The Grammar School
The first stage of the Classical Trivium model is Grammar School. This stage roughly corresponds to elementary grades (1st-6th grades).
Children at this age have not yet developed high reasoning skills, but they do have a wonderful faculty for memorization. They are concrete thinkers and sponges for information. Consequently, memorizing the “grammar” of each of the academic disciplines is emphasized: math, (addition, subtraction, division, multiplication); language (letters, grammar rules, vocabulary); history (names, dates, places), etc.
Teaching methods in the Grammar School include hands-on work and projects, field trips and dramatizations, integration of various subjects, recitations and memorization.
Each of the full-curriculum 1st through 6th grade classes encompasses the teaching of all the core subjects of language arts, math, history, science, with the introduction of Latin in 3rd grade. The main goal of each successive grade is to teach students the basic building blocks that they will need for the logic and rhetoric years.