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mumsrea
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| Posted: July 24 2008 at 4:23pm | IP Logged
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I'd like to hear how others adapted elementary material for 1st grade a child who was still an early reader. what kinds of non-reading related activities did your 1st grader like? math is an obvious one, but i'm wanting to keep ds busy outside of math and reading related other work while he moves forward. without all of the sensiorial stuff from casa, i'm wondering how to fill this gap.
mr
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: July 24 2008 at 4:59pm | IP Logged
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I am in the same boat. My 6yo dd is still an early reader (blue stage) so three-part cards, etc are not very useful to her yet. (Plus, I am actually not such a fan of learning content through 3-part cards. But that's another topic) But I don't want to hold back her learning in the content areas waiting until she reads more proficiently.
My solution so far has been to make things as hands-on as possible. She can learn by doing, and she learns vocabulary through our discussions. So, I've done things like making up trays for planting seeds, flower dissection, examining root growth,matching fur scraps to animal pictures, making animal tracks in clay, a fossil-making workshop where we made our own fossils with sculpey using pictures in books as a guide, acid-base experiments, dinosaur matching with continent maps, lots of work with the puzzle maps, color mixing trays, microscope work, leaf shape matching with laminated leaves, and lots more.
So, vocabulary has been built orally for the most part and accompanied by hands-on activities. I plan to continue this method this year as it seems to have worked very well. As her reading skills improve, I will include more and more of a reading/written component.
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Theresa
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mumsrea
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| Posted: July 24 2008 at 5:18pm | IP Logged
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mine is in the blue stage too!
I'm interested to hear more about your approach with your dd. It sounds like you've basically created an elementary sensorial curriculum - with sensorial types of work that have elementary lessons in zoology and botany as the springboard.
AFter reviewing the manuals i see ds is in for alot of material that involves him listening to me give a presentation..and not alot of independent follow up due to his reading status.
I'm looking through the (new) manuals with a view toward this and trying to find ways to create follow up work that is independent, purposeful and non-literate.
It is a bit of a disappointment to me, that so much of this stuff is kind of on hold for him. But i guess that is where someone with the 'real' education would be better able to deal. The thing is his so SMART and knowledgeable i hate giving him twaddle till he learns to read.
Sigh.
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: July 24 2008 at 7:46pm | IP Logged
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Exactly!
Rather than putting learning on hold, the trick is to find meaningful follow-up work dc can do independently that does not involve much reading.
It does require a bit of thinking outside the box as the normal activities for this age (dd is nearly 7)would be to do independent research after a presentation. Non-reading makes that tough, but I think it is still do-able and very much in line with Montessori philosophy. Even older children can learn so much by doing, rather than reading about a subject.
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Theresa
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mumsrea
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| Posted: July 24 2008 at 8:29pm | IP Logged
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Anyone else have something to add on this experience?
puhleeeze???
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montessori_lori
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| Posted: July 24 2008 at 11:56pm | IP Logged
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Just to add my $.02, as I always do :)
Okay, let's just say it. Most kids entering first grade are not fluent readers. They can't just pick up the definitions to Parts of the Earth and start reading them. I'm not sure why people think they can, but they can't.
So, what does that mean? Can you not use elementary materials with new first graders? No, that's not what it means.
You must, must always keep in mind the dual nature of elementary (Sister Mary said this to us a hundred times):
1) You must meet the child where they're at
2) You must pull them up to where they need to be
How can you do this? Well, if your child is still in blue series work (or even pink), then you give them blue series work.
Look at the contents of the september level 1 workplan at my site; almost everything there can be done by an early reader. If anything there is too difficult for them to read, you read it to them. We did that all the time at the beginning for the first graders!
In other words, rather than wait on the materials until you think the child is ready, start them and provide all the help they need until they can do a lot of it themselves.
Also, you'll be surprised at how quickly they start to recognize commonly used words and terms. It's like a lightbulb clicks on around October/November. But you gotta hang in there during September when it looks on the surface like they're in over their heads. They're not.
And, personally I don't start independent research until much later. That is simply not a goal for first graders. They need a firm foundation in the basics (language, math, spelling) before they're ready for research.
Until about late second grade, I always help with research, whether that means reading a book aloud to the child or otherwise helping them with the research.
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mumsrea
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| Posted: July 26 2008 at 3:36pm | IP Logged
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Lori you contribution is worth so much more to me that $0.02!!!! Keep it up!
mr
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Cay Gibson
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Do you have F.I.A.R.?
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"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
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mumsrea
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No, but it is on my list. Why?
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Cay Gibson
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Because I believe (and have seen) that F.I.A.R. propells an early reader forward like no other program and develops an early love of reading and literature.
And if you go to the link above, the message boards will supply you with more "non-reading related activities" (espcially for the younger set) than you can imagine.
It's a wonderful program. 
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Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
wife to Mark '86
mom to 5
Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: July 26 2008 at 8:11pm | IP Logged
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Cay Gibson wrote:
It's a wonderful program. |
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I agree! I used it with my older children and they loved it. I have many happy memories of our FIAR days!
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Theresa
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montessori_lori
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| Posted: July 26 2008 at 8:58pm | IP Logged
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I'll never forget this little girl we had when I was teaching with Sister Mary. She was an incoming first grader, she was tiny with huge blue eyes and she still sucked her thumb.
Sister Mary did a presentation for the whole class on the Continent Map during one of the first days of school. She showed how to place the arrows with the names of the different continents and oceans in the right place. Even though many of the first graders had done the map as a puzzle in 3-6, this was a new "wrinkle" to have the written names of the continents and oceans and have to place them.
Anyway, Lizzie sucked her thumb through the whole thing and it didn't even seem like she was paying attention. Later that day, we noticed her take out the Continent Map and place almost every arrow in the right place. She wasn't reading much, either, but she used the first letter(s) of the continent arrows as a guide.
Anyway, she wasn't exceptional (inasmuch as every child is in their own way); it's just that she was ready for that kind of presentation and it's the perfect example of not assuming that just because a child isn't reading fluently, they're not ready for elementary-level materials. It's the opposite; using the elementary materials is what helps them start to read fluently.
I've always loved remembering back to that because it was a really special "Montessori" moment!
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CatholicMommy
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We don't do the pink/blue/green series for reading, but I have this thought to share about the 3-part cards from one of the examiners for my training (which reiterated what the trainer had told us, but that blew right past me the first time!): The 3-part cards are meant to build on a child's memory of actual, real experiences with perhaps a bit of new information added in ("remember when we took apart that flower? let's look at these cards...") - the idea being that the experience and spoken language knowledge is able to aid the children in reading the words....
just an additional thought that intrigued me....
:)
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monica
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hi, im new to montessori. well, actually i went to a montessori preschool and kindergarten, but i havent used it much for homeschooling. just curious about what the blue and green series are? are they leveled readers? my son is 5.5 yo and he is reading the beginning bob books. i am interested in what should come next for him.
thanks
monica
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CatholicMommy
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Someone might better explain it, but from a semi-outsider's viewpoint (I own most of the material): the pink/blue/green series take phonetic, digraph, etc. words - they are placed in order of difficulty and color-coded (hence the pink/blue/green).
I intended to use them, and will end up using the word cards, but in a different manner (since I have them and don't want to NOT use them at all). I see the purpose in them, and I appreciate it, and I can see where they are very very useful, but I have found that offering "keys" to reading skills is successful as well and seems more to my environment's style.
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montessori_lori
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Hi, Monica! A detailed explanation of the Pink, Blue, and Green Series can be found here:
Montessori Basics: Pink, Blue, and Green Series
It's a system of card materials, not books, but the Bob books actually follow it fairly similarly. When it comes to readers, once your son has worked his way through all the Bob books (are there three sets?), you can buy readers at regular old bookstores labeled for K, 1st grade, etc. We use those in Montessori too.
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: July 28 2008 at 3:25pm | IP Logged
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Regarding pink/blue/green and Bob books:
My dd has completed pink and is working very well in blue, and should be moving into green very soon. For readers she just finished the set of Bob books called Level A set 2. We have some other graded readers, too. I forget the name.
Based on my experience with teaching reading to my 4 other children, I have her doing readers at a level slightly behind her decoding level. It is a great help to fluency if she does not have to decode EVERY. SINGLE. WORD. if you know what I mean.
But...this is all kind of off-topic as to the original question.
The question was about how to present/adapt elementary-level material in the content areas when your child isn't reading at that level.
Perhaps we can move this discussion of teaching reading to a thread of it's own? If anyone wants to discuss it further, please feel free to start a new thread!
And if anyone has additional ideas about the original topic here, please continue!
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Theresa
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Topic: elementary material and an early reader
