DIY Montessori Language Cabinet holds tiny 3D miniature objects that represent the beginning sound for each letter of the alphabet to promote early literacy and phonemic awareness.
Turn your craft cabinet into a DIY Montessori language cabinet. A Montessori Language Cabinet is an organized storage system to sort and store language objects. The cabinet I am using has 24 drawers, so I used one drawer for letters X, Y, and Z. You can also place a movable alphabet letter in each corresponding drawer to reinforce sound-to-letter association.
A Montessori language cabinet holds tiny 3D objects that represent the beginning sound. There are various early literacy games you can play with these 3-dimensional objects to match the beginning sound for each letter of the alphabet.
You’ll Need for Montessori Language Cabinet DIY:
- a cabinet with compartments (I am using a 24-compartment cabinet) ~ see 25 drawer cabinet HERE)
- labels PDF (download FREE below))
- language objects (see examples below)
Montessori Language Objects
Some examples of language objects are:
- veggies
- farm animals
- wildlife animals
- forest animals
- Safari animals
- house furniture
- garden plant tools
- wagon/watering can farming tools ~ or a set with boots here),
- a wagon
- 15 pcs porcelain tea set
- mini musical toys
- bathroom porcelain accessories
- mini food/drinks
🌟 WHEN: After you have played letter hunts for individual sounds, you can use a language cabinet to keep your collection of language objects organized from a to z.
🌟 DIY Montessori Language Cabinet PURPOSE: to teach a child to recognize the specific sound a letter makes.
Montessori Language Cabinet DIY
Montessori Language Cabinet DIY
Montessori Language Cabinet DIY
🌟 AGE: Typically, you would introduce an entire collection at around three years old, but you can start playing sound games without associating them with letters as early as two years of age.
Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic awareness is a subset of phonological awareness. When a child can hear, identify and manipulate phonemes, the smallest units of sound, they have Phonemic awareness ~ ability to segment words into their component sounds. For example, separating the word “cat” into three distinct phonemes, /k/, /æ/, and /t/, (that is, being able to hear the sounds in the word /cat/, and not the letter names) requires phonemic awareness. Being a basis for learning phonics, phonemic awareness improves children’s word reading and reading comprehension, as well as helps children learn to spell.
Phonological Awareness
Phonemic awareness and phonological awareness are often confused since they are interdependent. Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate individual phonemes. Phonological awareness includes this ability, but it also includes the ability to hear and manipulate larger units of sound, such as onsets and rhymes, and syllables.
Phonetic Order of Presenting Alphabet
In a Montessori Language curriculum, alphabet letters are first introduced to a child by the phonetic sound they make rather than the letter name. Moreover, sounds are introduced first in phonetical sets or groupings rather than in the ABC order. The reason you introduce letter sounds in specific and predefined groups is to facilitate the child’s ability to form as many words as possible using those sounds.
There are a few orders suggested by Montessorians,
One of the suggested orders of a presentation is:
First set: c m a t
Second set: s r i p
Third set: b f o g
Fourth set: h j u l
Fifth set: d w e n
Sixth set: k q v x y z
I hope you enjoyed this post. Do let me know if you have any questions in the comments and whether you have tried making a DIY Montessori Language Cabinet yourself.
For More Literacy Ideas …
See HERE NuFun Activities DIY-Alphabet-Objects-Wood-Transfer-Free-Watercolor-Language-Labels
RECENT BLOG POSTS
Rainbow Writing Name Recognition
Name recognition rainbow writing activities are a fun and hands-on way to promote the fine motor control required for handwriting, penmanship, and copy work in preschoolers and kindergartners.
Metallic Rice Halloween Sensory-Bin
Metallic dyed rice Halloween sensory-bin for toddlers and preschoolers to trigger a tactile sense and refine fine motor control, dexterity, and hand-eye coordination.
Cereal Taste-Safe Tracing Tray
Cereal taste-safe Montessori pre-writing tracing trays promote motor skills and coordination while stimulating tactile sense and indirectly preparing a hand for future writing.
eBOOK | THE BASICS Bringing Montessori Home
“Our work is not to teach, but to HELP the absorbent mind in its work of development. How marvelous it would be if by our help, if by an intelligent treatment of the child, if by understanding the needs of his physical life and by feeding his intellect, we could prolong the period of functioning of the absorbent mind!”
Montessori MADE EASY MEMBERSHIP
Also, in case you are exhausted from swimming in the vast ocean of irrelevant information and saving activities you never get to! JOIN Montessori MADE-EASY membership! And if you do, the eBook THE BASICS is included in the membership amongst MANY other perks!
I am here to help! WE CAN DO THIS TOGETHER!
1 Comment
[…] here Montessori Language Cabinet […]