How To Teach  Reading with the Montessori Green Series

The Montessori green phonics series introduces long vowels including silent e, middle vowel teams (boat, feet, mail), r-controlled vowels, diphthongs, and variant vowels.

The Green Series material includes pictures and word label cards (used with the moveable alphabet), phonogram books, and word list cards for reading and spelling. In addition to the Green Series material, children read more complex decodable books, research science topics, build their background knowledge, and increase reading fluency and comprehension. Reading practice is strongly connected to the other subject areas (especially cultural & science) in the Montessori classroom.

Spelling patterns become a focus in Children’s writing throughout the subject areas in the classroom also. Children write research reports, letters to friends, and creative stories.

The Green Series includes 3-Part Cards (pictures, labels, and control cards) with which children use to build words with the moveable alphabet, match, or make word lists. Students work with sets of words grouped according to phonics rules. Here is a typical sequence for teaching the phonics rules:

Teach Silent “e” First

Teaching the Silent “e” rule soon after teaching CVC words expands the number of words children can read in decodable texts and increases success and confidence in reading. Words with a CVC pattern (kit) easily become long vowel CVCe with the addition of a silent e (kite). Many silent e words are high frequency words (example: like).

Examples include: cut to cute, kit to kite, hop to hope, mat to mate.

Next, Teach Vowel Teams

Vowel teams consist of two vowels in the middle of a word working together to make a long vowel sound. You may remember this little rhyme learned in elementary school for this rule: “When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.” The first vowel in the team says the long sound and the second vowel is silent as in the word “boat”.

Teach R-Controlled Vowels

An r-controlled vowel is a vowel that is followed by the letter ‘r’, which masks the vowel sound. This makes it especially difficult when trying to spell a word with a vowel followed by an “r” because it is difficult to distinguish which vowel comes before the /r/ sound.

Teach Diphthongs

Diphthongs consist of two vowels that combine in one syllable and slide from the first vowel to the second creating a blended vowel sound. Examples: “oi” as in coin, and “ou” as in loud.

Teach Silent Letters

Several words in English have silent letters that make words difficult to read or spell. Teaching the silent letters helps children know what to do when encountering them in text or when trying to write them.

Teach Phonograms

a.k.a Word Families; a.k.a. Onset and Rime

Phonomgram simply refers to “…a letter (or series of letters) that stand for a sound, syllable, or series of sounds without reference to meaning” (Blevins, Phonics From A-Z, 2nd Edition, 2006). These are often referred to as Word Families because they have the same ending sound. For example: the phonogram -ake can be used to create the words rake, take, cake, make, etc. We can also say that the rime is the vowel and everything after it. The onset is the consonant, consonant blend, or digraph that comes before it. We can have:

Short Vowel Phonograms: -ap (cap, map), -atch (catch, scratch), -ank (bank, prank)

*Most of these can follow the Pink Series (CVC words) and Blue series (Blends)

Long Vowel Phonograms: -oad (road, toad), -ide (hide, stride), -ay (say, spray)

Variant Vowel Phonograms: -irl (girl, swirl), -all (ball, squall), -aught (caught, taught)

Diphthong Phonograms: -oil (boil, spoil), -ound (bound, ground), -ould (could, should), -ook (book, shook)

Word Lists and Spelling

Word lists with spelling patterns and rules help children apply the green series to standard spelling rules in their writing. Students can use these lists to build and write words with the same spelling patterns to support their writing. Teachers can use these lists for spelling tests and assessment.

Be Systematic and Consistent

As you teach your children to read, be patient with yourself and them. Most importantly, teach phonics systematically and consistently. I have given you a systematic sequence for teaching phonics rules above that is used in many Montessori classrooms. Here is a systematic sequence for introducing each phonics rule:

Auditory Awareness: Draw attention to the sound being taught through auditory games like “I Spy”, Sound Objects, and Pictures.

Letter (s)- Sound Association: Introduce the letter symbols that make the sound using  (phonogram) Sandpaper Letters and The Moveable Alphabet.

Letter (s) Recognitions: Recognize and recall the letters connected to the sound using the 3-part cards (pictures and word labels) and The Moveable Alphabet.

Word Writing: Use the words from the 3-part cards and Moveable Alphabet activities to write words with the phonics rule on unlined or lined paper, and in booklets. For those needing a more tactile experience, write the words in rice or sand, and build with clay or wooden pieces.

Controlled Reading: Read Word Lists (without pictures), Sentence Labels, and Decodable Books with the target phonics rule.