Montessori Moment: Language
A sandpaper letter lesson
We’ve reached possibly the most robust area of a Montessori classroom: Language! With language development being a “sensitive period” that begins at birth, it is a major part of every classroom, infant to primary to elementary. We also celebrate learning other languages through our weekly Spanish classes with Lourdes!
At CHMS that language program begins in the Toddler rooms with tons of vocabulary and practice with conversation. If you were to listen in on the Red and Yellow Door classrooms, you would hear teachers speaking to children in complete sentences giving them real names for objects around them and also modeling conversation. Children this age whose spoken language is still developing will often use physical language instead- possibly hitting or pushing when upset. In these instances teachers will help to give words to those moments like “I see you pushed ______, do you need space? You can say ‘I need space’.” Helping them name their feelings and communicate effectively is top priority! Toddler teachers also use lots of songs and poems, matching objects, and stories to help with language and eventually reading readiness,
Oral Language activities continue through the Primary classrooms with oral language games like “I Spy” which is one of the first sound games the children play as 3 year olds. The teacher will say “I spy something in the classroom that starts with the sound ‘d’, what do you see that starts with that sound?” Because the teacher uses the sound and not the letter name during this game, it becomes a beginning phonics game that is preparation for reading. The game can progress to hearing the middle and ending sounds in a word as well. Once the child is able to hear these sounds, the sandpaper letters are introduced. Through this sensory-led approach, the child connects the sound of the letter with the shape of the letter, tracing the sandpaper with their fingers.
One interesting part of the Montessori approach to language is the idea of moving from writing to reading. As the child is learning their sandpaper letters, they are also introduced to the moveable alphabet. This genius material helps the child to learn to write even before their hands are able to hold a pencil. For example, the child may begin this work by writing the names of small objects whose names have three sounds. The child looks at the cat and orally sounds out the beginning, middle, and ending sounds and then finds those sounds in the alphabet box, placing them in order on the rug. Eventually the child might write sentences, then songs, and even stories with the moveable alphabet! The words are spelled phonetically, but the focus is not on spelling, it is on hearing all of the sounds in a word.
The transition from writing to reading happens so naturally because as a child learns the sounds letters make, they naturally will begin to try to read! Phonograms like “sh” and “th” are introduced (also using sandpaper letters) and then “puzzle words”, or words you cannot sound out like “there” are memorized. It is so important to introduce these concepts at a young age, when the child is in, what Montessori calls, the sensitive period for language.
Language in our lower elementary Jade Door classroom goes even further as children learn parts of speech by diagramming sentences using specific symbols. They also each work on writing stories throughout the year that include their own illustrations.