Grades 1 – 4
Lower Elementary
Between six and twelve a child’s mind changes character. Imagination and reason take over from absorption, and the questions get very big. Montessori elementary answers them with the whole universe, then works inward.
Grades 1 through 4, roughly 6 to 10 years
What happens here
The reasoning years. Children stop asking what something is and start asking why, and the curriculum is built to meet exactly that.
The Great Lessons frame everything
The origin of the universe, the coming of life, the story of writing and of numbers. Each is told as a story, and each opens onto years of follow-up research the children choose themselves.
Research, not worksheets
Children pursue questions in small groups, out to the library and the city and back again, and present what they find. Written output is real work, not busywork.
Mathematics goes abstract
Long multiplication and division, fractions, decimals, squaring and cubing, and the beginnings of algebra — each introduced with material first, then released into abstraction.
A registered private school
Our elementary programme runs under Ministry of Education BSID No. 886754, so the years here are recognised elementary schooling.
Curriculum areas
What is on the shelves
- Language
- Grammar, sentence analysis, composition, literature study, research writing and presentation.
- Mathematics
- Long operations, fractions, decimals, squaring, cubing, measurement, early algebra.
- Geometry
- Congruence and similarity, area and volume, the theorem of Pythagoras with materials.
- History & Geography
- Timelines of life, early humans, civilisations, physical and political geography, economic geography.
- Science
- Botany, zoology, chemistry and physics through experiment, classification and observation.
Also at Discovering Minds
The rest of the school
Casa Preschool
The first year in a Montessori classroom. Children learn to move carefully, concentrate deeply, and take part in a community larger than their family.
3.8 – 6 yearsJunior & Senior Kindergarten
The years the earlier work pays off. Children move from sounding out words to reading fluently, and from counting to four-digit arithmetic.
28 months – Grade 4Summer Program
We do not close in July and August. The classroom stays open, the pace slackens, and a great deal more of the day happens outdoors.
Be first through the door
We are moving to one new downtown location for the 2026-27 school year. Call us or send a note now and you will be among the first families offered a tour when the doors open.