Village Montessori Blog
How to Teach Your Child to Read - or Anything
At Village Montessori, our curriculum includes the two methodologies of Montessori and Science of Reading (SOR) to foster independence, a love for learning and an ease of reading. These two methodologies go hand-in-hand because both methods are backed by science on how the brain learns.
We use a simple teaching technique called the Three-Period Lesson in our Montessori classrooms. You might also hear this called the gradual release of responsibility in SOR circles. You can use the Three-Period Lesson, or gradual release of responsibility, to help teach reading, as well as truly anything you want to teach your child.
First, the lesson needs to be modeled. Second, the lesson needs to be supported as your child works towards independence. Finally, your child needs opportunities to do the lesson independently.
Steps of the Three-Period Lesson:
- Modeling is the first period where you are simply showing your child how to do something - the introduction phase.
- Supporting is the second period when you do the lesson with your child and ask them to show you how to do the work while you assist - the recognition phase.
- Independence is the third period when you ask your child to do the lesson on their own - the comprehension phase.
The Three-Period Lesson in Action:
- Write various words on a sheet of paper and show your child - This word is cat, and it rhymes with rat.
- Ask your child - Show me the word that rhymes with cat (list rat among a few other word options from which they can choose).
- Ask your child - Can you make two rhyming words (out of a few word options from which they can choose).
- Progression through these three periods is progress towards your child's independence.
You may need to spend more time in period one and two before moving to period three. That’s OK. Allow ample opportunity for period one and two and your child will eventually want to take these steps independently.
The Three-Period Lesson can be summed up as - I do, we do, you do. Use this to teach everything from loading the dishwasher to learning to read to filling out a job application. Working side by side with your child until they master a skill will provide them with the confidence to tackle tasks independently and with confidence.
To learn more about our Top-Rated Preschool in Fort Mill, SC - as well as both our Montessori and Science of Reading curriculum - visit our website or schedule a tour to see our classrooms in action!
Lisa Sheen
Science of Reading Advocate & Founder of Village Montessori & Preparatory School
Creator of The Reading Brain Courses
#scienceofreadingofficial on IG
Practical Life Activities in the Prepared Classroom and at Home
As Fort Mill’s top-rated Montessori school, Village Montessori & Preparatory School prides ourselves on creating a preschool and private kindergarten environment that provides a “whole child” approach to development: cognitive, spiritual, social, emotional and physical.
This development method allows for a dynamic prepared classroom environment that enables children of mixed age groups to explore a myriad of materials with differing levels of difficulty and learn as they are naturally inclined.
Whether in our infant room, preschool classrooms for 1-4 year olds, transitional kindergarten or private kindergarten, we emphasize and teach the whole child approach as developed by Maria Montessori.
In this blog we will be focusing on the Practical Life Area of our prepared classrooms and sharing ideas about how parents can create similar prepared learning environments in your own homes.
Practical Life Activities in the Prepared Classroom
The purpose of the Practical Life Activities in our prepared classrooms is two-fold:
- The prepared activities are meant to assist children in developing social skills and personal independence. Children learn to respect and take care of themselves and their environment and, in doing so, to respect and take care of others.
- The second purpose is to develop a child’s gross and fine motor movement, providing the foundation for every other facet of the learning environment.
Practical Life Activities are designed to encourage competencies in the following categories:
- Preliminary Activities
- Care and Respect for Self
- Care and Respect for the Environment
- Social Grace and Courtesy
- Fine Motor Skills
- Life Skills
All Practical Life Activities are uniquely purposeful and calming, and may appear simple and repetitive. However, if you were to observe a child as they perform such activities, you would notice:
- A high level of concentration - working on an activity for an extended period of time
- A developing sense of order - completing activities methodically from start to finish
- Pride in their work - showing you their completed work and/or demonstrating it for you
- Taking responsibility for any necessary cleaning - putting materials back where they belong in the classroom
- An increasing sense of independence - self-selecting activities and completing them independently
Practical Life Activities at Home
While the introduction to these Practical Life Activities may begin in our preschool and kindergarten classrooms, they are easily replicated at home. We invite you to try some of these fun, easy to set up activities and encourage your children to continue building their practical life activities in your own environment.
The following activities will help children work on their fine motor skills, color and shape recognition, and stimulate their senses:
Sorting: Gather small cupcake liners, cups or bowls in a few colors. In a larger bowl, add a variety of small toys, balls, art supplies, etc. that match those same colors. Encourage your child to sort the items into the matching colored cupcake liner, etc.
Transferring: Get two small bowls or containers. Add beads, puff balls, any small items easy to scoop with a spoon. Encourage your child to transfer the items using the spoon from one bowl to the other. You can also do this activity with small tongs.
Lacing: Cut out a shamrock, or another fun shape such as a heart, circle, or square, and punch holes around the perimeter. Provide a shoelace or ribbon for your child and show them how to lace/weave the shoelace in and out of the punched holes.
Bead Work: Add small beads in a variety of colors to a small bowl. Provide your child with a few pipe cleaners. Show them how to thread the pipe cleaner through the beads to create a pattern, a bracelet or a necklace. They can repeat the activity over and over again creating different patterns with the beads.
Sensory Bins: In a large bowl or plastic storage container add rice, beans, or sand (if you are brave!) and a variety of themed items such as small toys, plastic coins, buttons, beads, figurines, etc. Invite your child to find the items, scoop them out into smaller containers, arrange them in patterns, sort them, etc.
We hope you enjoy these ideas and creative ways to stimulate your child’s senses and fine motor skills at home!
To learn more about our Prepared Classrooms and Montessori Curriculum, we invite you to Schedule a Tour to visit our Fort Mill, SC location. We would love the opportunity to show you our school in motion!
Montessori Sensorial & Mathematics Foundations
In the Montessori Curriculum, math fundamentals are taught to children at a young age through both sensorial training and manipulative math activities.
Sensorial training provides a basis for learning in an orderly manner, which prepares children’s minds for mathematics. The sensorial materials refine the senses and develop cognitive skills such as thinking, judging, associating, and comparing. Activities include visual discrimination by size, color, shape, and pattern recognition.
In our Montessori math work, children as young as 3 years old are learning to identify numbers, sequences, and math patterns through manipulative works that help them identify visual math cues (such as with the use of blocks, cubes, beans, etc.) and numerical numbers (such as with number cards and written materials).
To learn more about our preschool in Fort Mill, SC and our approach to sensorial and math curriculum activities in the Montessori Classroom for preschoolers, TK and Kindergartners visit us at 5 Areas of the Prepared Classroom.
Weekend Work Ideas - Literacy Leaders
WEEKEND WORK IDEAS - LITERACY LEADERS!
There are so many fun ways to create letter recognition for children at home with construction paper, glue, scraps of paper and paint.
The first eight years of a child’s life are the critical years for literacy development. A Montessori language arts program combines phonics with a whole language curriculum. Phonics is defined as a method of teaching children to read, write and pronounce words by learning the phonetic value of letters, letter groups and syllables. Whole language indicates that children will learn to read and write by being immersed into a world of spoken and written words.
We utilize the Balanced Literacy Reading Program to compliment the Montessori materials, which contains both approaches. In addition to reading activities like reading aloud, our students have the opportunity to foster language arts skills through public speaking, show and share, telling a story about pictures and experiences, seeing printed labels, tracing, coloring and writing.
To learn more about our Balanced Literacy approach to language and reading development we invite you to visit us at Balanced Literacy.
Our Global Diversity Program
AROUND THE WORLD CELEBRATION
We are excited to share more about our culture and diversity program, which includes highlighting a different country every month for Art, Veggiecation, Music, and our Montessori work cycles.
We have chosen a number of countries from the major continents of the world and look forward to exploring them with your students. In addition to learning more about each country, we will also highlight people from those countries who have shaped our world in a positive way.
The United States of America was our country theme for October.
You may have seen artwork coming home from your children celebrating American Pop Art, Fall themed projects, and American celebrations of the season. The children tried pumpkin smoothies and fall vegetables in Veggiecation and celebrated the Halloween holiday with their classmates and families at our Halloween Haunt fall festival.
Italy is our featured country for November.
We will explore Italy geographically and culturally through our Montessori work cycles and classroom activities. We will also learn more about Italian culture through enrichment in Art, Veggiecation and Music.
Just this week your children sampled different varieties of tomatoes in Veggiecation and learned about the many ways Italians use tomatoes in their world famous dishes. Next week they will explore European artists and music.