Early Childhood Curriculum

The Montessori approach to language and literacy development in early childhood is grounded in the belief that children learn best through hands-on, experiential learning. In a Montessori classroom, children are encouraged to explore language and literacy through a variety of activities and materials.  Montessori schools place a strong emphasis on developing literacy skills in young […]

There are five components of reading: vocabulary, phonemic awareness, phonics, comprehension, and fluency. History of the 5 Components of Reading Instruction Reading instruction in the United States has undergone a lot of changes over the years. In the 1980s and 90s, educators were divided on the best way to teach children to read. The “reading […]

The Scarborough Reading Rope is a visual representation of the different strands that make up the process of reading, with the metaphor of a rope being used to demonstrate how all of these strands work together to create a strong, cohesive whole. It was created in the early 1990s by Dr. Hollis Scarborough, a literacy researcher, […]

Phonological awareness is about being able to hear and manipulate units of sound in spoken words, including syllables, onset, rime, and phonemes. Phonemic awareness is about being able to hear and manipulate the smallest unit of sound, a phoneme. Phonemic awareness is a part of phonological awareness, and they both focus on the sounds that […]

Finding decodable reading books for early readers can be quite a challenge!  Below are some of the books we have in our classroom. The Peacekeeper Series I absolutely love the Peacekeeper Series available on Montessori Services.  Each story is set in a Montessori classroom and shows how the children prevent or resolve a conflict.  The words are phonetically […]

  A few months ago we were gifted a box of treasures by a former Montessori teacher who also happens to be the grandmother of one of our students.  Even after a decade and a half in the classroom, I still love this stuff! All that organizing put me in the mood to take photos […]

By Cathie Perolman Read more about Cathie’s process for practicing letter sounds here: Are Sandpaper Letters Enough? The Letter Race Game Once a child has mastered some letters and is able to blend sounds into words he is ready for some “heavy duty” work with three letter short vowel words. As I visit schools and support […]

I’m excited to welcome Cathie Perolman back to the Trillium Montessori Blog!  Last time she was here, she gave us a wonderfully detailed look at many of her letter work activities.  Today she’s got a great letter sounds game to share with us.  This is perfect for students who are in the “second period” of […]

This post is written by my friend Cathie Perolman, a long time Montessorian with over 3 decades of experience!  Today she is sharing her language program with us.  I have been very inspired by Cathie’s work and have used it as a basis for the organization of my own language shelves.  I’m sure you will get a […]