of these topics:
Math:
Numeration
Time/Money/Measurement (alternating weeks)
Geometry
Graphs/Word Problems/Extra Concepts(alternating weeks)
Language:
Word Study
Grammar
Writing
Reading Groups (we do reading work at the end of every day, but typically once a week I will do a reading group with each student to count as a language work, but they will also do their “regular” reading work at the end of the day (which I use FlyLeaf Publishing).
For Cultural group, I do one whole group Monday through Thursday:
Monday: History
Tuesday: Zoology/Botany (alternating weeks)
Wednesday: Geography
Thursday: Science
Friday: Make up cultural or pick your own cultural work
Here is a video about my classroom schedule: