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In the Lower School classroom, the child is given as much freedom as they can manage and as much structure as they require. The Montessori uninterrupted 3-hour morning work cycle is critical to the success of this dynamic learning environment. A sunny, 2400 square foot room with space for floor work as well as table work, soft music, and busy minds is intriguing to all who visit.

Music, drama, visual arts, and organic gardens add to the rich, math and language intensive academic curriculum. 

In the classroom, students work individually or in small groups, at tables or on mats on the floor. Natural lighting, soft colors, and uncluttered spaces set the stage for activity that is focused and calm. Learning materials are arranged on accessible shelves according to curricular area, fostering independence as students go about their work. There is a place for everything and everything is in its place; conveying a sense of harmony and order that both comforts and inspires. Outdoor learning is a large part of the Lower School experience. Students spend much of their time in the gardens, on our natural playground, and exploring the woods on our 14 acre property. At this age the children are responsible for feeding the chickens and guinea hens and caring for our large in-class tortoise named Yoda. They often hike on the trails and utilize our outdoor classroom where they engage in activities like plant and animal identification, shelter building, and of course, free play. Students also study the forest to look for changes over time, connecting them to their environment and building both love and respect for the natural world.

Lower School is a "low-tech" classroom where there is one desktop computer that students may use, under full supervision, to learn typing and how to conduct online research. There are no games or "free-range" computer time allowed.

Lower School at Counterpane is a collective community. Students are curious, focused and they take joy in their work. They invent, explore, experiment, confer, create, prepare snacks, read books, play instruments, paint and care for our animals. 

Expectations are both exquisitely clear and engagingly open-ended.

 

The 6 to 12-year-old moves, in their own time, from concrete to abstraction and satisfies an inherent interest in life's "big picture" through work with:

• Botany

• Zoology

• Geology

• Fine Arts

• Physical and Cultural Geography

• Mathematics

• Language Arts

 

Lower School students wear a uniform of our school shirt and khaki bottoms half the year and navy, light blue, or white polo shirts with khaki bottoms during the colder months.

Shirts can be purchased in our shop.

Lower School is from 8:00am-3:00pm five days a week

and we follow a quarterly calendar which can be seen here.