Montessori Language Work

Nouns and verbs and adjectives, oh my! Here we go on an adventure of discovery. This may be a difficult and tiresome journey at times but the path is paved in growth and learning. Our path is made clearer by the foundation created by Dr. Maria Montessori. On this foundation, we take the world of grammar and language to a place of shapes and colors.

What is more inviting and comforting than a trusty red ball. This you may or may not know if the symbol for the verb, the action of our sentence. Well, we happen to have an action I guess we should already have a person, place, or thing to do our chosen action. For this we use a timeless symbol of stability, the black pyramid, to represent our noun. 

With any good Montessori work there needs to be a good story to go with it. Grammar is no exception to this fact. As we introduce grammar to the children we adventure to a wonderful kingdom called The Land of Parts of Speech. Here we meet characters that help introduce the concepts, purpose and corresponding symbols for the parts of speech. This fairy tale helps teachers entice children into learning about language and feeling confident in learning about it on their own. Parents can have a common language for helping their children and also a guide for describing each part of speech.

Here is my abbreviated telling of The Land of the Parts of Speech:

Once upon a time, there was a King who ruled a land that like all others it used language to better communicate. Picture this king as a large black triangle with a crown on his head (crown include for the story only). The King (the noun) had a small light blue triangle that traveled with him all the time because the King hated being alone and needed the article (the, a, an) to help him travel around the land. The King also had another helper, who was a large dark blue triangle. This helper could describe anything with amazing detail as adjectives like to do. Being the King he was very busy and would get tired so to help with this he had a substitute that was a tall purple triangle (the adjective).In this land, as the large red sun (the verb) would rise it brings everything to life. Occasionally accompanied by the small orange moon (the adverb) it really gets things active across the land. We are now actively exploring this great land and signs would be very helpful. Good thing there is a signpost with green crescents (the preposition) which helps us know where to go. As we are traveling we can use the pink rectangle streets and railways (the conjunction) that connected all the towns to each other. Our story wraps up with a part of speech that conveys the emotions of all the people of the land. The golden skittle (the interjection) gives us the “oohs” and “aahs” as well as the “yucks” along the way.

I hope this tale has inspired you to explore this exciting land with your children. It is a fun book that can be read over and over.

King (Large Black Triangle): Nouns

A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, or idea.-house, person, book, tree

Helper (Small Light Blue Triangle): Article 

An article's signal that a noun is going to follow.-a, an, the

Blue Helper (Large Dark Blue Triangle): Adjective 

An adjective modifies or describes a noun or pronoun.-red, cold, large, soft

Substitute King (Narrow and Tall Purple Triangle): Pronoun

A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun.-he, she, it, they, you, me, I, we, him, her

Sun (Large Red Circle): Verb

A verb expresses action or being.-run, sit, grow, bounce, is, are

Moon (Small Orange Circle): Adverb

An adverb modifies or describes a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.-quietly, slowly, badly, now, then, too, again

Signs (Green Crescent): Preposition 

A preposition is a word placed before a noun or pronoun to form a phrase modifying another word in the sentence.-in, on, under, to, at, before

Pink Streets and Railways (Pink Rectangle): Conjunction

A conjunction joins words, phrases, or clauses.-and, but, or, nor, if, because, although, unless

Emotions (Golden Skittle): Interjection 

An interjection is a word used to express emotion.-hey, ah, wow, ouch, hello, shh

Written by Janna Carlson