How to Make Montessori Small Booklets

Children often enjoy adding words that are not already in the small booklet in space at the back. Just make sure that the word actually fits the phonogram on the front of the booklet.

Montessori small booklets are generally used to help children practice reading words with phonograms. It is very important to have an extremely diverse set of reading lessons for young readers, as the experience of learning to read makes them eager to exercise their new skill in a wide variety of arenas and in a vast array of ways. The more options they have, the more they will practice and the faster and better they will learn.

Things You'll Need

• Colored construction paper
• White paper
• Stapler
• Marker
• Scissors

Instructions

1. Cut one piece of colored construction paper and five pieces of white paper in half. Cut across the paper so that you are cutting parallel with the short side of the paper. This should give you enough for two small booklets.

2. Place five half-sheets of the white paper on top of half a piece of color construction paper. They should be arranged so that if you folded the paper in half again, you would have a booklet full of white paper with a colored paper cover.

3. Fold the stack so that you have a small booklet. The colored paper should be the cover. The white sheets are the inside pages. Fold so that your fold is parallel to the short side of the sheets of paper.

4. Staple the small booklet together along the very edge of the fold. You should use at least two staples, and they should be as even as possible.

5. Write a phonogram on the front of the booklet. A phonogram is a sound that is produced by two or more letters together that is not phonetic. For example, the "oa" in boat is a phonogram. If you were making a booklet for the "oa" sound in boat, you would write "oa" on the front of the booklet in marker.

6. Write a word on each page of the small booklet that uses the phonogram written on the cover. For example, if the cover says "ow," then you might write bow, row, snow, low, blow and grow. The words should only use one phonogram, and you can leave a few pages blank at the end of the book if you want to allow students to write in other words that also contain the phonogram.

Tips & Warnings

• Once a student understands how to read with the small booklets, you can encourage them to make their own. Subtly check the work to make sure that they are not practicing with incorrect small booklets, but do not make your supervision over-obvious as many Montessori experts believe that excessive "checking" of work can lead to hesitant students who lack confidence.