Maria Montessori talked about hands-on materials much more than books. Still, books are very important in any Montessori-friendly home, homeschool classroom, or Montessori classroom.
Along with hands-on activities, reading books is one of the best ways to reinforce interest-led learning and a love of learning in general. And there’s no denying the positive feelings for learning that come from the closeness shared in reading books together.
There are some important days throughout the year that would be especially fun to place an extra emphasis on books.
Thoughts from Montessorians about Reading Aloud and Montessori Reading Programs
Donna Bryant Goertz at Maria Montessori gives examples of parents reading to their children in Reading Aloud: a Gift That Keeps on Giving. One of the benefits listed includes the benefit of supporting your child’s work at school: “When parents continue reading aloud to their child two years above the child’s own reading level, not only is family time filled with rich companionship and fine discussions, but also the child’s mind is filled with appropriate subject matter for research and projects at school with work partners.”
Montessori for Everyone has an interesting post about Montessori-compatible reading programs: What Kind of Reading Program belongs in Montessori?
North American Montessori Center has a number of articles with ideas about Montessori and books: Montessori Storytelling: True Stories in the Elementary Environment, Montessori Storytelling: True Stories in the Early Childhood Environment, Montessori Curriculum Overview: Language Arts, Montessori Musings: Development Needed Before Reading, Tall Tales in a Montessori Elementary Classroom, Reading Aloud to Children: Part I, Reading Aloud to Children: Part II, Reading Aloud to Children: Part III, and Montessori Perspectives: Lower Elementary Reading Programs.
My Confessions of a Montessori Mom Blog has a post about Montessori and literature: What are Montessori’s thoughts on reading great literature and reading widely?
Lakeland Montessori describes its language and reading program from preschool through elementary school.
Montessori-Inspired Literature-Based Activities
Here are my other literature-based posts:
Montessori-Inspired Dr. Seuss Activities
Montessori-Inspired Eric Carle Activities
How to Help Your Child Treasure Books
Simple Tips for Organizing Your Homeschool Library
Montessori-Inspired Activities for the Tortoise and the Hare
Goodnight Moon Resources and Activities
Montessori-Inspired Activities for Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
Free Mitten Printables and Montessori-Inspired Mitten Activities
Montessori-Inspired Brown Bear, Brown Bear Activities
Using Children’s Books to Raise Awareness about Hunger
Montessori Book Baskets for Babies, Toddlers, and Preschoolers
50+ Montessori-Inspired Dr. Seuss Activities,
30+ Dr. Seuss Inspired Phonics Activities
{Dr. Seuss Inspired} Cat in the Hat Sensory Bin
How to Teach Toddlers and Preschoolers to Take Care of Books
Favorite Montessori-Friendly Books for a 2 Year Old
Spring Book Lists for Preschool and Elementary Kids: Garden Adventures Around the World
Best Children’s Books about the Death of a Pet
Free Kissing Hand Songs, Poems, and Videos to Ease Separation Anxiety
The Best Children’s Books about Taking Turns and Sharing
The Best Classic Children’s Books for Preschoolers
A Secure Base has posts on Montessori-inspired reading to toddlers: Reading to a Young Toddler, the Montessori Way and Board Books for a Montessori Household.
My Montessori-Inspired Unit Studies typically have links to some themed posts that include related books: Should You Use Unit Studies? (my post with links to all my unit-studies posts). Often books can be displayed along with some of the Montessori activities as in my post on Montessori-Inspired Music Appreciation: Swan Lake.
How Many Spots on the Cow? (Photo from The Preschool Experiment)
Montessori-inspired unit studies can also be based on a book rather than on a theme with a number of related books. For example, Preschool Experiment has a number of activity trays based on the book Goodnight Moon; The Adventures of Bear has a Goodnight Moon sensory bin. I have some book-based units in my Montessori-inspired unit studies posts. You’ll find lots of Montessori-inspired activities based on books in my Montessori-Inspired Dr. Seuss Activities and Montessori-Inspired Eric Carle Activities.
Diary of a Montessori Teacher (which I discovered is a blog by Melissa from Vibrant Wanderings!) has a Literature Unit.
Confessions of a Montessori Mom Blog has The Study of Aesop’s Fables for Your Montessori Environment.
Desert Mountain Montessori has weekly literature circles for middle school and high school students.
Literature-Based Activities Pinterest Board
Pinterest – Literature-Based Activities
While not all the activities on my Literature-Based Activities Pinterest Board are Montessori-inspired activities, you’ll find lots of great activities of all types and for many levels that help promote a love of reading and learning.
Happy reading! 🙂
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Brenna says
September 6, 2012 at 7:02 amBooks are a big part of my lesson planning. My preschool students have had parents visit class to read their favorite books. They love that!
We have Skyped other classes across the USA and around the world http://www.brennaphillips.com/big-thanks-for-skype-reading They love that technology.
We have had real vs. make-believe dress up costume day. They love that, too.
We took a field trip to the library for story time. They loved the bus ride.
Deb says
September 10, 2012 at 4:12 pmThanks for your comment, Brenna … awesome ideas! I LOVE that you’ve Skyped other classes. I’m such a fan of Skype and the ways it can connect people everywhere! 🙂
Casey says
September 6, 2012 at 7:22 amLove! I’m very big on reading, and I hope I’m passing that joy onto my children as well. We read several times a day. I’ve been reading a chapter book to them during the day, and we always read one of their story books before bed. My oldest (4) is working on pre-level 1 readers.
We just organized our home library based on a post from Counting Coconuts. And the kids love it. They like to play librarian now!
Thanks for these posts, I’m looking forward to reading more about how to incorporate Montessori into the reading we do!
Deb says
September 10, 2012 at 4:13 pmThanks for your comment, Casey! That’s awesome … great ways to help your kids have a love of books! 🙂
cathie j says
September 6, 2012 at 7:37 amThanks for the post on books. Love using them with children. It’s fun when children have the job of taking care of the library area. Some take their job very serious.
cathiej at toddlersthroughpreschool.com
Deb says
September 10, 2012 at 4:14 pmThanks, Cathie! It’s so true that it’s great when kids are taught to take care of the library area. I always appreciated the extra help, too! :))
Lisa says
September 7, 2012 at 9:30 amWhat a great post. I haven’t made sensory boxes from stories but am very interested in the idea!
Deb says
September 10, 2012 at 4:18 pmThanks for your kind comment, Lisa! I LOVE sensory boxes based on books! I just pinned a great one yesterday to my Literature-Based Board as well as a fun literature-based sensory bottle idea to my Any-Season Sensory Tubs/Sensory Experiences Board at http://pinterest.com/debchitwood/any-season-sensory-tubs-sensory-experiences/. 🙂
Jill says
September 7, 2012 at 11:17 amWhat a great resource (I feel like I say that to you every time I comment on your site but it is true!). I just clicked over to your Eric Carle inspired activities and I have never seen some of those activities and ideas. They look like so much fun (like the necklace!). Thank you for linking up this week to my Enchanted Thursdays Blog Hop!
Deb says
September 10, 2012 at 4:22 pmThanks, Jill … I really appreciate your kind comments! That necklace is great isn’t it?! I love the creativity I find online from so many mom bloggers! 🙂
Jess (aka Seamama) says
September 7, 2012 at 12:40 pmYou always have such great ideas and resources. Little A will start more of her “education at home” when she turns 2 and I think some of your resources on literature based unit studies will be of use. Thanks Deb!
Deb says
September 10, 2012 at 4:26 pmThanks so much, Jess! I miss having a child of that age … have fun! 🙂
Beth says
September 8, 2012 at 9:51 amYou always have such wonderful round ups! We do a cow activity with counting cows we see on roadtrips =-) Thanks for linking up to TGIF! Have a great weekend,
Beth =-)
Deb says
September 10, 2012 at 4:27 pmThanks so much, Beth! That’s a great car game! I hope your weekend was awesome! 🙂
Martianne says
September 10, 2012 at 6:24 amHave you heard of The Daily Five? It’s mean for classroom use, but I am slowly implementing parts of it at home. It’s not Montessori, but it compliments nicely, I feel, since it encourages independence in reading, writing and word work. There is a book about it and sites, too. It may be worth a google search for interested homeschoolers or even non Montessori school Montessori-inspired classroom teachers who still must stick to state or school standards that require a specific literature block.
Deb says
September 10, 2012 at 4:35 pmThanks so much for your comment, Martianne! I just found a bunch of Daily 5 resources on Pinterest … it looks like it would be easy to use in a number of different environments! 🙂
Ness says
September 14, 2012 at 8:59 amAs always, a fantastic list of links and resources. I am always working to foster a love of books in my son and I love reading about this from a Montessori perspective. I’ve featured this post on my blog today as one of my favourites from last week’s Weekly Kids Co-op. Thanks for linking up.
Deb says
September 17, 2012 at 8:39 pmThanks so much, Ness! I really appreciate your featuring my post! 🙂
Rebecca says
September 15, 2012 at 1:22 amThats interesting that you advise reading books two years above the reading age. I think I need to push my eldest Molly. She lives picture books and really isn’t keen to move on to chapter books for her bedtime stories.
Thanks for linking to the Sunday showcase. I have pinned this to our board.
Deb says
September 17, 2012 at 8:44 pmThanks, Rebecca! My husband used to read more advanced books to our kids when they growing up. It was always a special time for our kids and my husband. I think some of the earliest chapter books I started reading to my kids were the Little House on the Prairie books. I grew up 40 miles from De Smet, South Dakota, so I always loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and used them as character examples for lots of occasions!