Language pervades all other
areas of the classroom. Take
advantage of every opportunity to name things for the new child. Have a wealth of pictures and objects that can be handled,
sorted, named and talked about. Tell
short stories about the decorative objects in the classroom, asking the child to
handle them and make observations about them upon which you expand for your
stories. Use technical terms
whenever possible, not baby talk. Reading
books to the class and showing a love of books is instrumental in developing
language skills. Be aware of the
child to child language experiences within the classroom and encourage children
to com-municate to each other in working out problems or teaching an activity.
The absorbent mind of the young child takes in impressions, concepts, and
attitudes without filtering anything out. When
a child hears something she does not understand she often makes associations
that result in misconceptions. This
is why mass media can bombard the unsheltered mind.
Listening skills must be developed. Sound games are extremely important in ear training. Ring a bell in different areas of the room and at different height levels for the child to hear with eyes closed and point to where she thinks the sound is coming from. Intro-duce familiar and, later, unfamiliar sounds for the child to practice identifying with eyes closed. Sing-ing, story telling, and group time all give opportun-ities for the child to practice listening. Fingerplays and games like "Simon Says," "Mother May I?," "Jack in the Box," etc., combine listening with movement which facilitates learning for the young child.
A child's listening vocabulary is much more extensive than his speaking
vocabu-lary. A child needs help to
sort out and discriminate what he hears so he can organize it and file this data
for future use. Many opportunities
to translate his listening language into everyday speech must be given.
Listening to children also offers the means to correct misconceptions.
Read longer stories with chapters to the kindergarten-aged children.
As much as possible encourage young children to talk, sharing their
experiences, their imaginative stories, or giving a description of their current
work. The less structured times of
the day, like lunch or playground time, offer golden opportunities to solicit
conversations. Show and Tell, the
Me Box, or shar-ing times encourage children to describe a treasured object or
tell a story to the group, if it is handled responsibly.
Visual exercises develop the
child's ability to recognize a pattern. Discerning
similarities and fol-lowing a sequence are fundamental reading skills.
Activities such as bead stringing, matching, arranging pictures in
sequential order, replicating a pattern in a series and midline crossing work
with paints and chalkboard are important practice for the child as she develops
skills for reading and writing. All
activities should be shown by working left to right and top to bottom (the
direction we read in), and children should be encouraged to duplicate that
structure.
Nomenclature is naming. Verbal
nomenclature of unfamiliar objects begins with the three period lesson.
The Montessori classroom should be filled with objects and pictures the
child can name. At the begin-ning
of the year, have groups of familiar objects and pictures available for children
to handle and talk about; things like animals (wild or domestic), fruits and
vegetables, things around a house, automobiles, flowers, etc.
Many different subgroups can be expan-ded from these initial collections
as the year goes on.
A child must have a lot of ear training in differentiating letter sounds,
at least at the beginnings of words, before he is ready to learn the symbol of
those sounds through tactile letters. When
quite a bit of nomenclature has taken place, start isolating beginning sounds of
pictures and objects, then ask the child to identify beginning sounds that are
the same.
When the child has no difficulty categorizing pic-tures and objects by
their beginning sounds, it is time to introduce him to tactile letters.
Lots of practice with the tactile letters can be encouraged by
cate-gorizing objects and pictures with them.
Once a child can identify five to eight letters by their sound, the
tactile letters can be blended into words.
By the time twelve to fifteen letters are known, the child can begin work
with the moveable alphabet.
There are many exercises with the moveable alphabet, all of them leading
up to a child writing a story independently.
Beginning with laying out the sounds of three letter phonetic words, the
child even-tually moves on to forming phrases and sentences about those objects.
Once she is comfortable forming sentences, she is encouraged to write
about her own experiences or about pictures from books.
Sound work should not end, even when all children are using tactile
letters or movable alphabet. Incorporate it as much as possible into the daily
routines of the class, isolating sounds at the end or in the middle of words
when children are quite comfortable with beginning sound isolations.
As the child develops reading and writing skills
beyond three letter phonetic words, she should practice the new spelling rules
she learns, like silent "e", phonograms, consonant blends, etc. with
the moveable alphabet. Form six to
ten words using the new rule by isolating it with letters colored differently
from the rest of the word.
Before a child can hold a pencil correctly he should only be given chalk,
markers, or crayons to write and draw with.
Several types of lap top sized chalkboards should be available, blank,
lined, and gridded, as well as trays of chalk and erasers.
Rather than beginning on paper, the chalkboard offers a larger, firmer
writing surface where mistakes can be erased more easily.
Once a child has demonstrated the finger strength and dexterity to hold a
pencil correctly, usually around age four, metal insets should be introduced.
The purpose of metal insets is to refine the motor skills used in
writing, such as lightness of touch and flexibility.
The child is usually forming three letter phonetic words with the moveable
alphabet by the time he is ready for metal insets.
Once he has reasonable pencil control, he can write the words and
sentences he forms with the moveable alphabet on paper to take home.
Kindergarten age children are often able to keep journals, making entries
of their moveable alphabet work every day.
When the child has begun sounding out and forming three letter phonetic
words with the movable alphabet, she is ready to practice reading three letter
phonetic words. Starting with large
letter flash cards, she can move to books as soon as she is reading smoothly
without having to sound out the letters every time.
Developmental books in a series, like the "Books by Bob," help
her to progress smoothly and tackle one new spelling rule at a time.
In addition to metal inset
work, the kindergartner should do handwriting practice several times a week to
refine his skills in forming letters and numbers.