Cosmic class (6 to 12 years old)
Our classes
“The child who is born does not enter into a natural environment : he enters the civilization where human life develops . It is an atmosphere created on the fringes of nature , in the fever of facilitating the life of man and his adaptation ."
From the age of 6 , the child develops his own intellectual thought. In order to feed its new
needs, Maria Montessori creates: “Cosmic Education”. This “universal” education
projects the child into the history of his planet, his society, his country, writing,
figures of animals and plants surrounding it. Thus, he becomes aware of this
vulnerable wealth that is life and its role in protecting it as a citizen of the World. More generally, cosmic education seeks to give the child a global perspective before going into detail.
The child from 6 to 12 years old has a strong sense of justice and builds little by little
a moral conscience necessary for a social and community life. The child of this age
can show compassion and empathy, is attentive to the needs of others, especially the youngest and the weakest. He develops a particular interest in “heroes”.
He wants to be able to differentiate the “good” from the “bad” by his own means, to know what is acceptable or not. He questions and develops his moral judgment and his own ideas. For this, justice must be seen and heard. The class is a miniature society which organizes itself and works out its rules of life.
It is also the age when the imagination develops, which allows understanding and access to what is not visible and cannot be perceived directly with the senses. It is the creative faculty which allows the child the passage to the abstraction. The child from 6 to 12 years old is curious, interested in everything. He wants to understand everything, the world, the universe, there are no limits… It's a time for acquiring culture, an extremely receptive period for learning. Children are interested in the relationships between the elements and the Montessori pedagogy offers them a complete, coherent and unified vision of the world.
The child from 6 to 12 years old constantly asks: why? How? 'Or' What ? when ? His reasoning mind needs to be exercised in a broader environment at the intellectual level (cosmic education) and physical level (the classroom and the outside world).
The environment prepare
The child of 6-12 years is built as a member of a society and seeks the company of his peers more than of adults. The children want to stay together, look for each other, talk constantly, share their knowledge, experiences, discoveries. They need to work and act in groups to develop socially. The opinion of a friend is sometimes more important than that of the adult and the child can be very affected by relationships with others. This is the period of great friendships. For this reason, lessons are taught in small groups. This responds to the interests of the children, who are then more dynamic. The elaboration of knowledge takes place in the discussion, the exchange, the argumentation.
The class is a miniature society that elaborates its laws and its rituals. Prepared by the adult in such a way as to encourage work in small groups, the organization of classroom life must help the child to exercise his freedom. The elementary school child has the freedom to choose his work and can work spontaneously and “passionately” for long stretches of uninterrupted time. But this freedom goes hand in hand with responsibility. Both help the child to move towards more independence.
The Montessori material present in the class responds to the child's interest and cultivates his
curious and searching mind. It also helps the child to memorize, develops his mind of
reasoning and abstraction skills.
the Montessori program
Maria Montessori sought to capture the imagination of children aged 6 to 12.
It is therefore the story of the universe that launches all the work of the elementary school. The goal
essential is to arouse the child's curiosity, interest and wonder. The teacher
only gives children a starting point and arouses the desire to know more, which will lead to other questions and research. The Montessori program revolves around the five major lessons given at the beginning of each year: the creation of the earth, the life of plants and animals, human life, language, mathematics and science. Each year, new students gather for these five lessons. Older children can attend the lesson if they wish, experiencing each story differently each year based on their maturity and growing understanding. The educator constructs each “lesson” using stories, music, diagrams and visuals, experiments and games. These five “great stories” will each time open up a new field: Geography, History, Biology, Geology, Ecology, Mathematics, French, Literature. The educator ensures that each child covers all the points of the program. Depending on the number of children and educators, a school may offer a “6-12” group or two groups 6-9 and 9-12.
Bilingual course
The bilingual Cosmic class of the International Montessori School welcomes children from
6 to 11 years old from Monday to Friday and offers the Cosmic+ program on Wednesday mornings.
Following a bilingual curriculum in both French and English, the Cosmic class operates on a specific timetable in terms of language and subjects.
covered:
Children work in French grammar, literature, Mathematics,
Geography, Music, Theatre, Plastic Arts and Sport with teachers
French. (2 days)
They practice in English the English language and its literature, grammar, Geometry,
History, Biology, Geology with an English-speaking teacher. (2 days)
Trips to the museum, to the library, to a dairy farm or to a miller are
primordial in order to project the cosmic child into the real world.
He prepares his outing with the group and the teacher and sets research objectives to then lead to a presentation or a presentation to the youngest.
The Cosmic Child invests as much in the organization of his class, in the projects and outings in progress as in reading or in a presentation. He is responsible for many tasks related to the daily life of the school which make him a driving force and allow him to take initiatives. He feels confident and active towards his community.
At the end of the course, students will be able to join a bilingual college or follow the course
Anglophone or Francophone.