Language Lessons

Spoken Language
• Conversations at a picture
• Tongue twisters
• Poetry
• Songs
• True stories
• Books
o Read aloud
o Wordless books
o Parts of a book
o Types of books
• The question game
• Enrichment of vocabulary
o Body parts
o Objects & furnishings
o Vocabulary cards
o Sorting cards
o Matching objects
o Matching cards
o Sorting & matching
• Listen & Do
o Furnishings & surroundings
o Names of the exercises
o Objects within exercises
o Classifications (e.g., brushes)
o Entire exercise
o Double commands
• Spoken classifications
o Groups of things
o Related nouns
o Compound words
o Plurals
o Contractions
o Word families
o Antonyms
o Synonyms
• Sound games
o Presentation: Beginning sounds on child’s person
o Level 1: Beginning sounds
o Level 2: Beginning & ending sounds
o Level 3: Beginning, ending, & middle sounds
o Level 4: All sounds (segmenting)

©Maitri Learning, 2021. May not be duplicated or distributed without explicit written permission.
Writing
• Sandpaper letters
o Pink & blue
o Pink, blue, & green
o Knock knock
o Trace the table/air
o Sorting
o Connections
o Blindfolded trace
o Link to environment
o Remedial 1: Sand tray
o Remedial 2: Small group
o Remedial 3: Cued distance displays
o Remedial 4: Mystery bag with letters
• Movable alphabet
o Using the card alphabet box
o Writing ideas
o Using the cut-out alphabet
o Writing ideas with the cut-out alphabet
o Aligning letters on lines
o Remedial: Dictation, objects, or photos
• Metal insets
o Outline & thick fill
o Outline & fine fill
o Two insets
o Three insets
o One inset two ways
o One inset three ways
o Free design
o Graded shading
• The recording process
o Blank board
o Draw the baseline
o Baseline board
o Draw the waistline
o Baseline and waistline board
o Paper with folded lines
o Paper with drawn lines
o Lined paper
o Transcription
o Remedial: Writing letters/numbers

©Maitri Learning, 2021. May not be duplicated or distributed without explicit written permission.
 • Phonogram alphabets
o Making words from the phonogram object box
o Vowel-based phonogram exploration
o Consonant-based phonogram exploration
o Phonogram booklets
o Repeated phonogram sentences
o Find in a book
o Phonogram lists
o Word study cards
o Word study charts

Reading
• Phonetic reading
o Phonetic object box: handwritten slips
o Phonetic object box: prepared slips
o Phonetic 3-part reading cards
o Phonetic word cards
o Phonetic activity cards
• Phonogram reading
o Phonogram object box: handwritten slips
o Phonogram object box: prepared slips
o Phonogram 3-part cards
o Phonogram lists
• Puzzle words
o Extensions
• Reading classification: Words
o Labelling the body
o Labelling the environment
o Printed labels
o 3-Part cards
• Little Books
• Phonogram folders
o Reading one folder
o Reading the booklets from many folders
o Sound dictionary
o Sorting the cards from two folders
o Sorting the cards from more folders
o The test
o The test challenge
o Dictation

©Maitri Learning, 2021. May not be duplicated or distributed without explicit written permission.
 • Word study
o Compound words
o Related nouns (with control chart)
o Antonyms
o Synonyms
o Contractions
o Homonyms
o Word study charts
• Reading classification: Further Definition
o Stage 1
o Stage 2
o Stage 3

Function of words
• The article
o Prepared slips
• The adjective
o What kind of thing
o Prepared slips
o Vocabulary
• Logical adjective game
o Matching
o Adjective chain
• Detective adjective game
o Prepared slips
• The conjunction
o Prepared slips
• The preposition
o Prepared slips
• The verb: Introduction
o Give me the action
o Prepared slips
o Charades
• The adverb
o Show me HOW to do the action
o Prepared slips
• Logical adverb
o Matching
o Adverb chain
• Aspects of the verb
o Transitive & Intransitive
o Syntax (verb changing to noun)
o Mental activity
o Extension 1: Present and past tense
o Extension 2: Action and object

©Maitri Learning, 2021. May not be duplicated or distributed without explicit written permission.
 • Continuation of commands
o Two actions
o Two actions and one object
o Two actions and two objects
o Two actions and two objects (one pronoun)

©Maitri Learning, 2021. May not be duplicated or distributed without explicit written permission.
Reading analysis
• Simple sentences: First stage
o Two actions/one subject
o Two actions/two subjects
o One action/one object
o One action/two objects
o Two actions/two objects
o Two actions/two objects (one pronoun)
o The comma
• Simple sentences: Second stage
o Subject, verb, direct object
o First reading analysis chart
o Indirect object
• Simple sentences with extensions, attributions, & appositions
o Extensions
o Second reading analysis chart
o Attributes
o Appositives

©Maitri Learning, 2021. May not be duplicated or distributed without explicit written permission.
Language Introduction

Introduction

This book is a manual to assist adults in their work with the young child. The lessons included
herein assume that the trained adult already has foundational experience offering practical life
lessons. The Practical Life Manual is a prerequisite for this one. For example, the
lessons in this manual do not include the details of all the steps in every lesson yet those must be
followed.

All lessons must include the following steps:

Beginning the lesson:
1. Invite the child to work with you. Say something like, “I would love to give you a lesson.
Are you free?”
2. Go together to the work. Touch the work and name it.
3. If this is a new type of material, say, “This is how we carry it.” Model how you lift and
carry it and return it to the shelf. Then, let the child carry it.
4. Say, “You may take this to any table you like.” (If a rug is needed, say, “We’ll need a rug
for this work. You can put it wherever you like.”)
5. Follow the child to the work area and sit on their dominant side.
6. Say, “I’ll have a turn and then you can have a turn.”
7. Present the mode of activity.
8. Give the child a turn.
Completing the lesson:
1. Fade and observe, offering to take a turn if re-presentation is needed.
2. Encourage repetition.
3. When they are finished, go back to the shelf together to return the materials.
4. Free them to repeat. Say, “You can work on this [name the activity] anytime it is
available.”
The activities included herein are suggestions of what may be appropriate for children in North
American, English speaking early childhood environments (ages 3 to 6+). But, language activities
must and can be adapted to match any language. For example, we order the materials on our
shelves in sequence from left-to-right because that is the pattern of reading English. In Arabic
speaking Montessori schools, the shelves should be ordered from right-to-left. So, we must
customize our prepared environment to match the complexities of the child’s language.
However, unlike culture, language is slow to change. It does evolve, but most of the lessons
presented here have been effectively used for decades with little change. In all languages, the
general progression of language exercises is the same:
1. Spoken language
2. Writing
3. Reading
4. Function of words
5. Reading analysis

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Language Introduction

This manual is not meant to replace a formal teacher education program. Neither can it
substitute for the support and guidance offered by a community of trained Montessori educators.
Do not sell yourself short and rely exclusively on this manual for your work with the young child.
Your preparation will be inadequate.

The rationale (theory) for why the activities are offered in the sequence and manner presented
here is inseparable from the activities themselves. If you are trying to understand why something
is or is not working for a particular child, look to the theory and then back up and look at their
foundational preparation in practical life and spoken language activities. All future work flows
from there.

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