Montessori Phonics : Picture Box 1

Pink Picture Boxes are used to follow up the concrete activity with the Pink Object Boxes. Just to recap from where i last left off... Pink is the colour scheme used in Montessori lessons to depict the 3-letter phonetic words stage. In this stage children are learning to blend indvidual letter sounds to form words and are also introduced to simple letter combinations with ending sounds like... 

>an >at >ed 
>eg >ip >ig 
>ot... etc... 

From here, children can move on to the individual word family reading. Children will also be exposed to reading short phonetic sentences with inclusion of simple sight words. Learning Phonics without any reading 
exercises cannot 100% help with reading fluency. A good reading pgrm will offer age-appropriate literature for children to reinforce the sounds or words that they have learnt. 

As with all other Montessori materials, the picture boxes are no different. Yes, they too are self-correctional. It is really not too time consuming to make your own. And you can even recycle. Fish out those old magazines 
for pictures to paste on the cards... or cut out from old assessment books. For this example, i just took these pictures from my PC's clipart for quick home usage. Printed them on light pink paper and had them all laminated and cut out in identical sizes in uniformity. Sizing, i dun impose hard and 
fuss rule especially if it is for personal use cause smaller cards mean less ink and paper is used..  As long it fits in your box nicely, it is fine by me.  

For drained out momma's and ehem.. cough.. cough.. lazy mommas... it is okay if you can or only have time to write the words on paper with a marker too. Better than no effort at all.  Hehee.. 

Now once the cards are done... ask child to unroll work mat and begin arranging the picture cards one at a time, from left to right. Remember, left to right is the natural eye-sweeping glance for reading text and the 
same fashion for writing too. 

 

Next, ask the child to read the matching word cards one at a time... Try not to rush them while they spend some time blending the individual letter sounds. They can ask for help should they need.. try not to immediately offer the answer (sounds) when they seem to struggle. Allow for the child to TRY. You may prompt the child though... like, "Do you need help with that?" instead of saying, "That card says cat. Now match the card under the cat picture."  

 

The usual way this lesson is done is by finding the words to match the pictures from the left first naturally... however, for me... i do allow if the child reads the word cards at random and matches them, but i will request the child read all the words from the left most card, when the child finishes the matching activity. 

As it is self-correctional, in this instance... the control of error is >when the 
last word card does not match the picture card. It is also important to conclude the lesson. For closure.. and encouragement. 

For the child who has no trouble with the box, the lesson can be ended by concluding, "We have worked with Picture Box 1 today, tomorrow we will work on Box 2! " 

For a child who may not be proficient yet, lesson can be ended this way... "We have worked with Box 1. I will leave this box on the shelf. You can work with it again anytime.  Would you help put this box on the shelf 
so you will know where to find it when you want to work with it again... thanks for your help." 

Happy trying! 
 

*Need to backtrack? 
Click this link. 
> Montessori Phonics : Object Box 1

With all things taught concretely, there's always the absract part of it.. the written part of it to reinforce lessons learnt. Here are some stuff you can do with your children.

/ab/ 

Lesson for > cab 
Colour a picture of a cab. Cut out a shape of a steering wheel. Design together. Painting or Crayon colouring. Stick stickers (star stickers, animal stickers, number stickers) 
Paste each of the 3 letters on A4 paper. Likening this game to playing hop-scotch, paste /c/ first... up ahead /a/... and lastly... /b/. Use the finished steering wheel to walk/hop/run over the letters and you demonstrate... "Mummy'll go first!" /c/..../a/.... [drag this sound a little longer] - (open-mouthed) and blend the /a/ sound with an abrupt /b/. Touch your hand on the picture of the coloured cab you have pasted on the wall, then shout, "CAB!" 

Lesson for > dab 
Painting Time! Dab cotton balls inside the template of the word /dab/. Use word art. Make thicker and chubbier letter with comic sans or 
century gothic, spread over A4 paper. Mummy shows first, how to dab the cotton ball from top to bottom. ie. start from the inside curve of the letter d, followed by the straight line from top to bottom.. likewise for the letter a, (shorter wall) and lastly letter b, top t bottom first and followed by the big bouncy belly. Depending if mummy allows for more 
painting time, child can paint his own picture using the cotton balls for reward. Dun want to get hands sticky, peg the cotton balls. For older children, can use chopsticks too. When using hands, good experience to demonstrate "lightness of touch" whereby only gentle movements can still create the dab effect. This is future preparation for writing, where we encourage children to write neatly without the pressure of fingers and the too-dark(ness) of the pencil lead. 

Lesson for > jab 
Place two cups or beakers of coloured water. 
Play with syringe of different sizes, transferring water from one beaker to another. While pushing the syringe, say /j/... aaaaaaa.... /b/. (abrupt b sound). 

Lesson for > nab 
Play catching. Police and thief! If you allow, but the policeman set with the baton (to run with) and handcuff (once nabbed). The person who is the catcher (police) says nab when the thief is caught! 

Put the word "nab" on A4 paper. Each side with point markers so you can keep count who has "nab-bed" how many times.  

Have fun... inspire... and this time, sure to perspire. Think we can do with all the exercise!  

Next, we have booklets and ones such as these can be printed as add-ons to your current Phonics Readers or it CAN be your own FREE readers set. Your children can colour in the pictures and you can also ask them to copy the sentences on a line as penmanship practice. 

Try out this "at" booket. 

For all the complete booklets, you can download them FREE @ Booklets.
 
This site also has thematic booklets for you to download and practise those sight words you want your child to know/learn.

It is also fun to carry out craft activities with young children after they manage to follow lessons well. Try this paper bag puppet to reinforce the "ag" word family. 

Word family worksheets available here and here. 

Did your child understand the story from the booklet you made? Here's a worksheet to do to emphasize on story comprehension. 

Then print out two of each of these snap cards and play word family snap! 

These are just some ideas to inspire you to learn thru hands on activities with your children. Such activities simultaneously provides revision on Object Box 1 and Picture Box 1, that you have done with them to introduce some of the 3-letter phonetic words with vowel /a/ in them. 

Time to load up those ink cartridges people and have fun!