2021/2022 School Year Outline Montessori 3-6 + Tot School

I have reflected on the last school year, fleshed our language sequence for early reading & writing, planned for the next six weeks in detail, outlined what materials we will need for the year, and now I am zooming back out again and looking at our outline for the entire year. I have basically done this for the next two years with our tracking tool, but I still find it helpful to write it out in a more traditional outline form as well. Plus I think it is helpful for our digital homeschool portfolio.

Our 18 month old is officially in “tot school” work and will have her own outline included below. Our 18 month old participates (sometimes) in circle time and she often chooses to sit on my lap during sister’s presentations. She does not have free reign of sister’s materials and we will put away some of the early sensorial materials soon (as long as big sis is finished with them) to keep them fresh for when she hits the stage of readiness for them.

Our daily rhythm has changed a little but remains quite similar to last summer when I put together our yearly outline for last school year.

Our Daily Rhythm

• Wake + Milkies (for the Tot) + Morning Routine (Breakfast, supplements, brush teeth, get dressed)
• Morning Work Cycle
• Lunch
• Quiet Time (Quiet play, work, or games)/Afternoon Work Cycle OR
• Afternoon activity outside of the home
• Dinner
• Evening Routine

Quick note: the outline below is just a picture of where we are likely to go and what I currently plan to cover. In Montessori, we follow the child. This is a balance of introducing new concepts, progressing through the general scope and sequence, and following the child on deep dives of interest as they pop up. In David Gettman’s book, “Basic Montessori”, he shares seven stages that the child goes through (generally speaking) in the 3-6 classroom. According to this we are wrapping up stage 3 this summer and beginning stage 4 in the fall. I have this on a separate tab in my digital tracking tool to quickly look at our progress. This tracks initial presentations, not mastery.

General Outline

Practical Life

Practical life remains a part of the Montessori 3-6 classroom throughout all 3 years and will have a place on our shelves this year BUT most of it is off the shelf work for us. With our oldest, we are focused on continuing to build hand strength for writing, mastering the most difficult dressing frames, and working through the pre-sowing and early sowing progression as well as giving another layer of independence in the kitchen. We will continue through the knife progression and cooking in the kitchen together.

Year 2 Montessori 3-6

• Apple Slicer
• Mini hand crank paper shredder
• Simple Braiding of Rope or Yarn
• Laying a Table for a Meal
• Polishing
• Cleaning Glass
• Advanced Braiding
• Plaiting Hair
• Tying a Tie
• Ironing
• Responsibility for certain daily care of environment duties; helping and advising younger ones in the group (Once firmly in period four work/fall-ish?)
• Pre-sowing Work
• Early Sowing Work
• Themed fine motor work

Tot School

• Posting Work (finishing imbucare box series; we are on triangle now)
• Puzzle progression (3 circles puzzle the on to three different shapes, chunky shapes, and knobbed puzzles)
• Watering plants
• Dressing & undressing self
• Toilet learning (cont.)
• Hand washing (review)
• Blow Nose (review/earn access to tissues)
• Brushing Teeth (continue to model)
• Dressing Frame – Velcro and zipper
• Gross Motor Movement indoors and out
• Gross Motor Movement New: balancing and swinging
• Latches
• Lock & key large
• Nuts & bolts large
• Discs on serpentine dowel (reintroduce)
• Sweeping (model again)
• Mopping (introduce wet)
• Dusting
• Flower Arranging

Grace and Courtesy

These lesson have been such a blessing. Our oldest daughter loves them and even our youngest joins in from time to time.

Year 2 Montessori 3-6

• Talking on the Phone (Regular and Video)
• Yawning
• Interrupting/The Waiting Hand (Continued focus LOL!)
• Offering Help
• Acts of Service
• Asking questions in a classroom
• Including friends or new people in play

Tot School

Can participate in group lesson or practice whenever interested.

Sensorial

The Montessori sensorial curriculum is a little different than what most people are reaching for when you think of sensory experiences for littles. In Montessori, you isolate one quality and explore that. You wouldn’t be exploring colors and shapes at the same time with a material. The Montessori Sensorial Curriculum was created to lay a solid foundation for future language and mathematic work. The more I learn about these materials, the more I love them!

Year 2 Montessori 3-6

• Advanced Cylinder Blocks Exercises
• Binomial Cube
• Later Geometric Solids Presentation
• Sorting Grains
• Sound Boxes
• Hand Bells (instead of the Montessori Bells)
• Three Stage Lesson on Names of Sensorial Qualities
• Geometric Cabinet Exercises 5-8
• Constructive Triangles
• Square of Pythagoras
• Trinomial Cube
• Geometric Cabinet Exercises 9&10
• Visual Work with Blindfold
• Bells Exercises 1-3?
• Tasting Cups
• Smelling Boxes (we’ve done this work already once so we may not repeat)
• Advanced bell work?

Tot School

The toddler is already exploring their world sensorially and can work with some of the early materials of the 3-6 classroom. That doesn’t mean it’s the best time for them to use them. If they have not demonstrated readiness for the 3-6 materials, its not time to give them the knobbed cylinders for example. The sensorial work itself is more than being able to take them a part and put them back together (and that is a post in and of itself!). Most children are ready to dive into 3-6 Sensorial materials between 2.5&3.5. For this reason, we do not do the 3-6 materials (or toddler versions of the materials- at all!) until our child is 100% ready.

That said, we will be exploring different tastes, smells, sounds, colors, and textures before our tot is in her 3-6 materials. I need to flesh this out a bit more. I will add to this later once I have.

Language

In order to really lean in and prepare for the upcoming language sequence, I did a deep dive into the application of the Montessori Method in the English Language. Ultimately I decided to follow Dwyer’s pamphlet and to supplement later on with Waseca’s Reading Program. To read my thought process on why we chose this, check out this post.

I do think we will likely be past stage 4 (it seems a stage lasts about a quarter or so for most children) language and into stage five by the end of the school year. You can’t know ahead of time how quickly a child will progress through the language sequence but I am planning to prep for “Total Reading” in the AMI Language Scope and Sequence for mid first quarter of 2022 at the earliest (Starting with Dictation in the list below). There is no wrong way to progress. The point is progression at the child’s pace. It is although helpful to be prepared as a guide to prep ahead of where the child is.

For our tot, we are focused on language acquisition and reading together. There is a language explosion around age two. We will lean into this when it comes. Talking, naming, reading, playing… this defines the language exploration of a toddler. I’m excited to have fun with it and build on it intentionally.

Year 2 Montessori 3-6

• Stage 4-6 of Sound Games
• Sandpaper Letters (Single and Double)
• Metal Insets
• Moveable Alphabet
• Chalkboard/Writing Individual Letters
• Letter Families
• Object Box
• Sandpaper Capitals
• Activity Words
• First Set of Puzzle Words
• Readers
• Letter names (ABC song)
• Reading Folders +Booklets
• Second Set of Puzzle Words
• Waseca Reading Program
• Phonogram Dictionary
• Dictation
• The Functions Games
• Word Study
• Reading Analysis
• Matching and Writing Capitals
• Articles
• Adjectives
• Conjunctions
• Prepositions
• Verbs
• Grammar Farm/Grammar Mats/Doll House Grammar

Tot School

• Vocabulary Objects
• Vocabulary around home, outside, in public
• Read Aloud
• Object to object matching
• Object to picture matching

Mathematics

This year in the 3-6 Classroom, we are diving into the traditional Montessori math materials. Prior to this, math has been quite organic and the foundation for it has been laid through the sensorial materials. I am prepping for the materials needed for period four to be ready this fall after the early language work is prepped..

Year 2 Montessori 3-6

• Number Rods Exercises
• Sandpaper Numbers
• Spindles
• Concept of Zero
• Cards and Counters
• Memory Play
• Intro to Golden Beads
• Large and Small Number Cards
• Full Golden Beads
• Stamp Game
• Dot Game
• Color Bead Stairs
• Teen & Tens Boards
• Bead Cabinet
• Snake Game

Tot School

Under the age of four, Math is very organic. It’s very much a part of our world in a tangible way. There is no rush to “learn our numbers” for we are already experiencing quantity. Instead of teaching abstract numbers, lean into organic math opportunities such as counting one’s steps, bringing Momma two apples, nothing there are three sparrows on the tree, etc.

Cultural

Cultural is a broad subcategory of Language in Montessori 3-6. Since it encompasses so much, I have given Cultural it’s own category. The cultural category includes: art, dance, music, Geography, History, Science (Physical, Biology, Zoology, Botany), Peace Curriculum, Spanish, and in our home Bible.

Art

Year 2 Montessori 3-6

• Free access to Materials
• How to Videos or demonstrations as requested for drawing or painting
• Classical Art Exploration (Mostly tied into thematic units)
• Art Journaling
• Nature Journaling
• Exploring the Theatre (new… still planning out what this looks like for us)

Tot School

• Dot Marker Tray
• Watercolor Tray
• Playdough Tray
• Sticker Tray
• Coloring Tray (Rock Crayons DIY for Pincer grasp)

Music and Dance

• Exploring Genres
• Exploring Instruments
• Hand Bells
• Piano (Keyndergarten)
• Free Dance
• Dance Lessons (Tap and Ballet)

Geography

• Cosmic Nesting Boxes Lesson
• Land/Air/water
• Sandpaper Globe
• Landforms
• Continent Globe
• From Globe to Flat Map Lesson
• *Our Planet Collage (p 79)
• Orientation to Four Directions
• North America Unit
• Antarctica Unit
• South America Unit

History

• Fundamental Needs of Humans (following first humans lesson in science section) (158-159 Waseca)
• Months of the Year
• Days of the Week (Continued Focus)
• Timelines (Continued)
• Clock (Maybe)

Science

• Butterflies Unit
• Bugs Unit
• Life Cycle of Bean Plant
• Sunflower Unit
• Ocean Mini Unit
• Parts of a Biome/Introduction to Biomes
• Parts of Biome Jars
• States of Matter
• Sun lesson & DIY Reader
• Season Mat
• “All Energy comes from the Sun” Story (Waseca Curriculum)
• Air Cycle Ballet (Waseca Lesson)
• Soil, Air, and Water Parts of a Biome Readers (DIY?)
• How Much Fresh Water Lesson (Waseca) (94)
• Water flows downhill lesson Waseca (96)
• Dirt Lessons (9 Waseca)
• Winter Unit
• Monarch Butterfly Unit (maybe)
• Flowering vs. Non Flowering Sorting (spring)
• Parts of Flower (review; spring)
• Seed Hunt (spring)
• Leaf Cabinet (spring)
• Parts of Leaf (spring)
• Parts of a Tree (Review; spring)
• Vertebrate or Invertebrate
• Five Classes of Vertebrates (chordates; fish, amphibian, reptile, bird, and mammal; 145)
• Parts of Vertebrates (Chordates; 146)
• Herbivore, Carnivore or Omnivore (148)
• How people are the Same and Different from Animals (154)
• Life Cycle of Male and Female
• My body unit

Foreign Languages

We might try incorporating Spanish again with our preschooler but she wasn’t too interested this past year. We might just incorporate it alongside of sign language periodically. We also might tie in Hebrew and Greek when she expresses interest. Her father is studying those at this time and she enjoys that occasionally. I would love to incorporate French. In Montessori 3-6 I am not pushing a second language beyond her interest so we may just explore a bit.

There it is! Our outline for the next school year (that is technically already underway!) Do you have your yearly planning done yet for your homeschool?

Love this? Other Montessori Homeschool Planning Posts that Might be of Interest:

1. Bullet Journaling for Montessori Homeschool
2. Six Week Detailed Lesson Outline Montessori Homeschool Preschool (Montessori 3-6)
3. Our Language Sequence for Early Writing and Reading
4. Planning for Year Two of the 3-6 Montessori Classroom at Home – Materials List
5. Phonetic Readers for Beginning Readers – Our Curated List
6. Montessori Homeschool Record Keeping
7. 2020-2021 Year In Review