As I mentioned in an earlier post, my family recently moved to a new house and I have had a great time setting up a classroom in the basement for my children, ages 9 and 6. Today I'd like to cover what I've done for their language studies; while this is in a home classroom, it's very similar to what I did in my school classrooms, just smaller.
If you've been following my blog for awhile, you'll know that one thing I love about Montessori is how we use small objects to enliven our materials. There are some great ways to use objects, especially in the Language area, so I had some fun today taking pictures for all of you. Hopefully you'll find a few new ideas here.
Many years ago I taught at Midwest Montessori School, the school that was run by the Midwest Montessori Teacher Training Center. Because it was a training center school, our classroom was visited by many Montessori teachers and interns. One thing I noticed was that any people who visited were very interested in the set up and layout of the materials on the shelves. It seems that no matter how long you've been doing Montessori, there's always a new way to arrange the work.
Children love to use objects when studying Pink, Blue, and Green Series words. Objects can be used for matching, rhyming, spelling, and story writing. They're so cute, kids can't keep their hands off of them!
My daughter, age 5 ½, is currently using phonetic readers. Because I like to try different things to see which works best, I’ve ended up purchasing quite a few different sets for her in addition to the ones I already had.
In Montessori, we are blessed with wonderful materials like the sandpaper letters, movable alphabet, and the Pink, Blue, and Green Series. But, it's sometimes nice to to include some games and activities to encourage a pre-reader or emergent reader.
Since many people have emailed me and asked for foreign language resources in a Montessori style, I thought I’d put together some helpful links. Keep in mind that even if the material isn’t inherently Montessori, it certainly can be used in the Montessori classroom or home. I like using a variety of materials when studying a language so that different kinds of learning styles are covered.
Today, we're going to look at some fun grammar extensions that can be done inexpensively, using the grammar materials you already have or common items from around your classroom. I like the sound of that! I've also included some recommendations for helpful story books about grammar.
In Montessori, we have many different kinds of activities to teach the parts of speech. Some may be a bit of a surprise - who would think that a farm…
Learning about grammar can be fun the Montessori way! The shapes and colors of the grammar symbols help the child to remember the different parts of speech and their meanings.…