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Language in a Montessori classroomAugust 2, 2008 by Miss Norma | No comments

I love the Language area in the Montessori classroom. I love to give lessons of the sandpaper letters and the phonetic sounds. As a person whose English is a second language I have a hard time sounding out certain letters so I practice, giving lessons also helps me build confidence. The language area is such an important part of the classroom because it shows children how to communicate verbally. Children gain so much confidence as they are able to work independently with all the materials.

When children start working in the language area they first start working with objects. They work with classified objects, Object discrimination, Go-together objects, and rhyming objects. The reason why they first begin working with objects is because we want to first build their vocabulary and confidence. The children really enjoy working with these materials. I think it is because they actually have something physical to hold and work with.

Once children show readiness to work with the sandpaper letters they start to learn their phonetic sounds. Once they recognize the sounds they get to work with the sandpaper letters and objects. Believe it or not, children learn to read quickly.

For preparation for handwriting in a Montessori Language environment we have the sand tray, chalkboards and metal insets. I just wanted to touch on this for now and will be going into more detail in a further post.