The Montessori Universe lessons are all based on the teaching of the five Great Lessons. The Great Lessons are an amazing way to introduce students to the magic of our universe and spark their interest in learning more. They touch on the the “big questions” in life. Why are we here? What is our purpose? How did we come to be here? What is to come? The Great lessons are typically taught to the whole group of students, regardless of age or grade. They are revisited every year and re-presented. Each time the students hear the Great Lesson stories, they are hearing them in a different way, from a different perspective, at a different time in their lives. And each time they hear the stories, they get something new and interesting out of each of them. Each of the lessons is a story that gives only the basic facts of the topic, just a taste of the elements of the story to whet the appetite of the listeners and encourage them to want to question, explore, research, experiment and learn. The stories each have demonstrations or experiments that are done while the story is being presented to allow the students to see and experience certain elements of the stories as they are being told. Each of the lessons ends with just a hint of what is to come in the next Great Lesson which leaves students anticipating and hungering for the next lesson to come.
The first Great Lesson: “How the World Came to be” tells the story of how scientists believe that our universe was formed over the course of billions of years. How the stars, galaxies, solar systems, planets and our own Earth were formed. The lesson experiments give a hands-on demonstration of various laws of the universe and get students excited about the introductory lessons in the Montessori Universe curriculum.
The second Great Lesson: “The Coming of Life” tells the story of how all life began on Earth. It starts with a brief review of the first Great Lesson and tells how life started and evolved over millions of years. The lesson experiments show how life evolved and became more and more complex as time went on. It stops just before the arrival of humans. This lesson is the introduction to the Timeline of Life.
The third Great Lesson: “The Coming of Humans” tells the story of how humans came to be on our Earth and how scientists believe they evolved over time. A brief overview of how life evolved is given to start the lesson. After that we see how humans evolved and students are introduced to the Timeline of Humans. We see how early humans struggled daily just to satisfy their fundamental needs of food, shelter, clothing, and safety. We see how early human groups survived, what they ate, the tools they used, how they became hunters and gatherers, how farming began and the first glimpse into how early civilizations started to form. This lesson is the springboard for the study of ancient civilizations.
The fourth Great Lesson: “The Story of Writing” tells about the invention of writing and how that invention changed how humans communicated and how it helped to influence early human civilizations. It gives a history of oral language and how and where writing was first introduced and how it evolved as civilizations progressed and migrated worldwide. The demonstrations in this lesson show the various forms of early writing and how those evolved into modern written language and global communication. This lesson serves as the background for the Montessori Language Curriculum.
The fifth and final Great Lesson: “How Numbers Came to Be” tells of how modern numeric systems were developed and how they evolved over time to what they are today. We get a brief history of where and why number systems were invented, their various uses, the differences between early numeric systems in different places around the world. We see how those changed throughout the course of human history to meet the needs of the ever-evolving civilizations that were expanding and growing over the course of time. The Story of Writing and How Numbers Came to Be not only tell of how these important systems were developed but also about how humans continued to evolve and change throughout time to become the modern civilizations that exist on our planet today. How Numbers Came to Be is the foundation of the Montessori Math curriculum.
The Great Lessons are intended to spark the imagination and the fire for learning in young students. Each time I have taught these lessons, it never ceases to amaze me how well students respond to the stories and how they actually do “catch the fire” and desire to learn, explore, research, ask questions, seek answers, dig deeper into their own belief systems and use those Great Lessons as the springboard for further study in the Montessori curriculum and also in their own lives. If you have never had a chance to hear a Great Lesson, I encourage you to take the time to participate in one. You never know what wonders it may spark within you.