Beginning Sounds

There are 5 areas in a Montessori classroom. Language is one of those areas. From 7 months in utero until age 6 a child has a sensitive period for language. A child from the moment they enter a Montessori classroom are given vocabulary for everything around them. A child will start with beginning language lessons such as, "I Spy," Object to Object, Picture to Object, Picture to Picture, Nomenclature Cards, and Rhyming Cards. Unlike traditional educational systems Montessori classrooms begin with introducing children to the sounds letters make. One of the materials used to teach initial sounds are the Sandpaper Letters. A child will use their fingers to trace the letter while learning the sound of the letter. After a child has learned a few letters they begin to place the letters together to form small words such as: cat, tap, and mop. I use this letter grouping that I learned from my AMS training when presenting the letters:

Red: m, a, t, s
Orange: c, r, o, p
Yellow: w, i, l, d
Green: b, f, g, u
Blue: h, e, n, j
Purple: q, y, k, z, x, v

In the next two pictures below Ava had mastered the "a" sound so I added some objects that match such as: apple, axe, and alligator. I bought these objects from Montessori Services but you can easily find objects around your house, dollar store or your local craft store. (i.e. Michael's)

Ordinarily I'd place the objects under the letter but Ava likes to cover the letter. "Follow the child."

Materials: rug or table, sandpaper letter, objects to match initial sound, and container to hold objects and letter.

If you are a more visual learner, like myself, here is a video of the initial presentation of the sandpaper letters. Here is another video for matching objects to sandpaper letters.


 Below is an extension of the sandpaper letters. I took the red group of letters and made a bingo card for those specific letters. Ava used red glass beads to cover the letters as I called them out.

Here is a short video of Ava using the beginning sounds  bingo card.