Montessori three period lesson: teaching letter sounds

The Montessori practice called “the three period lesson” is commonly used in Montessori teaching to clearly and precisely teach a child a certain concept or skill. Today I am sharing how we are teaching letter sounds with Montessori sandpaper cards using the Montessori Three Period Lesson.  A video is below to show you how you can easily use this sequence for teaching sounds, vocabulary, or for any learning and teaching you are doing with your child.

{This post contains affiliate links, please see my disclosure policy.} 

We have been learning different way to engage my son in early reading. Our goals are to not discourage him, and to hold his attention for short, productive periods of time.

Using the three period lesson with Montessori sandpaper cards to learn letter sounds incorporates both a tactile element as well as reinforcing the letter sound through auditory learning. I had to practice the three period lesson several times before feeling confident with it. This Montessori approach to teaching can be used for many subjects, such as mathematics, geography, or vocabulary.

What is phonics and how can I teach it?

Phonics is teaching the sounds that each letter makes.  When teaching letter sounds, keep your sounds short and crisp. Try not to add an “uh” sound to the end of the phoneme to prevent confusion when your reader will be ready to sound out words.

D is /d/ and not “duh”

B is /b/ and not “buh”

T is /t/ and not “tuh”

While teaching letter sounds as a starting point towards reading, Montessori teaches the phonetic sounds of the letters, rather than the letter names. The belief is that the letter names will come naturally.

“s” is no longer “esss” but “/sss/”

“w” is no longer “dubl-u” but “/www/”

Lowercase letters are formally taught before uppercase letters. (We intentionally teach uppercase letters first, you can see why at my Early Literacy Stages; I believe that teaching either is a matter of preference and experience.)  We taught uppercase letter names at first, while teaching their phonetic sounds, but now we are really focusing on calling the lowercase letters by their sound, instead of their name.

Montessori Three Period Lesson

Here is a video I created to show you how simple the Montessori Three Period Lesson can be in teaching children letter sounds using Montessori sandpaper cards.  I hope this encourages you to try to teach your child utilizing this very direct and child-centered way of teaching and learning.  I hope to make another video when my son (or daughter, who is excelling in this teaching!) agrees to be videoed.  You can see all of our YouTube videos here.

The child observes your motions, touches the sounds, and voices the sounds while acquiring the skill of concentration throughout the lesson.

1) Naming Period

Place three letters on a table. Choose one to begin and model for the child before they are to begin. Have your child trace the letter with their index and middle fingers while making the letter sound.

This is /s/
This is /m/
This is /a/

2) Recognition and Association Period

The child will recognize the phonetic sounds by repeating this period over and over. Place the letters on the table again and repeat this movement to increase memory of the letter sounds.

Show me /s/.
Where is /m/?
Can you find /a/?
Put the /s/ in your hand.
Hand me the /s/.

3) Recall Period

Place the objects, or sandpaper letters, in front of you child. This testing phase should only be used when you know the child will be confident and successful.

What is this?
/s/
/m/
/a/
We will repeat this sequence for each letter, using lowercase sandpaper cards, until we are done with the alphabet. This is a recommended letter sequence that will set your child up for the most success:

s, m, a, t, l, n, u, d, w, o, g, c, i, h, p, e, k, z, r, j, b, f, x, v, q, y

Need more ideas for your early/beginning reader?

We also love using our Montessori alphabet box. This reinforces phonics learning with hand held objects.

Check out our extensive list of readers and workbooks for ages 2 to 5 here.

Here are five more simple suggestions for phonics learning at home.

Thanks for visiting!