Peanut and His Work
Jen, that moveable alphabet looks great. Would you mind letting us know where we might be able to get one?
She’s referring to this picture:
Peanut is using the Pink Series cards which were purchased with the Pink, Blue, Green Series set from my favorite printable Montessori source, Montessori for Everyone! He’s using the cards with his moveable alphabet. I purchased the small moveable alphabet several years ago and have found so many uses in our days! It’s indispensable for a beginning reader, but I had no idea how valuable it would become for our reluctant writer. We used it for spelling words, making words around a phoneme – ideas like that – all without the need to write.
If you’re looking for a bit more how-to on the use of the moveable alphabet, or Montessori in general, I highly suggest the Elizabeth Hainstock books, Teaching Montessori in the Preschool Years and Teaching Montessori in the School Years (which is sadly out of print, but you can still find it on Abebooks, Amazon used, and ebay). You might also consider Barbara Curtis’, Mommy, Teach Me which is also an excellent book.
Little Peanut enjoys making his simple words with the moveable alphabet and the Pink Series Cards. I really can’t say enough about Lori’s work at Montessori For Everyone. Her images are crystal clear and quite beautiful. They’re all photos and they remind me of the lovely photos one finds in a Dorling Kindersley book. In other words, it’s quite easy to tell the hat is a hat and the bat is a bat….and not a pencil. That’s important for a work like this! Peanut moves along with this at his own pace – I do not force beginning reading. But, when he started sounding out words as we drove down the road I had Sweet Pea present the Pink Series cards to him along with the moveable alphabet. It’s his choice to work with it…or not.
Hope that answers your question and helps, Puffin Hen! 🙂 And, I hope you’re all having a lovely day!
great ideas
cindy
I miss worinking with my children and the Montessori materials. I think I'm going to go volunteer at the local Montessori school. Thanks for the lovely post. All your posts are nastalgic to me.
I have been contemplating getting these letters too – we are improvising with lots of “Melissa & Doug” wooden letters and doing much of the same idea. I love peeking into your world! Thanks for sharing!
Jen, Thank you so much for taking the time to provide that information… now I have new manipulatives and new books on my “to buy” list!
Oh my goodness, I LOVE those letters. I have a reluctant writer as well and can definitely see the value of those letters next year when we move into spelling! Thank you so much for your post!
Would you mind sharing where you obtained your movable alphabet blocks for spelling?
Thanks!
Kim
http://www.readwriteandlearnbible.com
Hi Kim.
The moveable alphabet we use came from Kid Advance – here's the link:
http://www.kidadvance.com/productdetails.asp?pid=68
You could easily make your own moveable alphabet using index cards and a marker.
Another favorite site of mine is Montessori Materials. They generously offer many resources for you to print and use for free! One of their resources they offer for free is the moveable alphabet (there are a few different styles to choose from) – just print and cut them apart and you're ready to go! You'll find the moveable alphabet files on this page – http://www.montessorimaterials.org/lang.htm
Hope this helps! Good luck!