Blue Series: Words with Consonant Blends

Direct aim. To read phonetic words that begin with a consonant blend and show understanding by matching each to its object.

Indirect aims, the ones you will not see at once

Six to eight small objects or pictures whose names begin with a blend and are otherwise spelled as they sound: frog, flag, drum, crab, plum, sled, clip.

A blue label for each, in the same lowercase print as your moveable alphabet.

Initial blends first. Words with a blend at the end, such as milk and stamp, come next, then words with both, such as frost.

The pink, blue and green color scheme is a later system and isn't in Montessori's 1912 to 1917 books. The 1912 book does the same work with labels read and laid under familiar toys; the 1917 book notes that English teaching adds phonograms because English spelling isn't phonetic.

1. 1Set out the object box and lay the objects in a row on a table or rug.Silent One object at a time, in a row.
2. 2Name each object together, leaning a little on the start: "fr-og".Say "Frog. Flag. Drum." Just the names.
3. 3Take the first label. Sound it out with a finger under each letter, "f-r-o-g", then blend: "frog".Say "f-r-o-g", slowly, then faster, until it's "frog".
4. 4Find the frog and place the label next to it.Silent Lay the label down; the match says it.
5. 5Hand the next label to the child to sound out and match.Say "Can you read this one?" Then wait, however long it takes.
6. 6When every label is placed, read the pairs together and return them to the box.Say Read each pair together, then "Let's put them away."

Two consonants sliding together at the start of a word: fr, fl, dr.

A four-letter word read in one go.

Finding blends in familiar words: the fl in flower, the st in stop.

Laying the label beside the right object.

Each label has exactly one object. A label or object left over at the end shows a mismatch.

Montessori’s name for this check is the control of error.

• Building each word with the moveable alphabet before reading its label
• Final blends: milk, tent, stamp
• Picture cards and word lists in the blue series
• Short phrases: a red flag, a big drum
• Action cards: a short command read silently, then done, as in Montessori's reading lessons

Variations

This work needs only the material, so it has no printable of its own. The shelf plan below places it among the other works for the same age.

Free to print for your family, no email needed. Print at 100%, not “fit to page”, so the drawings keep their scale. Every printable on the site is listed on the printables page.

Ready for the first presentation

Ready for the next lesson

Small objects like clips and plastic plums are choking hazards for a child under 3. Use larger stand-ins or picture cards if a toddler is around.

Leave out anything sharp, such as a real pin.

We have not bought the paid homeschool curricula, so they are not listed here.

1. Maria Montessori, The Montessori Method (1912)

   Chapter XVII, Reading

   Each card carries a well-known word naming an object that is present, and the objects are mostly toys, of which the Children's Houses have a great many.

   The child translates the written word slowly into sounds and the teacher says only "Faster" until the word bursts upon his consciousness and he recognizes it like a friend.

   When the child has read the word, he places the explanatory card under the object whose name it bears, and the exercise is finished.

   In the reading game each child draws a folded card from a basket and reads it mentally in secret; if he pronounces the name of the toy clearly and shows the right object, he may take the toy and play with it.

   Cards with long sentences describing actions are read silently by the children, who then carry out what the card tells them.

   Chapter XVII, Third Period: Exercises for the Composition of Words

   Composing words becomes a habit, so that a child alone repeats to himself the sounds of a word in order, one sound at a time.

   Chapter XVII, Description of the Method and Didactic Material Used

   The sandpaper letter cards include larger cards with groups of letters, the consonants and groups in black sandpaper on white cards.

2. Maria Montessori, The Montessori Elementary Material (1917)

   Part I, Grammar

   In English, to diminish the phonetic difficulties of the language, combinations of vowels and consonants known as phonograms are used, which with few exceptions have constant sounds.

Lesson text and the scope and sequence are CC BY 4.0: reuse them with credit to Owen Wren, Homeschool Montessori, and a link. Photos and illustrations are all rights reserved. Terms.