Montessori Reading Exercises

Often, in a Montessori classroom, reading begins after a child can read the words he or she spells with the moveable alphabet.
It’s okay if your child can’t read the word he or she spells, it’s a skill that will come later. This first stage usually is not
fluent reading, but is the beginning of understanding a written symbol.
However, some kids just take off and read, while others need to go through more steps to become fluent readers.

Here is one of the first lessons for reading-

I love the use of colored word lists: pink, blue, green for different word families.
You can find many of these printouts at The Helpful Garden .  Also use the word lists from Montessorimom.com, the phonetic list and the phonogram list.

Object and Picture Boxes (Phonetic)

Material-Collection of objects or pictures that are phonetic. Label
cards on which the names of the objects or pictures are written.
Use toy or plastic figures of a dog, pig, rat, etc. for objects.
If your child needs an extra step, have them match the objects to the corresponding pictures.

1. Boxes or small drawers of a reading dresser containing pictures or objects using
the pink words or three lettered phonetic words.

2. Boxes or drawers containing the objects (or pictures) and label cards using the some
of the blue words, 4 to 5 lettered words. (hand, crab, band) Do the
blends later in step 3, such as flag, pack, rash, etc.)

3. Boxes containing objects or pictures and labels using some more difficult
blue words, such as ck, double word endings (doll, ball, pick, etc.)

Presentation-
Place 4 to 6 objects in first box with your student present. Show the
label card to your child and ask the name of the object. It’s great if
your child slowly sounds out the word. Later, encourage saying the
word more rapidly to fuse the sounds into a word. Place the card under
the object or picture. Take another label card and continue until your child
understands the lesson.

Exercise-
The child takes the boxes from easiest to more difficult and does the
exercise.

Control of Error-
The last word or words won’t match the object or picture. I don’t
stand over the children when they do the lesson, but you can observe
from afar to hear and see if the children understand the lesson.