Montessori Elementary School
Switzer Mesa Campus (Grades 1 - 6)
Who We Are
The Montessori Charter School of Flagstaff Switzer Mesa Campus is the elementary portion of our free public charter school serving children in multi-age groupings: Lower Elementary (grades 1- 3) & Upper Elementary (grades 4-6).
Our Elementary program inspires academic excellence and encourages each child’s curiosity, creativity, and imagination. Montessori elementary education is based in the understanding that children at this level are in a stage of great social, moral, and intellectual development characterized by:
- A shift from concrete to more abstract thinking
- Attention to fairness, morality, justice, compassion
- Peer and social interactions
The Montessori Elementary Model
Students continuing from our Children’s House programs will find a familiarity with opportunities for more complex learning, and students who are new to Montessori feel quickly at home. Students learn to think for themselves as they answer questions that challenge them. They conduct research, analyze what they have found, and come to conclusions based on what they discover.
Multi-Age Groupings
Multi-age classrooms continue in our elementary, giving the opportunity for older children to serve as mentors and role models to their classmates and younger children in the school while younger students can look to the example set by the older ones (and also serve as role models themselves at times!). Students are able to learn from each other, and can accelerate or take extra time as needed with particular areas at any given time.
Teachers as Guides for Independent Student Learners
Teachers serve as mentors, empowering students to have a voice. Adults are approachable, helpful, and encouraging. Elementary students develop the skills to take responsibility for their own education, learning to organize their time, make independent work choices, and participate in the classroom community, all with the support of guiding adults. Teachers monitor student progress against established expectations for students’ academic and social emotional learning.
Rich, Integrated Curriculum
The core Montessori curriculum provides instruction in all traditional subjects – reading, writing, language studies, math, history, geography, science, Spanish, music, art, physical education – in an integrated way.. Students work with specialized, hands-on materials moving from concrete to abstract thinking in an individually paced curriculum.
Development of Character
Responsibility, integrity, honesty, kindness toward others, social responsibility, and respect to all are fostered in real-life scenarios and brought to fruition through years of interaction in a loving and caring community of adults and fellow students. Students practice skills of communication, conflict resolution, and community participation & responsibility with the goal to become engaged citizens of the world.
“Going Out” Experiences
“Going Out” enriches our Montessori curriculum, and teaches students to expand their environment to the greater community and how to connect to their interests and the resources in it. These experiences provide our students with the skills to reach out and explore all that is around them.
Inclusion of 6th Grade in Upper Elementary
Our Upper Elementary 3-year age grouping intentionally includes 6th graders as the oldest students in the age-span. This allows students to complete the cycle of being the youngest, middle, and then oldest leaders within the classroom community.
Montessori education continues with our school as students are developmentally ready to enter the adolescent environment in 7th and 8th grade at our Cedar Middle School Campus.
Read more HERE about the benefits of the full 3-year cycle specifically in Upper Elementary.
Enrichment Programs
After-School Programs
To meet the needs of working parents, we offer an after-school program designed for children 1st – 6th grades.
Older children can sign up for the many special classes offered after school such as (but not limited to) drama, art classes, music lessons, athletic activities, dance, yoga, and community service projects.
After-School Programs
To meet the needs of working parents, we offer an after-school program designed for children 1st – 6th grades.
Older children can sign up for the many special classes offered after school such as (but not limited to) drama, art classes, music lessons, athletic activities, dance, yoga, and community service projects.
And so we discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being. It is not acquired by listening to words, but in virtue of experiences in which the child acts on his environment. The teacher’s task is not to talk, but to prepare and arrange . . . a special environment made for the child.
—Dr. Montessori, The Absorbent Mind
American Montessori Society
As an American Montessori Society affiliate, we are nonsectarian, family-oriented, and we build close working relationships among our students, parents, staff, and community members. In addition to our tuition-free charter school (kindergarten, elementary, and middle school), we also offer tuition-based preschool, after school, and summer programs.
The American Montessori Society’s Pathway of Continuous School Improvement is a school-quality initiative available to every AMS member school that helps schools demonstrate and articulate their commitment to quality Montessori education.
American Montessori Society
As an American Montessori Society affiliate, we are nonsectarian, family-oriented, and we build close working relationships among our students, parents, staff, and community members. In addition to our tuition-free charter school (kindergarten, elementary, and middle school), we also offer tuition-based preschool, after school, and summer programs.
The American Montessori Society’s Pathway of Continuous School Improvement is a school-quality initiative available to every AMS member school that helps schools demonstrate and articulate their commitment to quality Montessori education.