Object Boxes

I have been working hard on getting my language shelves ready to go.  In the last few posts, I included links for downloading my red/yellow/blue (CVC words) and blue series (consonant blends with short vowels) files for the word drawers.  I have also finished creating my "green" series of picture and word cards.  These have the consonant digraphs (sh, ch, th) and the vowel pairs and phonograms (i.e. /ee/  /oo/, etc.).  Within the next few days, I will make those available to download.  For future reference, I have added a "Free Downloads" link on the sidebar that will take you to the posts that contain free downloadable files. 

Today I had a few hours up at school and got busy organizing my object boxes.  For those of you who are unfamiliar, these are boxes that contain a set of letters along with corresponding little 3-dimensional objects to match to the letters by initial sound.  The previous teachers already had these boxes ready to go and divided into the red/yellow/blue groups.  However, I found some clear plastic flip-top containers at Wal-Mart that I decided to use to hold the materials.  I printed labels for each box as well.  Here is the link to download the labels if you are interested:  Download object_box_labels.doc    I just printed these on white shipping labels and stuck them on the lid of the boxes. 

This is a photo of the first object box.  So, after a child has learned the first four sounds (r  a  m  f), they can do this work.  The photo doesn't show it well, but the letters are actually little wooden puzzles, so the letter part comes out of the base.  These were already here when I came on the scene, and I kind of liked them, so I'm keeping them with this work for now. 

Here is a photo of one of my language shelves.  (The one that is closest to being "ready").  Each shelf has the activities for each letter group (red/yellow/blue).  At the far right on each shelf are the two object boxes for that group of letters.  I have a few things to add to these shelves before I'm satisfied.  When I have them completely ready, I will devote an entire post to this shelf with close-ups of each activity so you can see the sequence.  Today I just thought it would make me feel better to show a shelf that looks ready to go.  (Even though I know it's not totally ready.)

Comments

[Kim Marroquin]

What a helpful site for Assistant who want to help their Teachers in the classroom! Thank you so much for all the downloads and information. I've never see a site with so much and so many ideas. Again thank you!!

[Becky]

I was wondering the same thing :)

[Eileen Chua]

Hi,
can you advice on this.
For montessori style learning alphabet phonics, they dont learn like Jolly phonics as in A-Z order because what i see for your objects box is r,a,m,f instead if a,b,c,d
Can you advice on this and after learning the alphabet and phonics of the alphabet what should i do the next stept?

Thanks a million

[Malaria]

Great site,this information really helped me , I really appreciate it.Thanks a lot for a bunch of good tips. I look forward to reading more on the topic in the future. Keep up the good work! This blog is going to be great resource. Love reading it.

[Amber Lemmon]

quick question what materials are in between the sandpaper letters and object boxes?

thanks

[Joyful Abode]

Ditto... I'd also love a in-depth look at these activities.

[Kylie]

Just wanted to say a quick thank you for your blog. I am now an avid reader, you have helped me greatly to get some Montessori inspred materials happening in our home school. I know I am being pushy here *grin* but are you still planning on coming back to explain all of these activities on your 'pre-reading' shelf in detail? :) :) :)