The Montessori cultural, science, and history curriculum is founded on The Five Great Lessons, which were created by Montessori to spark the child's imagination while being presented with big concepts regarding how the world has become what it is today. These stories are told with great drama and visual demonstrations and lead to further studies and investigation in the curriculum. The First Great Lesson is the story of how the universe began. I have found this to be a "touchy subject," as everyone has a different idea about how the world came to be--whether it was made by a creator or an explosion or any of the other ideas science has brought to the table. Before giving this lesson, the children and I discuss how our beliefs are the same or different, and I explain that I am going to tell one story about how the world perhaps began. They are all quite satisfied with hearing another story, may it be different from their own.
Here is what the storytelling rug looked like before the students returned from music class:
When the students arrived, the room was dark and celestial music was the backdrop to the story. There are a few different versions of the story, and my training center has one that takes about 25 minutes to tell, pausing for the various demonstrations.
Demonstrations from left to right: a great explosion, the light of the first stars, how stars group together to form galaxies, the solar system
Continued: the comparative sizes of the sun and earth, the density of liquids, volcanic eruptions, solids/liquids/gases
The lesson was a great success and a wonderful experience for all of us. I've never had so much "ooo-ing and ahhh-ing" or seen so many interested faces.
Hope you enjoyed a little peek into our First Great Lesson. :)
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