Within the flexible arrival window, children arrive at the Primaria 2 classrooms (grades 4-6) between 7:45 and 8:30 am and can start straight into free work, which lasts until 11:45 am. During free work, the child continues working on topics they began the day before. Throughout the day, the educators call small groups of children to the presentation tables for lessons in various learning areas. After a presentation, children also have free choice regarding the follow-up activity, which they help decide themselves and which is meant to draw them into further inquiry. Some children come on their own initiative, some seek help in implementing their idea, and others look for exchange about the results of their research. It is the educators' task to support, observe, and document the children during this process.
In the mixed-age classes, children form new cooperative partnerships with one another every day, experience their own social competence, and thereby develop their independence. Some children switch between subject areas several times during the morning, while others work on a longer piece of work. There is ongoing consultation with the educators; planning and reflection take place regularly. Individual feedback conversations are held with each child several times per semester.
The classrooms are fully equipped with Montessori materials, which are continually adapted. There is a dedicated, age-appropriate library. Further means of gathering information are the so-called "Going-Out" or "Coming-In," which the children are meant to organize themselves. The children's research activity as well as their information gathering (book/experts/internet) are supported step by step and age-appropriately by the educators. The children present their research findings in small or large groups.
Several times a week, the group splits into two smaller units, which are devoted to craft work, art, singing, intensive research work, developing portfolios, or philosophizing. Throughout the year, there are recurring individual days set aside for museum trips, sports (ice skating or swimming), hiking days, or a forest day once a month.
The children take on duties that are essential to the community's everyday life. Through activities such as caring for plants, checking tidiness, dusting, disposing of trash, preparing salad, and much more, the children develop a sense of responsibility for the community.
Before lunch (12:30 pm), the students of Primaria 2 spend a break in the school garden. The children use this break according to their individual needs. Mostly, there's a lot of movement in a larger group (soccer, badminton, volleyball, basketball), playing or chatting together in small groups, tending to the biotope or the animals, or simply sitting quietly reading a book or drawing.
One afternoon per week, the children have physical education, which takes place outdoors during the warmer months and otherwise in the Happyland gym. On the other days, they devote themselves to a second free-work session, during which there are times set aside for quiet reading and working. Before the afternoons end at 3:00 pm, there are child presentations, community duties, and, two to three times a week, a class meeting. The class meeting is designed and led by the children themselves, and during it, the children's problems and wishes are discussed and resolved.
On Fridays, the school day ends at 12:00 pm.
