Montessori-Language Curriculum

Preschoolers learning to speak, read and write through creative means

The Montessori-Language Curriculum is quite different from a traditional preschool curriculum. Here the child learns the sounds of letters in a systematic, progressive way and then blend the letters to form a word. Every word is identifiable with an object so the child can feel, understand and match the abstract word to a concrete object.

Above all the child has fun while learning.

The Montessori-Language program is graded by color coding. Each level / color builds on the previous one to provide a wide range of vocabulary. Sentence building with picture cards are also used besides reading books.

The child is prompted to talk about the object or pictures and hence improve his communication skill while reinforcing his right use of vocabulary learned.

Preschool activities are organized around what Maria Montessori would term “Circle Time”. These are times for children to express themselves in games, songs…etc and also a time when they would sit and improve on their listening skill.

Circle time is a time when children gather together for:

• Story telling
• Singing
• Poetry reading
• News sharing
• Nursery rhymes

The Maria Montessori-Language Curriculum is not limited to language classes. As soon as the child enters the Montessori classroom, s/he is experiencing volumes of words spoken to or around him. Words used are deliberate and intentional – carefully administered so the child would catch on easily.

Once the student has a grasp of the whole range of Phonic sounds, a Montessori child should be able to read words without much difficulty by just blending the sounds together – even before s/he has been taught that word. With the wide exposure in cultural studies, s/he can usually grasp the meaning of the new word very easily.

With language learning in place, Montessori kids usually begin writing at 4 years old. Much time has been spent on pre writing skills even before s/he reaches that age. The child actually builds up his fine motor skills while working on Practical Life Exercises and Sensorial materials. By 4 yrs old he is ready for some real writing.

Here’s a glimpse of the process of learning to write:

• Pincer grip & left to right order
• Eye-hand Coordination
• Sound/letter recognition
• Letter formation using sand/ rice trays
• Pencil control
• Encoding (making words)
• Decoding (reading words)
• Word/picture matching

Check out Montessori curriculum on Practical Life Exercises

Check out Montessori Curriculum on Sensorial Exercises

Montessori Method Overview

Montessori Cultural Studies

Register for free monthly newsletter to add to your Preschool Resource File.

Go to top of page - Montessori-Language

Return to Homepage