Montessori Phonics - Single Letter Sounds Revision [ /c/, /f/, /i/, /m/ ]

Here in this lesson...we recap with the children on the single
letter sounds we have introduced which are : /c/, /f/, /i/ and
/m/. We also strive to observe the proficiency in listening to
sounds in words and recognition of the written letter (shape).

Lesson 5 can be done simultaneously with Lesson 4, if you find
your children can take more activities in one sitting. A standard
enrichment class would take 1 hour to go through the sounds for
the day, written activity, working with materials & some teachers
like me love to add at least a game and a craft. I also include
story time as i love telling them! Not all children have the luxury
of being read to everyday, so i hope with some of my telling, the
children would be captivated enough to grab a book on their own
one day. How to know if a child is into reading? They'll pick up a
random book and pretend telling a story of their own and it may
not even have anything to do with the story written in the book.

Phonics lessons need not be dry. Even if there is a need to run thru'
the required lesson for the day/week. You as the facilitator of the
programme or the method controls the creative factor injected into
the lessons. If lessons are interesting, chances of retention are much
higher without that much work needed for repetition/revision and the
learning will come from the heart... never forced.


Mystery Bag Game with /c/, /f/, /i/, /m/.



Prepare a bag for the game. Fill it up with materials or objects that begins
with the sounds /c/, /f/, /i/ and /m/. Then tie it up. Try to prepare the items
before hand. Bags should preferably be the draw-string kinds and in a
single colour (without distracting prints).





Invite child to dip his hand into the bag and take out one item from it.
"Would you like to pick one item from the mystery bag?" If the child
seem afraid putting his hand into a creepy bag, you pick one out for
him/her. No stress.





You : "Wow, what's that you picked out from the mystery bag?"

Child : "It's a fish!"

You : "Now, which of the sounds here makes the first sound in the word, fish?"
> Make emphasis on the /f/ sound...
Child : "Ffffff..."

You : "Good. Now can you place the fish under the corresponding letter
card, please?"

Child places the fish under the /f/ letter card. Move on to dip another item
in the bag.



You : "Would you like to pick out another object from the mystery bag?"

Child : "Okay." And proceeds to pick out a mug.

You : "Now where do you think that object should be placed under?"

Child : "/m/ as in mug..." Child places it under the /m/ letter card.




Continue with the game until all the items in the bag have been picked
out and placed under the corresponding letter cards.


Introduction to Large Moveable Alphabets (LMA)

A box segregating all 26 alphabets into individual compartments.
Consonants are in red acrylic pieces and the 5 vowels in blue ones.
The material below belongs to a friend some time ago and only came
in red. This is a dated picture. LMA can be DIY-ed simply by getting
foam pieces in red and blue and using the templates as pe sandpaper letter
cards or 2 sizes smaller and cut out 10 pieces of each consonant and 5
pieces of each vowel. Boxes or containers with dividers to separate the
letters are easily available at Daiso and also IKEA stores.





"I have here the Large Moveable Alphabets. They contain all the 26 letter
sounds in the alphabets and now we're going to play a matching game..."





"Can you find for me the letter that makes the sound /c/ and place it
under its corresponding letter card?"





Resume the activity with all other letter sounds. This activity helps one to
recognize the progress the child has made to link that a certain letter and
its corresponding shape is represented by its own sound. The child would
have opportunity to have hands on learning with you via different letter
sound games and activities, hence providing a stress-free environment
for learning.

Try it out and enjoy the process!