Moveable Alphabet

Materials:     

  • Loose wood or plastic lower-case letters in the same style as the Sandpaper Letters. Consonants are red/pink and vowels are blue

  • These letters are in a prepared box with a compartment for each letter. The letters are organized by size and not in alphabetical order

  • Similar boxes with smaller sized letters for later work

  • Rug with lines (optional)

Purposes:

  • To reproduce words with graphic symbols

  • To help the child in the exploration and analysis of their language

  • Direct preparation for writing and reading

Age: 4 and up

Preparation:

  • The child is confident with the 4th level of the Sound Games 

  • The child knows the sounds of at least 15 Sandpaper Letters, including some vowels

Parallel Work: Continue presenting the remaining Sandpaper Letters and Phonograms

Preparation Exercise:

  • Invite the child to lay a rug out horizontally.

  • Model how to carry the Moveable Alphabet and help carry it if necessary. Also, bring the Sandpaper Letter record card.

  • Place the box at the top of the rug.

  • One at a time, remove the sounds the child has been presented with, place them on the rug below the box, and ask the child to tell you the sound.

    • If the child cannot remember a sound, get its corresponding Sandpaper Letter, and make the association with the child.  Let them trace.

  • Once all are verified, model how to put them back in the box. Encourage the child to help.  

Presentation: 

  • Explain that we can write words with the letters.

  • Model thinking of a word, use it in a sentence and slowly sound it out as you build it. 

  • Repeat for several.

  • When you are finished, show the child how to stack duplicate letters and put them in the box.

  • Invite the child to think of their own words to build or they can build some of the words you made.

  • Fade, but not too far, and observe.

Control of Error: The child’s own ability to analyze the sounds in the words.  

*It is okay to correct the child if they place the letters upside-down, backward or if they start writing on the right side of the rug.

Following Exercises:  Offer these shortly after the initial presentation

  • Word into Phrase: Encourage the child to select one of the words that they had already written and expand it into a phrase.

  • Original Composition:  Encourage the child to come up with phrases.  Use the Question Game as a good starting point. 

  • Writing Lists: Help the child find a classification they enjoy and write a list. Example: types of fruit, kinds of cookies, race car drivers, kinds of fish, etc.

  • Writing Stories, Reports, or Letters:  Write about a topic of interest or draft a friendly letter/holiday greeting.

The Don’ts:

  1. Do not correct the child’s spelling. Let go of the idea that correct spelling happens at this point.  The child is spelling according to what their ear hears. It is a phonetic spelling.

  2. Do not ask the child to read the words they constructed. Reading is a completely different mental process that the child is not yet prepared for. This is a writing exercise, not a reading exercise.  

    • Writing comes before reading because it is a simpler process.  We are recording a word that is already in our mind which is called encoding.

  3. Do not ask the child to write the words onto paper. Chances are fair that their hand is not ready to write the letters-which is why we have the movable alphabet in the first place!  When the child does show an interest in writing, offer the supplies to do so. 

  4. Do not dictate words for the child.  Writing comes from the thoughts of the creator. Prompt the child by asking questions like, “what are your favorite animals?”

  5. Do not assume a word is too complicated. There are many long phonetic words that children have little difficulty navigating. Example: napkin, hotdog, fantastic.

Pedagogical Notes:

  • Once the child has started working with the moveable alphabet, encourage them to take it out regularly. Aim for two to three times a week.

  • If the child asks for a sound they don’t know-just show them and be sure to present it later that day.

  • Encourage the child to increase the complexity of the words they are using by asking questions. Example: “What is another word you know that means the same as happy?”

  • Keep the boxes neat and tidy.

  • This is one of the few materials that we have multiples of in the classroom.

  • Dr. Montessori’s original letters were the same size as the Sandpaper Letters.

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Sandpaper Letters

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Metal Insets