Reading in the Montessori classroom is developed through phonics. This multi-sensory approach is unique in that it has children building words (encoding) before actually reading them (decoding). Developmentally appropriate activities allow children to build their own understanding of how sounds are represented by symbols, and these symbols are joined together to form words.
Students begin phonics work by learning to identify the beginning sound of a word through games such as I Spy. Simultaneously, they work on learning the symbols that represent sounds with the sandpaper letters. When several sounds and symbols can be recognized, students work on sound sorting activities by pairing objects with the appropriate beginning letter.
When children have learned the phonetic sounds, they are ready to begin word building with the moveable alphabet. They begin by building to two or three letter phonetic words (those in which all the letters make their most common sound, like dog, pig, ram, bat, etc.). In order to allow the children to work independently, they are given small phonetic objects which represent the words they are to build. Later, pictures of phonetic words can be introduced for variety and additional practice in word building.
After the child has mastered two and three letter word building, he or she can begin matching reading cards with the objects. Reading activities such as Phonetic Flip books are introduced so children can practice 3 letter phonetic reading focusing on a single vowel (‘a’ words), then move onto further reading activities such as the Ha-Ha Game (cards with 3 letter phonetic words using all 5 vowels) early Bob Books. As children master phonetic reading, sight words, silent ‘e’ words and consonant digraphs (th, ch, sh, etc.) and vowel digraphs (oa, ue, ie, ai, etc.) are introduced leading to more advanced reading skills.
Here is a link with further information on phonics and why they are helpful in the reading process.
Here are some photos of our students in different levels of reading practices.
The weather is getting a bit cooler, especially in the morning. Please make sure your child has a light jacket for the Outdoor Classroom. This area is still in the shade of the school during the P1 students’ time and it can be quite chilly! Please make sure jackets are labeled with your child’s name.
Thank you for all your continued support and, as always, please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.
Ms. Melissa, Ms. Diana and Ms. Kini