TIMELINEOF LIFE Montessori said, “Let us give the child a vision of the whole universe…for all things are part of the universe, and are connected with each other to form one whole unity.” In Montessori education, every lesson has a purpose and builds on the next lesson. Therefore, it is logical in the elementary classroom to begin cultural studies with the beginning of time, or the creation of the universe. The first "Great Lesson" is the Creation Story, which demonstrates the birth of our planet through various impressionistic experiments. Children gain an appreciation for the Earth being almost 5 billion years old, and an understanding of how long humans have been a part of that history. It is proven that studying the etymological meanings of words helps strengthen word recognition concepts. Therefore, when children are studying the eras, they learn that Paleo means “old” and zoic means “life,” therefore connecting the difficult nomenclature of the word Paleozoic with a simple meaning; old life.	The Timeline of Life is the second “Great Lesson,” depicting the evolution of life on Earth. It includes everything from extinct animals, such as the Stegosaurus, to the Eohippus, which evolved into the modern horse. Children will walk away from this lesson talking to parents about ancient creatures such as trilobites, giant cockroaches or sea scorpions. Children learn the eras when they are studying the creation of the universe, but now will learn the periods. The timeline is a visual aide that helps explain why some animals did not survive (i.e. massive climate changes such as ice ages or volcanoes). The aim of this lesson is to go from the broad, or 5 billion years, towards the specific. This greatly differs from traditional teaching methods, which start with many pasts and work their way towards a larger picture in early high school with studies of the Big Bang Theory. The Montessori approach of starting with the whole picture and working towards specifics allows children to gain perspective. The elementary child is naturally egocentric, but through these types of impressionistic lessons, the child can appreciate their humble place in the universe.	DOCTOR’S VISIT Dr. Derek Ochiai visited The Boyd School Reston Campus in January for a hands-on presentation on muscles and bones. Students learned interesting facts about the human body,
A Montessori Moment During our discussions on Martin Luther King Jr. and studying his life, I took the oppurtunity to put special emphasis on how Dr. King had to perpare himself by way of educating himself and working hard through his studies so that he could stand up for what he believed. When we finally finished the end of our discussion with Dr. King;s I Have A Dream speech, a Kindergartener, Elise Bush, raiser her hand and was questioning the story in an attempt to to it make sense to her in her terms. After all her questioning she summed it all up in a very simple but to the point way, she said,"So the dream is half and you do the rest to make your dream some true." My intern and I just looked at each other and were completely blown away by the words that had come out of our student. It took us a moment to gather ourselves. I look back at Elise's words and believe that her words are words to live by. By Primary Directress - Diana Plascencia Herndon Campus		observed a review of a human body x-ray and participated in a casting demonstration. Dr. Ochiai explained to the students how the body heals itself with the proper care, rest and diet. Dr. Ochiai is a local orthopedic surgeon and has visited the children at the Reston Campus for the past three years. page 5 --->