8 Montessori Activities for Oral/ Spoken Language
I often see parents jumping into writing and reading work from extremely young ages. However, reading and writing is only half of what language learning comprises. We cannot jump the gun, but should lay the foundation. The foundation of strong receptive, oral and communicative skills precedes reading and writing. For long term language success, we should not narrowly focus on writing and character recognition to the exclusion of other aspects of language learning. In my previous post, I talked about how language and culture are inextricable, and we should teach Mandarin alongside Chinese culture.
In this post, I’ll give you ideas for spoken and early written language work in Mandarin (or really any language) that you can put together using items you probably already own.
My sequence is loosely based on the Montessori progression for the English language, starting with sound games and vocabulary, then progressing to writing and finally reading (reading isn’t covered in this post but I will write about it at some point)
- language basket of common items ONLY (nouns) — “I spy” variation
- playing games in spoken Mandarin (verbs)
- playing games in written Mandarin (optional)
- language basket of common items for syllable segmentation
- language basket of common items AND cards with written words
- early writing activities in sand or vanishing scrolls (nothing permanent)
- interactive Mandarin books at any age and stage
Let’s begin…
1. Language basket of common items ONLY
Start gathering objects your child may see in daily life. You could group food together, or cleaning tools, and use them to casually converse in your target language with your child. Use common items – the more your child comes into contact with them, the more he will associate the Chinese word with the object. In Montessori, children learn and remember the real, tangible thing far more deeply than a mere picture.
2. “I spy” bottle
I’m using a windowblock but you could recycle a mineral water bottle for this. Just use smaller items that fit through the opening. Again, I’ve used some figurines of different occupations that the children would come across in daily life. This is a variation of Activity 1 above. By shaking the windowblock, the fuse beads roll away to reveal the figurines. This is when you could give your children the names in Mandarin and converse informally about their jobs. Plus, this packs away easily for travelling!
My child wanted to help dissemble the windowblock with a screwdriver and fill it with beads. The more chances for her to work with this in her own ways, the more meaningful the exposure! Let them help you make the work, and use the opportunity to converse very organically in Mandarin.
Natural daily conversations are far more effective in building understanding than Chinese enrichment lessons! I remember when my daughter, then 2.5yo, attended a bilingual English/ French Montessori nursery in the UK. Within a fortnight of her starting, she could understand French because there was a teacher who spoke to her solely in French. If a toddler has the power to soak up a completely foreign language in 2 weeks, need we worry about their reading and writing? It WILL happen, if we just lay the foundations of understanding and oracy (speaking) first.
3. Playing games in spoken Mandarin, emphasising verbs
Games are an especially effective way of learning and using verbs! Many games are meant to be universally understood without language so all you need to do is play it while speaking Mandarin. In addition, you can also model how to use direction words like “up”, “down”, “left”, “right” when you play a game like Bunny Peek-a-Boo.
Or this smiley-faced Jenga which we found at a Japanese supermarket, where we used more verbs like “push” and “pull”.
Once you have nouns AND verbs, your child can form sentences endlessly!
4. Playing games in written Mandarin
This pertains more to reading, which in Montessori happens after learning to write. If your child isn’t ready for this yet, omit this, or you read it out and play together.
This is based on the Bring Me command game which Montessori schools play, where the child reads a little card and performs the action or fetches the item written on the card. It incorporates movement and use of the whole environment in language, cementing it in a multisensory way.
I’d love to hear what games you incorporate into your Chinese learning!
5. Language basket of common items for syllable segmentation
A nice connecting activity that bridges the earlier baskets on spoken language work only and the later ones that feature more character recognition and written work. I’ve done it in English as part of our sound games, but I changed out the objects and offered this in Chinese too.
In addition to the objects you’ve chosen, you’ll need several magnets, or glass pebbles, or stones. As the child sets the animal down on the tray, he or she can say its Mandarin name. If it’s two syllables long, he places the corresponding number of pebbles (two) under the animal. This makes the child aware of the different syllables in each word, as a preparatory step towards writing.
To make it a little more fun, I cut out some Daiso magnetic sheeting to serve as the base of the tray, so that the wood magnets would stick.
Variation: substitute with objects related to Lunar New Year, Mid-Autumn Festival or others, during cultural festivals.
6. Language baskets of common items AND cards with written words
I did this around Chinese New Year, to familiarise the children with terms for different family members.
Here’s another language basket where they have to match the objects (thumb-sized playground miniatures from a German toy shop) with the cards. I handwrite all of the cards, ideally in the children’s presence, so they can see my stroke order. For this one, I started including hanyupinyin because my elder son had started learning it in school, if not, just the Chinese characters will suffice,
7. Early writing activities
These spoken language baskets can be offered simultaneously with some preparatory early writing work. You could set up a Montessori sand tray (or rice here- which I wouldn’t recommend because I have since changed my mind on using food items as learning materials, unless we can finish the activity by cooking the food instead of throwing the uncooked grains away.) The impermanence of a sand writing tray ensures that children get to practise their writing but don’t form the habit of writing incorrectly as they can simply shake the tray to erase their mistakes.
This extremely simple book had large Mandarin numerals, making it perfect for a writing activity.
Another culturally-appropriate variant would be the Chinese calligraphy water scrolls. You dip a thick calligraphy brush in water but when you press the brush to the scroll, the water appears inky black.
Don’t be too concerned if your child is “behind”. Focus on the oral aspects of Chinese first.
In A Path for the Exploration of Any Language Leading to Writing and Reading, Muriel Dwyer explains: “Writing as a discipline requires both physical and mental abilities and if one were to impose it at an inappropriate age when the separate abilities were being prepared but not yet ready. Instead of leading the child to learn successfully and joyously, one was bound to build resistance against it.”
8. Books!
Can’t get enough of books! If you are not a confident speaker of Mandarin, you may like to choose interactive books, like pop-up or lift-the-flap books. The vocabulary is simple and relatable to real life, the interactive elements make it more fun.
The children visit their bilingual bookshelf, with a seat next to it, many times daily. If you practise OPOL, you could have two bookshelves, one for English and one for Mandarin, with a picture of the parent who speaks that language above each bookshelf. If you mix your languages, as I do, just put all your books into one shelf.
You might also like Part 1 of this post:
Supporting Your Child’s Explosion into Writing – without worksheets or “academics”