Language Art Lesson Plan

For Kamina’s language art curriculum I’m using the Primary Arts of Language Reading and Writing package from Institute for Excellence in Writing as the skeleton and Waldorf methods of story telling as a way of introducing new letters, sounds, word families and other language arts concepts. Traditional Montessori methods of colored word series will be used to practice and reinforce the learned concept and skills. Contrary to the normal Waldorf sequence of introduction, or the PAL’s for that matter, I will introduce the upper and lower cases together, instead of one ahead of the other. It seems to make the most sense, especially since we are doing copying and printing from the beginning and using both cases simultaneously in sentence writing.  One of the things of PAL that is different from almost every other program I have seen is that it introduces phonograms and phonemes at the same time as introducing letters. I think this actually is in keep with Waldorf’s philosophy of whole to parts. Another common ground between PAL, Waldorf and Montessori is that none of them is solely phonetic or sight, instead they’re a combination of both, as English language is not purely a phonetic or sight language. And in keeping with all three programs, when we first introduce something new, we don’t need to drive anything home, it’s the constant exposure and repetition through stories, poetry, games, movement, drawing and modeling.


Story telling is Waldorf’s way of introducing letters. It seems typical in all the curriculum material I’ve read so far that Waldorf schools introduce (capital letters) through an ongoing story. In such a story, there usually is a group of main characters going on a quest. Every so often, the father/mother figure would tell a story (often times than not a Grimm’s story) that would introduce a new letter. The student(s) then draw some pictures depicting the scenes of the story, along with the capital letter. Sometimes the letter writing is tied in with form drawing as well. I really like this way of introducing letters. From observing Kamina, children usually love stories, and through the telling of stories, the letters have a more concrete association in their minds. Adding to that, the drawing and acting out the story only reinforce the impression.  


Sandpaper letters and sound objects/pictures is Montessori’s way of introducing letters/sounds. Sandpaper letters is often credited as one of the most important Montessori material for teaching language. It combines the sense of touch with language learning, in a way, letting the fingers memorize the shape of a letter as well as the conscious brain.  Sound objects/pictures let the children get familiar with the phonics associated with each letter. In my opinion, it adds breadth and depth to the vivid impression introduced by the Waldorf stories, hence the two complement each other rather well.  There are other language material used in Montessori setting that works really well in the writing practice, such as moveable alphabet, sand trays, etc.