Question: 1. How do we give the concept of grass letters, root letters and sky letters to the child? Answer: The most important preparation of the environment for the successful development of spoken and written language in the child’s personality is the home language. It is never too early to speak clearly and precisely to the child. The successful environment for the language is created at home by the mothers and the caregivers. Reading aloud for the child at home, gives the message to the child that reading is a fun for him. Reading the story books for the child by his mother at home makes the meaning clear and he knows how to use the word with the sense sense in his langua language. ge. The child child also builds builds his vocabu vocabulary lary uncon unconscio sciousl usly y throug through h listening to the story books from his mother which would never come up in spoken language. Although reading and writing should not be taught to a child before the age of six or seven, yet he is introduced to the concept of reading and writing by giving the sensorial experiences of appropriate materials and sometimes as early as three or four years of age. ince !!" of written language is in lower case letters. In the #ontessori classroom and at home the child should be taught firstly with the small alphabet rather than capital $%a& and %b,& not %A& and %'&(. )uring the introduction of the small alphabet to the child the sounds are pronounced instead of the words.
Using the Moveable Alphabet
Take the small alphabet set and all the letters should be in the same colour. Take either one large piece of cloth or the piece of paper with four lines, the top and bottom lines are pink in color and the rest of the two lines are a*uamarine.
Concept of the Grass Letters
+irst of all try to give the concept of the grass letters to the child. Thus, take out the letter& a& from the box and place it between the first set of lines. Then teach to the child that the letter fits completely within the middle two lines is called the grass letter and ask the child to try to find out other letters that can be perfectly fit between the two lines. hen he has placed all those letters which are fit between two lines, tell him that these are all grass letters in small alphabet. $a, c, e, i, m, n, o, r, s, u, v, w, x, -( These letters are called& the grass letters&.
Concept of the Sky Letters
ext, take out the letter& b& and place it at the beginning of the second set of guide lines and show to the child that a letter with a stem goes up to the pink line is called a sky letter. Then, ask the child to find out all other letters with the stem going up to the pink line. hen the child is successful in completing to fit the letters up to the pink line then make him introduce that these letters are called& the sky letters&.$b, t, d, f, h, k, l, b(. 1
Concept of the Root Letters
At the end, on the third set of guide line, place the letter& /& The child is ready to learn about the third set of the guide line, tell the child that which letter with a tail going down to the lower pink line is called the root letter. Then, ask the child to find out all other letters with a tail going down. These letters are called& the root letters&. $*, p, g, /, y(. 0rass, sky and root letters are introduced to the child in the #ontessori classrooms through& Three 1eriod 2esson&. Actually Actually three period period lesson is very important important in teaching teaching to the children not only in the #ontessori 3lassroom but also at home. #others of all over the world can make the child intelligent through giving the basic idea of the knowledge. o, provide the material of learning the knowledge to the child whenever he likes. 4ncourage the child in learning to write these groups of letters on a chalkboard or the marker board after arranging them on the mat.
2
Question:2. Write a detailed note on ontessori green !oards and writing on a paper e"ercises.
Answer. Chalkboards: Materials For Preparatory ork:
mall tray, large enough to make a sandpaper lett er. 4nough sand in the tray to cover the bottom.
For Chalkboard Work:
5. et of of green green chalk chalkboa boards rds 67cm 67cm x 89cm 89cm each. each. 7. The first first board is blank blank on one one side and ruled to guide guide the the placement placement of letters letters on the other other side. 6. The second second board board has one one side ruled ruled in s*uares s*uares and the the other ruled ruled in hori-ont hori-ontal al lines. :. Tray Tray with chalk chalk in a holder holder,, an eraser, eraser, a dust clothe, clothe, and and a hand cloth. cloth. 8. andpa andpaper per letters letters and numeral numerals. s.
!otes This work is done parallel to work with the orting 2etters.
Preparatory "#ercise
Invite one child to come and work with you. ;ou and the child choose one sandpaper letter and bring it to the table. Then go and get the tray of sand and place it to the right of the sandpaper letter. Trace the sandpaper letter. Repeat two to three times. Then tell the child that you are going to trace the letter in the tray. #ove the tablet over to the left. lide the tray in front of you and trace the same letter as the sandpaper letter into the sand. how the child that you have made the same letter. how the child how to %make it disappear& by gently shaking the tray from side to side but keeping the tray on the table.
=nce he is comfortable comfortable with using the stylus stylus and writes a few of the letters in the sand, he is ready to begin with the 3halkboard work.
3
Presentation $: %lank %oard Material:
'lank board and chalk tray andpaper letters
Presentation
Invite one child to come and work with you. Tell him that you will be using something to help us to write. Introduce the child to the chalkboard and have him carry it to the table. Then have him bring the box with the eraser, etc. and place it in the middle of the chalkboard. Then have the child choose c hoose a sandpaper letter. Then have the child sit to your left. Take out all of the material and place it above the chalkboard. Then place the tray also above the chalkboard. Trace the sandpaper letter a few times. >se the chalk and write the sandpaper letter multiple times on the board in a straight, hori-ontal line. 4rase the letters written in an up to down, left to right manner. >se the dust cloth $hold as in 1ractical 2ife( and wipe board. Replace it. Take the terry cloth and clean your hands. Replace it. #ove everything over so the child can write the same sandpaper letter. uggest to the child that they may keep writing this letter. If the child seems very comfortable writing this letter, you may show them another letter. If not, wait for a future time. =nce done, show the child how to put away the material. If the clothes are dirty, you will need to change them. 4ncourage the child to continue practicing from time to time.
"#ercice This game is to be done in a group. The directress would have the children sit in a circle around a mat. he would then hand out the material $for example one cube of the 1ink Tower to each child(. The children hold the cube behind their backs and feel them. The directress would then ask for the largest cube to be placed on the mat. 'y feeling their cube, the children are being asked to feel for the recognition of the si-es of the cubes. 3ontinue asking for certain cubes working your way from the biggest cube to the smallest cube, until all the cubes have been placed on the mat.
!ote 4ncourage the child to make the letters smaller as his skills improve.
4
Presentation &: S'are %oard Material
3halkboard with s*uares and chalk tray andpaper letters.
Presentation
+ollowing the same procedure, show the child how to write a single letter or numeral in a s*uare. The same letter will be repeated across the row. The child may choose to make the same letter over the entire board. =r she may choose to have a different letter for each row. ome children will find doing the whole board too much, so the child can build up to it as they are ready. ready.
"#ercice 3hild works with the board as shown.
!ote: 4ncourage the child to make the letters smaller as his skills improve.
5
Presentation (: )o*ble G*ide Lines Lines %oard Material
)ouble guide line board and clalk tray andpaper letters
Presentation As before
how the child how to place the body of a letter between the two lines and show how the stem goes above the line and the tail goes below. below. =n the first set of lines, do a letter with only a main body. =n the second line, make a letter with a stem, and on the third line, make a letter with a tail.
"#ercice: The child, if ready, does not need to use the sandpaper letters.
6
Presentation +: Single Line %oard Material:
ingle 2ine 'oard andpaper letters
Presentation: ame as before
!ote ome children will en/oy doing this briefly. 'y the time they are ready to write on a single line, they will prefer pref er writing on paper.
"#ercice 3hild works as shown
!ote hen the child is secure writing with the chalk, you can talk to the child about the letters, and ask which one is most like the sandpaper letter. This is the beginning of the child assessing and becoming aware his own writing. ometimes it is helpful to talk about %why& one may look more like the sandpaper letter.
P*rposes To give the child practice in writing.
Control of "rror The sandpaper letters and numerals.
Age : 5?7 years onwards.
7
Question:#. What Wh at are the upper upper case lette letters rs? ? How How do we intr introd oduc ucee the$ the$ to the child?
Answer. Materials: Three sets of twenty six cards, one for each letter of the alphabet.
The first set is @x59cm and each card has one letter written in the lower case. The second set is !@cmx59cm and each card has one letters written in the upper case $capital letters(. The third set is 5cmx59cm 5cmx59cm and has one letter written in both the lower and upper cases, the lowers case letter on the left and the upper case letter on the right.
Presentation
Invite one child to come and work with you. Introduce the material to the child and have him bring it over to the table. 3hoose three letters for the initial presentation, where the capital letters looks a great deal like the lower case letter. >se the names of the letters in this lesson. If the child gives you the sound, affirm it but go back to using their names. how the lower case first and use this term. how the upper case and give the term. Also give the term %capital letter& Repeat for two more letters. Teach the new terms with the Three 1eriod lessons. 'e sure to use the terms %upper case& and %capital letter& alternatively. hen the child is sure of those, continue with three at a time, until you have completed all of the letters. 2ay out all of the lower case letters at random in vertical columns, leaving sufficient space to put the capital letters beside them. 0ive the child the upper case letters $one at a time( and have him place each next to the lower case letter. )iscuss now and then if the capital letter looks that same or looks different to the lower case letter. >se both terms alternatively for the upper case letters. =nce all upper case letters have been placed, check with the third set of cards. Replace the third set of cards. 3ollect the lower case letters in alphabetical order. 3ollect the upper case letters in alphabetical order.
"#erice $ The child works with the material as shown.
8
P*rpose )irect
To help the child recogni-e the upper case form of the letter he already knows in the lower case. To aid the punctuation of a sentence.
,ndirect
To help the child write. wr ite.
Control of "rror
The card showing both lower and upper case for each letter.
8 years onwards.
Age
9
Question:%. How do we introduce the concept of noun, article, ad&ective and ver! to the child with the help of far$ environ$ent?
Answer. Materials -b.ectives Presentation
Presentation
Presentation
3ollection of ob/ects?animals. 3olourBcoded grammar cards B nouns $black(, ad/ectives $royal blue(, verbs $red(, articles $grey( To learn, through the cards, the grammatical structure of phrases and sentences. Introduce the child to the box and allow him?her to set up the farm and discuss the ob/ects and what the various animals are doing. This is very good for secondBlanguage children and languageBdelayed children as it gives them the opportunity to explore in an unpressurised environment. hen the child has worked with the early grammar noun cards, you can introduce him?her to the noun cards in the farm. Ask the child to set up farm and take out the black cards, the naming cards. ?he can then read the first card and either place it against the ob/ect, or bring the ob/ect down to the card.
If the the child child is enth enthral ralled led by an ob/e ob/ect ct and and want wantss to start start with with that that particular one, do not worry. It /ust means that the child has to read r ead more cards as s?he has to read through the pile to find the appropriate card. Again, once the child has worked with the early grammar ad/ective cards, you can introduce him?her to the ad/ective cards in the farm box, showing him?her how to place the ad/ective cards in front of the noun cards $revision of noun and ad/ective game(. The child reads the noun 10
card, finds the ob/ect and is asked to read through the ad/ective cards to find a word that describes the ob/ect, e.g., Cplump’ to go with Cpiglet’. At this point, you can also introduce the first set of article cards in lower case, showing the child how to place this in front of the ad/ective 3ard.
Presentation
The child then puts the cards at the bottom of their respective piles, reads the next noun card Cman’, looks through the ad/ective cards and finds Cstrong’, e.g., Cthe strong man’. The child continues using the cards in this way. The next cards to be introduced are the verb and upper case article cards. The verb cards are placed after the noun and the article cards are placed before the ad/ective cards. The child reads the first noun card and finds the ob/ect CmanC. ?he then finds a suitable suitable ad/ective ad/ective card, Cstrong’. Cstrong’. ;ou ;ou then then ask, ask, % %ha hatt does does the the stron strong g man man doD& doD& ?he ?he may may respo respond nd,, afte after r looking through the verb cards, Cstands’. ;ou remind him?her that s?he is building a sentence, so the article card needs to start with a capital letter. le tter. ?he finds the card, CThe’ and the sentence is complete, CThe strong man stands.’ If you are using them, remind the child to place a full stop card at the end of the sentence.
11
=n each occasion the cards are returned to the bottom of their respective piles so that the child can read the next card. The child then reads the next noun card and continues sentence building as before.
12
Question:'. (repare $aterial of the following and send along with the assign$ent. )ogical Ad&ective *a$e )ogical Adver! *a$e +oun ards Ad&ective ards -er! ards
13