This month the curriculum focus will be on Language. While many of you are familiar with iconic Montessori materials such as the Moveable Alphabet, you may not realize that the most powerful language arts material is the human voice. Language development begins as children listen to us. It forms the basis for their oral language development. Below are some suggestions from the teachers you can use to support your child’s work at school: Have meaningful conversations with your child, starting at birth. Although they will not speak back, it forms the basis of understanding of how language works; Talk to your child to help them work through conflict and emotions and solve problems; Read with your child every day, starting in infancy. While you will read baby board books to your infant, you can also read picture books. Picture books will be read to your three and four year old child, but you can read novels to them as well. It is okay and important to read to them at a level beyond “where they are”; Help your child learn the sounds letters make, not just the name of the letter.
Language experiences help children relate the spoken words of language to the written form of communication. This month children will explore language in various forms such as vocabulary classification and matching activities to further the development of skills required for visual perception and oral comprehension.
