Learning to Read

Learning to read is a long process that begins with a newborn brain wired to talk. As parents introduce their infants to their 3-D world with baby talk, singing, reading board books,naming, and reciting rhymes aloud, that brain builds multitudes of neural pathways. We delight in the babble and then in those first words!  Our "fantastic, elastic brains" then use visual and language structures to build what Maryanne Wolf calls a "reading brain." We use oral language and phonological awareness skills as a foundation for written language.

The secret of success[in education] is found to lie in the right use of imagination in awakening interest, and the stimulation of seeds already sown.      ---M Montessori

Love words! Love books!

Play "I-Spy" to develop phonemic awareness. Then meet the Sandpaper Letters, tracing for a kinesthetic, visual, and auditory experiences to map sound and letter symbol.

Listen for initial sounds!

Play sound and letter games!

Use the metal insets to develop the fine motor control needed for writing.

Making parts of books is writing, reading, and science.

Use the Large Moveable Alphabet to build phonetic words.

Use cards,

room labels,

 sentences,

 and phonetic readers to practice blending sounds and decoding for meaning.

Reading English is complicated! There are short AND long vowels, multi-syllable words, digraphs, and puzzle words (that just don't play fair and follow the "rules.")

Moveable Alphabets and Lexia can help.

Practicing reading

and oral language can help. Use pattern, rhyme, rhythm, and rich vocabulary.

Maria Montessori believed writing preceded reading.

The Farm Game and Grammar Box are used to explore the function of words. 

Opportunities for journal writing, list writing, and labeling encourages children to use letter/sound and eventually conventional spelling to put words, sentences, and ideas on paper.

Then as children build fluency, it happens! Maria Montessori called this an "explosion into reading!" Suddenly they have gone from learning to read to reading!

So much of a child's life is lived for others...All the reading I did as a child, behind closed doors, sitting on the bed while the darkness fell around me, was an act of reclamation. This and only this I did for myself. This was a way to make my life my own.--Lynn Sharon Schwartz

Such a child is in search of every possible means of expression because no language is rich enough to give expression to the gushing life within him. He speaks, he writes, he draws, he sings like a nightingale warbling in the springtime.  --M Montessori

Categories!

Remember the category clapping games from your childhood?  Category games are still relevant! From infancy our brains are busy building the effective interconnected semantic networks that are critical for memory and learning. You could say our brains seek patterns and connections naturally. In Montessori poetry, chants, word games, and word play, make classification and categorizing fun!

Start with matching

and labeling.

Then sort living/non-living

as well as plant/animal cards.

Sorting and matching games are engaging.

Sort by sound

or color

or word.

Classification is an important skill!

What attribute? Is it thick or thin?

Which continent?

Games help build connections called semantic webs.

Does this animal live in Africa or North America?

They expand and clarify vocabulary

and enrich writing with descriptors.

They make the recalling of facts and ideas more accessible and applicable.

Games help encourage critical thinking by focusing on essential features. Can you guess what's in our Question Bag by using "important questions" such as Is it non-living? Does it have wheels? Do you use it in the kitchen?

Venn Diagrams make comparing and contrasting visual. How are these two folktales alike? different? How are frogs and toads alike/different? What else can we compare--artist styles, books by the same author? foods? Category and classification skills help build understanding by introducing organization, complexity, and relevance. Thinking can be done slowly and carefully--many close encounters with new ideas!

"The child brings us great hope and a new vision. There is much we can do to bring humanity to a deeper understanding, to a higher well-being, and to a greater spirituality."--Montessori


"Children grow into the intellectual life around them."  --Vygotsky