Recently I went out thrifting and found this Mancala board for $2. Mancala is available at any store with a board game section. It is also a cheap and common find at thrift stores. Originally purchased for a fun game, I opened the game up and saw, to my delight, two sorting trays. Simple, inexpensive, and […]
The path to literacy is unique in the Montessori classroom. Rather than begin by identifying common simple words — cat, ball — we begin with sounds, and move first to writing, then reading. We start with Sound Games, an activity with a child or with a small group when we introduce the idea of Sounds. […]
How do you use this material? The Metal Insets are displayed on a shelf all their own. The guide selects one of the ten insets, or shapes, and the corresponding frame, along with a square piece of paper and three colored pencils, and find an available table. The guide typically sits on a small stool […]
There are many unexpected moments in the way Montessori presents various concepts of skills to children, including the surprise of introducing children to handwriting first through cursive. The Sandpaper Letters are iconic — pink or blue oversized cursive letters in rough sandpaper for a child to take to a table and practice tracing and pairing […]
How do you use this material? The Moveable Alphabet is a collection of letters arranged in two boxes. The vowels are blue, and the consonants are pink, to coordinate with the Sandpaper Letters. We’ll take the boxes to a rug and examine the letters together. A child is already familiar with letters and their sounds, […]