Question 1.

How do we give the concept of grass letters, sky letters

and root letters to the child?

It is never too early or too soon to speak clearly and precisely to a

child to develop and subsequently improve their spoken and written
language. This learning exercise begins at home, within a facilitative
environment created by the parents or caregivers. Reading
conducive but fun stories out loud are an example of what can be
done to help build a child’s vocabulary naturally in a fun manner,
while also instilling a love for reading and literature within him.

Ideally, there should be refrain in terms of teaching kids to read and

write before the age of six/seven, however, in preparation for it,
certain things may be taught to create a helpful base. This includes
introducing children to sensorial experiences of appropriate
materials as early as the age of three years old.

A vast majority of written language is based in lower case letters,

and as such these should be introduced and taught first to the child
as opposed to capital letters; for e.g. ‘a’ instead of ‘A’. During this
stage, only sounds are pronounced instead of words themselves.

Material:

- Small Moveable Alphabet (all in the same colour)

- Large piece of paper with four lines; top and bottom lines are pink
in colour while the rest are aquamarine

Concept of the Grass Letters: The directress starts off by

introducing the concept of the grass letters to children. She takes
out the letter ‘a’ from the box and places it right between the first
set of lines. She then demonstrates to them how the letter fits
completely between the middle two lines, and this is what is
referred to as the ‘grass letter’. She then asks the children to find
other letters that fit between said lines in the same way. When they
have done so with all the possible letters, she announces that these
are known as the “grass letters in small alphabet”, i.e. a, c, e, i, m, n,
o, r, s, u, v, w, x and z.

Concept of the Sky Letters: Next up, she takes out the letter ‘b’ and
places it at the start of the second set of guide lines and
demonstrates to the students that a letter with a stem that goes up
all the way to the pink line is known as a ‘sky letter’. Again, like
earlier, she asks them to find other letters whereby the stem goes
up to the pink line. When they have successfully done so with all the
possible letters, she announces that these are known as the “sky
letters in small alphabet”, i.e. b, d, f, h, k, l, and t.

Concept of the Root Letters: Lastly, she places the letter ‘j’ on the
third set of guide lines as the children are now ready for this stage.
She explains to them that a letter with a tail going down to the lower
pink line is known as a ‘root letter’. She then encourages them to
find all such letters with a tail going down. Once they have
successfully done so, she announces that such letters are known as
the “root letters in small alphabet”, i.e. g, p, q, j and y.

Grass, sky and root letters are introduced to children in the

Montessori Classrooms through Three Period Lessons, which is a
very useful method of teaching them not just in the classroom
setting but in the home environment as well. It is vital that both
directresses and parents encourage the child in the process of
learning to write these groups of letters on a chalkboard or the
marker board after arranging them out on the mat.