Montessori Grammar Symbols

Maria Montessori, knowing that children respond well to shapes and colors, used a system of colored shapes to represent the different parts of speech.

These are taught during the early years in the children’s house – introduced as the 3-D shapes initially.  Then, in 1^st grade and beyond, they are introduced again and used in many ways in the classroom.

By the time the child begins sentence analysis, these are already very familiar and the names of the words are quickly and easily memorized – making grammar study not so intimidating (not to mention not so boring!)

(Picture borrowed from www.montessoriforeveryone.com)
Each shape and color has a meaning:

1. The Noun is represented by a black triangle. The triangle stands for the pyramid, one of the first human structures, and black is for carbon, believed to be the first mineral discovered by humans.

2. The Adjective (small dark blue triangle), Article (smaller light blue triangle), and Pronoun (large purple triangle) are part of The Noun Family and so use the triangular shape with different colors.

3. The Verb is a circle, to represent the shape of the sun which gives life. The red color also symbolizes life (blood). The verb gives life to the sentence. The Adverb is a smaller circle and is often pictured orbiting the verb like a planet; it depends on the verb for existence.

4. The Conjunction is a small pink bar which represents a link in a chain; the Preposition is a green crescent to symbolize a bridge. It bridges the noun to other words in the sentence.

5. The Interjection is a gold triangle with a circle on top; it combines the symbols of the noun and the verb together

Montessori Language Sample Lesson – Symbolizing:  The Predicate

In this lesson, my daughter is already familiar with Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs and Articles.  I’ve just given a lesson on Predicates and now she will practice what she has just learned.  This will take a lot of repetition with various activities – but this is the first step I use with her because it keeps her interest high and her failure rate to a minimum!  (Another motivating factor for her is being able to self-correct.)

To add interest, I use cut out words which are color-coded to match the Montessori grammar symbols.  I laminate them so they will last.  This helps her come up with creative sentences to use for her first attempts at symbolizing sentences.

Later, I'll give her a page with sentences and eventually, a whole paragraph from a story or book to symbolize.  I may just ask her to start with symbolizing 1 or 2 types of words.  My 4th grader can symbolize a paragraph with nouns, verbs, articles, predicates, interjections, adjectives, adverbs and conjunctions.

You don't have to purchase expensive Montessori materials for this, you can simply create your own or get them online and laminate them.  I did purchase  small template with the "official" shapes so the kids can make their symbolizing more neat - and it's a bit more fun as well!

Montessori Sentence Analysis - Lesson 1

Here is one of the most basic Montessori Language Lessons on  Sentence Analysis.

This material is presented after the child is already familiar with the Montessori shapes that represent the different words.  For example:  A red circle represents the action and the person or thing is represented by a smaller, black circle, etc.  Later, once these concepts are mastered, the child is given the names for each of these words such as ‘verb’ or ‘noun’.  They are quickly memorized at this point.

I’m still working with “K” (my daughter) on these but also starting sentence analysis at the same time.

I prepare a simple sentence on a strip of paper using a noun and a verb.  “Fred eats cheeseburgers.”

I ask her to read the sentence aloud. 

Next steps:

1)      I ask her to find the first action word.

2)      She cuts out the action:  “eats”

3)      I have her place the action “eats” at the top of the table and have her symbolize it using the Montessori symbols she is already familiar with.  (The red circle represents the verb.)

4)      She reads the remaining words. (“Fred and cheesburgers”)

5)      I ask her, “Who eats?”

6)      I tell her that for this, we have a new symbol.  I place the black arrow (with the point away from the action) next to the first action.  I tell her that this is how we symbolize “the thing (or person) that does the action.”

7)      I have her place “Fred” to the left of the black arrow.

8)      Then I ask her “what” Fred eats.  She places the word “cheeseburgers” to the right of the verb.

NOTE: Both nouns are placed on black circles because in Montessori, the black circle represents the "person, place or thing" - the noun.

We can then play around with the words to see that they only sound correct when they are in this order.

This is a very simple operation, but this will build into large and complex sentence dissection in the future.  (I’ll share some of those soon!)

From here, she has some follow-up work that includes writing some of her own sentences which use two nouns and a verb.

This operation will build and build into complex sentence analysis.

When complex sentence analysis is started at this age, then when the child is required in 6^th or 7^th grade to do this type of work it will come easy to her! 

Montessori Sentence Analysis - Set 2

The Montessori Sentence Analysis materials include several box sets of materials.

This material is presented after the child has a strong grasp on all of the grammar symbols and has completed work with the Simple Sentence Analysis (Set 1) Montessori materials.

The first set of materials focuses on simple sentence analysis which is a Red circle (verb) and two black circles for nouns.  These are then referred to as the subject and the predicate.  For example, when I flip over the red circle, it will say “predicate” on the back.  This shows the child the beginnings of sentence analysis.

The second set (which I will demonstrate here) has many shapes and arrows which represent various parts of a sentence.  These are worked through one step at a time and I will admit I’ve had some trouble figuring out the proper order.  I know I need to work by adding one new item at a time – but haven’t found any really good websites that provide me with sentences to work with so I can be sure to move at the right pace.

So my  4th grader son and I were a tad confused today as we worked through the example – but we made it through!  I wish it could be nice and smooth – but then, I’m not a trained Montessori teacher... only wish I was! 

Here is our attempt this morning of a more complex sentence analysis.  Since he has already worked through several applications of this with a trained AMI teacher, he was able to pick up right where he left off fairly well.

The sentence we used is below. 

“All afternoon the shy donkeys contentedly nibbled grass from the meadow down the road.”

 I write the sentence on a strip of paper so it can be cut apart.

We always start with the most important question – the action in the sentence.

What is the action?  “Nibbled”  The child cuts or tears out the word “nibbled” and puts it on the red circle (which represents the verb and, as the child will soon see, is also the predicate.) On the back of the red circle is the word "predicate" which will be turned over for him to see.

Who did the action? “The donkeys” (This noun is also the subject.)  The child tears out “The donkeys” and puts them on the circle to represent a noun.  (In the picture, my son put the blue triangle under the donkeys because it also stated that they were “shy” which is an adjective.  The blue triangle represents an adjective. 

How?  Is the next question.  “Contentedly” is then cut out and put on the arrow that says ‘how’ with an orange circle which represents an adverb.

We continue with questions such as “Where?” and “When?” and cut and put the words on the analysis shapes as we go.

Then I ask my son to create some sentences on his own and analyze them.  He documents his work in his grammar booklet.  I find this idea of “writing your own textbook” to be very effective.  This way, he can look back at his own notes and know right away where to find an answer he needs.

There are many parts and many possibilities for sentence analysis with the Montessori language materials.  They make grammar more fun.  But I am still learning how to use the many moving parts.

Here is a picture of one of the control charts to help guide the child (and you) through all the possibilities.  Of course, there are even more possibilities than are on this chart which I’m still working through myself.

If you’re interested in finding some of these materials, there are a few websites who will sell you a PDF document that you can print, laminate and cut out the shapes and information to get you started.  Or,  you can find several places online who will sell the wooden pieces as I have purchased here.  Shop around, you’ll find some prices are much lower than others!  Not all Montessori materials have to be expensive, although many of them are so it’s good to get creative and save some money by making them yourself.

For my son, who doesn’t like to write, this keeps him interested enough to complete the work.  And because he is doing the work hands-on, he really does remember it well. 

There is a website which has some pretty good instructions on many Montessori subjects, including this language example.  Here is the website:

Montessori Language Sentence Analysis

Also, there is a control chart that makes it easy for the child to analyze sentences on his own using this chart as a way to check his work.

Happy Analyzing!