Lower Elementary (Grades 1 -3)

East Cooper Montessori Charter School offers 7 Lower Elementary environments.  Each classroom has an approximate 1:12 educator/student ratio.  As a public charter school. Each lead teacher is South Carolina certified, as well as Montessori trained in the area which they teach.  In addition, ECMCS also provides inclusive Gifted & Talented Programming.  Therefore, each lead teacher is Gifted & Talented Endorsed by the State of South Carolina Board of Education. 

Lower Elementary students are at an exciting time in their education, growing into avid geographers, expressive writers, developing readers, budding mathematicians. The Lower Elementary Program stresses basic skills in arithmetic and language, but children are encouraged to use these tools to extend and enrich their learning, and to explore subjects of their own interest at greater depth. Concrete materials are used to teach math and grammar, while other materials are drawn from real life to teach about geography, world cultures, science, and human experience.

At this age, children seek greater social and intellectual independence. Within this developmental shift, students build on physical and academic skills developed during their Primary years. They develop personal strategies for learning, continue making choices, and begin to find the passions that will carry them into adulthood. They seek opportunities to work in groups with both older and younger students, and embrace larger projects that require more integration of learning.

As children become more independent and responsible, their style of learning shifts from fact absorption to questioning and reasoning. They become curious about the origins of life and the structure of the earth. We respond to and encourage this curiosity by including geology, biology, botany, zoology, geography, and history in our Lower Elementary curriculum.