In Montessori education, writing is the springboard of literacy, which will naturally lead to reading. This is due to children developing and refining their skills through concrete experiences. Writing is a productive skill in language acquisition that requires some specific preparation of the hands, through the use of the materials, and the mind, through the use of some intentional strategies. The Montessori language curriculum encompasses several preparatory phonological awareness exercises to pave the foundations for a successful literacy experience. These include games that help with distinguishing phonemes (sounds of a language), beginning, medial, and ending sounds, rhyming words, onsets-rimes, etc.
In a previous post, we shared how children prepare for writing. This post aims to continue demonstrating how language Montessori materials can be utilized to guide children through their learning journey. The following descriptions of writing materials are presented in chronological order with additional variations added.
Materials
Sandpaper Letters are a staple material in a Montessori classroom. They can be introduced to children in the first year of the primary level. Preliminary exercises such as “I spy” or other games are used to help children with phonological awareness (hearing different sounds within words.) At first, the material is strictly used to get children acclimated to tracing letters. There is no emphasis on sounds and symbols association yet, which is a phonemic exercise. Children develop muscle memory by repeating motor tasks and tracing the letters. Later, sounds are associated with letters using tracing and small objects.
The Metal Insets and Frames have been developed by Dr. Montessori to educate the immature hand to follow straight lines, curvy lines, and angles, just as we would do when forming letters. They are introduced to children around age 4 who are fascinated by the multitude of designs that they can generate using the metals insets. They are first invited to create special designs using the pink frames. Later, they use the blue insets to trace and overlap more designs, which require more dexterity.
Our Pre-Writing Linear Patterns Board will make an excellent addition to the Metal Insets. Children’s hands are guided through a series of continuously repeated patterns that provide practicing with movements encountered when forming letters. Moving from left to right, children get familiar with tracing loops, which are ideal for cursive letters. Circles can be mastered around age 3+. The second pattern provides practice with waves going from left to right, top to bottom, children must keep steady with the smooth flow of the waves. The third pattern requires children to stop and redirect the tracing. They must make sharp abrupt turns this time, which requires more concentration and control of movements. Diagonal lines are usually achievable around ages 4-4.5+. The final and fourth pattern, named battlement, provides children with alternating vertical and horizontal lines with full stops, which is the most sophisticated pattern.
In addition to the classic Lowercase Sandpaper Letters: Cursive, we created hand-fitting Wooden Raised Alphabet Tiles. The tiles are practical and versatile and can be used to reinforce other activities or as stand-alone material. Some children may find Sandpaper Letters too rough, these tiles will still send a sensory input when traced, which will be less rough than Sandpaper Letters. The tiles can be used for phonemic awareness (individual sounds associated with symbols) or for phonics purposes (encoding words).
As children have been familiarized with Sandpaper Letters, they may be ready to be introduced to Uppercase Sandpaper Letters. You may use the same method as when you introduced the lowercase letters, using the 3-period lesson. Once children feel comfortable with a few letters, you can create a matching work using only 3-4 letters at a time. Begin with obvious letters that are very similar in lowercase and uppercase format such as C, J, K, M, O, P, S, U, V, W, X, Y, Z.
Following much practice on phonological awareness (activities that exercise distinguishing sounds,) children continue to refine their fine motor skills using various materials such as the Sand Tray. Not only a sand tray is really appealing to children of any age, but it also offers repetition and safe practice before reaching writing with a writing utensil. Children ages 3-4 can be offered to practice tracing on a Sandpaper Letter and reproduce this same letter in the sand tray. The content used in the sand tray is variable: sand, colored sand, salt, and fine grains.
Montessori education has the unique characteristic to introduce most of the 44 phonemes of the English language earlier than they are introduced in traditional classrooms. This means that, in addition to the 26 letters of the alphabet, 16 extra phonemes will be introduced soon after the 26 phonemes (sounds) of the alphabet. To achieve this, children are acquainted with 16 phonograms: Lowercase Sandpaper Double Letters. They can be introduced among the 26 Sandpaper Letters of the alphabet.
Children are excited to find Lowercase D’Nealian Tracing tablets after having had extensive work with the Sandpaper Letters and the Sand Tray. The Lowercase D’Nealian Tracing tablets fit in the child’s hand, can be traced with a finger or a stylus, and can be used on the sand. Each tablet contains a dot in the bottom right corner which indicate the correct orientation of the letter.
Because writing skills require laborious work, regular practice, and a diversity of materials for various learners, it is important to enrich the prepared environment with materials that focus on different components. The Lowercase Tracing Board helps deepen children’s understanding of stroke orders. The Lowercase Tracing Board gives children an opportunity to work with letters that are traced using similar strokes. For example, the letters b, f, h, l, p, t all begin with a long line traced from top to bottom.
Presenting the entire alphabet system is not a practice done early in Montessori education. It is implicitly introduced to children once they have been working with all the letters. Our English Alphabet Tracing Board will actually be helpful in reinforcing the positions of the letters in relation to one another, which is going to be very helpful when children begin using the Movable Alphabet. Therefore, we recommend introducing the entire alphabet on a tracing board as it will reinforce tracing letters properly, and prepare children to transition to using the Movable Alphabet. Knowing the positioning of the letters on a Movable Alphabet tray/board makes the encoding experience much more enjoyable and effective.
Finally, children’s writing journey truly begins with encoding words using the Movable Alphabet in conjunction with the Language Series. The Pink, Blue, and Green Language Series are Montessori language curricula for ages 3-8. As a result of an intentional sequence preparation for writing, children begin using the Pink Series around age three where they apply all the knowledge they are previously acquired through the phonological and phonemic exercises. Even though their hands may not have the muscular maturity to properly manipulate writing utensils, using the Movable Alphabet, they will be able to encode simple phonetic words such as cap, tin, pen, sod, or mud.
Movable Alphabet
This post illustrates a few examples of how Montessori materials are aligned with current early literacy best practices. We described how the Montessori materials can be sequenced and how to incorporate additional extensions that we created for the purpose of aiding diverse learners and engaging children. For more Montessori language materials, visit our website at www.alisonsmontessori.com! We offer authentic Montessori materials, curriculum materials, and supplemental materials for every budget!
