Enrichment of Vocabulary

Letter to picture. Activity shown in NEMTEC.

This activity assists us in getting to know the child, his/er vocabulary, thoughts and if the child remembers his/er phonetic sounds. We will show each picture to the child and  have a conversation about what a child thinks of the picture, if she remembers seeing it somewhere and so on.
Here, we have pictures of different animals but you can choose your kind of theme, it can be objects in the house, birds, picture of the nature or random pictures, whatever you can find. Make sure you have pictures for each letter from a-z. We have added wooden cloth pins to each letter.

For example - We take a picture of a tiger. We ask a child, "What is this?"; "Have you seen it somewhere?"; "What does this animal eat?"; "Do you see the black stripes on his body?" Most of the time a child may know about a tiger. If a child is new to an object then introduce it by giving examples from daily life or related to the object. Then, you try to connect the letter to the picture and say, "This is t t t tiger. Lets pick a cloth pin for this picture ! See every cloth pin has a letter on it. Which letter does the tiger begins with ?" Let the child find the cloth pin for the picture. Child pins the cloth pin. Use the same process with other letters. Try to keep the order of letters based on the concrete to abstract thinking or say easy to hard, for example -

a, m, t, s, c
e, n, j, p, v,
i, f, w , l, k
o, h, d 
u, g, b, r, q
x, y, z

Children of all the ages love to do this activity. 

Sounds - Spirits of the Alphabets

The following is a list of letters and the phonetic sounds made by each, as represented in a phonetic word. Sounds, not names, should be taught very early in the Montessori classroom.

A as in ant said as 'ah' with your mouth stretch as if you were smiling.
B "   " bat    "   "  'b-ah'
C "   " cat    "   "  'c-ah'
D "   " dog    "   "  'd-ah'
E "   " red    "   "  'aeh'
F "   " fun    "   "  'ph'
G "   " gas    "   "  'gh'
H "   " hat    "   "  'hh'
I "   " it     "   "  'eh'
J "   " jump   "   "  'jh'
K "   " kiss   "   "  'kh'
L "   " lost   "   "  'el'
M "   " mud    "   "  'mm'
N "   " nest   "   "  'n'; it is not 'na', as I have seen lots of teachers presenting this way, yes, one has to remember the region as every country has it's way of speaking sounds. Still, I strongly think teaching correctly is very important. So, I say 'n' with the tip of my tongue touching the roof of the mouth right behind the teeth, let it stay there and make a sound 'n'. I do not leave my tongue until the sound 'n' is made, then close your mouth.
O "   " ox   said as  'oh'
P "   " pot    "   "  'p-ah'
Q "   " queen  "   "  'k' ; stretch your mouth as if you were smiling.
R "   " run    "   "  'rr'
S "   " sat    "   "  'ss'
T "   " top    "   "  't-h'
U "   " up     "   "  'uh'
V "   " van    "   "  'v-ah' ; stretch your mouth.
W "   " wet    "   "  'vh'; half mouth opened.
X "   " x-ray  "   "  'ks'
Y "   " yes    "   "  'y-ah'
Z "   " zip    "   "  'zz'

Now, I'd like to say that every child comes from a different family, with parents from different regions. Accent generally does not come from the way you learn the sound but the way you hear a complete sentence/word. There are parents with concerns for a child forgetting his/er regional accent or language. And, I always tell them that it's the environment that effects the accent not what or how the child is learning a sound. What I am trying to say is that one should not impose on a child to speak one way or the other. Let the child feel comfortable with his/er language. Create a happy and loving environment for a child and you see how quickly a child grows academically, physically and emotionally. Follow the child, observe him/er and then give directions with appropriate methods of learning.

All these sounds are presented with the Three Period Lesson, one by one. DO NOT rush to teach the sounds. Let the child have fun while learning. Check the lesson plan of presenting the sounds in my blog Language learning is FUN !

Have fun with sounds !

Sorry for adding this video last minute. It is a great song for children to learn letter sounds ! Enjoy !

Tracing

Tracing is one of my favorite activity for the beginners, say 2-3.5 yrs old children. It involves lots of fun while learning to hold a pencil, control over writing, improve hand and eye co-ordination, independence, concentration, order, drawing a straight line, forming letters in future and creating a work log. Tracing is also a part of fine motor activity curriculum.

Lots of children love to take their work home, and it's nice to give them some paper work once a while, to show off. Tracing activities fulfill all the purpose. Some classrooms have the privilege to use the tracing table as shown in the picture, while others use laminated pictures into cards and clip the tracing sheets over, that's fun too. Whatever works for you !

I, most of the time suggest tracing activity to a child who has concentration difficulties and cannot sit at one spot for more than a minute. Tracing, as I mentioned above helps in developing concentration which is also fun to do. So, it helps an active child to devote his/er energy in creating an object that s/he dreamed of, later, take home to show parents and family. It encourages the child to direct his/er mind towards creativity and learning new forms of objects, lines and printing letters. Most importantly, for all the children, it helps them to learn to write from left to right.

For a quite child too, I love this activity because it helps him/er to communicate, co-ordinate, concentrate and work with other children. They do tracing activities and then show their creativity to their friends in the classroom. It builds their confidence, helps to socialize and work together.

To help you,  you can print printable sheets from : http://www.lilbunnyhops.com and http://www.kidzone.ws/

Enjoy !

Language learning is FUN !!!!

I was so fascinated by the Montessori curriculum of the Language area, in fact, ALL the areas. As I mentioned before that we have 6 areas in the classroom - Practical Life, Sensorial, Math, Language, Geography and Art. We can add History, Science and a Peace Corner depending on the size of the classroom and the teacher.

Anyways, so there would not be one day that I had not wished, to be a Montessori child. It is the best thing that the child can have. Everything starts from L-R and we write from left to right. Everything is about motion, action, logical reasoning and having fun while learning. Who wouldn't love to play with sand ?! AND, learn to write at the same time ! The activity below is something that I love to do with children ( starts around 3 yrs - depending on the child ), when it's time to introduce sounds and letters.

Sand box.

It's a box that contains some sand. The sand here is non-toxic and safe for children to work with. You can buy it from - http://safesand.stores.yahoo.net/index.html. Or, from a nearby art store, just check if it is safe for children (most of the time sand available in the stores is safe).

 

So, what I do here is, look at the child and draw his attention. The important thing here is you need to sit at the child's dominant hand side. For example- if a child writes with his left hand then sit on his left hand side and vice-verse. The reasoning behind this is that the 2 of you should look at the activity with the same perspective. Remember, the child is always watching you. So, you draw his attention, gently with your 2 fingers, trace the letter 'a' and say,"This is 'ah'(twice)." Shake the sand and perform the same step again. Offer the child to do the same. They are waiting to do this !

Let him work on this for a while and then say "Show me 'ah'(twice)." Child will trace 'a' on the sand :) Yayy !! I am usually very happy at this point. But it is still too soon, maybe ?! At this step, I kind off play with him little bit more. I would ask him to show me the letter 'a' turning the sides of the box, or I will make up a story where he would have to show me to write 'a'. The reason why I do this is that I want to make sure the child associates with the sound I am saying, recognizes it and then can trace it on the sand correctly. Most of the children take a while to recognize and associate with sounds and trace it correctly. It may take days, while with other children it may be faster. See, every child is unique and learns with his capability. And that is why you help him to repeat this activity until he is confident. It's a process and a way to bond with the child. It is fun :)

Once he surely knows and can associate with the sound 'a', and has repeated the first 2 steps again and again, then, you trace the letter on the sand, and say "What is this?" he says, "ah." Now I am happy for sure and say to him, "Look ! you have learned your first letter :)" The child is also delighted and happy with his hard work and achievement. He may want to learn more sounds. And, there you go. Follow the steps-

1. Name the letter.

2. Associate and recognition.

3. Recall.

We also, call these 3 steps - the three period lesson :)