Cypress Tree Upper Elementary Guide, Blanca Bird shares how the mind plays an important part in her classroom. Enjoy her classroom highlight below!

“Upper Elementary, Cypress Tree students, are rapidly moving from the childlike concrete mind to the adolescent abstract mind. There is personal joy in using Montessori materials to understand a new concept and then leaping into practice with only paper and pencil. For example, the Checkerboard presents three and four-digit multiplication into the millions using concrete bead bars and the color-coded board. Working repeatedly with the materials allows the children to visually understand and practice the ideas in multiplication. The materials prepare students to move forward into abstraction. Our Montessori environment supports learning minds as they grow.”

-Blanca Bird, Cypress Tree Upper Elementary Guide