The most important preparation of the environment for the successful development of spoken and

written language in the childs personality is the home language. It is never too early to speak clearly
and precisely to the child. The successful environment for the language is created at home by the
mothers and the caregivers. Reading aloud for the child at home, gives the message to the child that
reading is a fun for him. Reading the story books for the child by his mother at home makes the
meaning clear and he knows how to use the word with the sense in his language. The child also
builds his vocabulary unconsciously through listening to the story books from his mother which would
never come up in spoken language.
Although reading and writing should not be taught to a child before the age of six or seven, yet he is
introduced to the concept of reading and writing by giving the sensorial experiences of appropriate
materials and sometimes as early as three or four years of age.
Since 99% of written language is in lower case letters. In the Montessori classroom and at home the
child should be taught firstly with the small alphabet rather than capital (a and b, not A and B).
During the introduction of the small alphabet to the child the sounds are pronounced instead of the
words.
Using the Moveable Alphabet
Take the small alphabet set and all the letters should be in the same colour. Take either one large
piece of cloth or the piece of paper with four lines, the top and bottom lines are pink in color and the
rest of the two lines are aquamarine.
Concept of the Grass Letters
First of all try to give the concept of the grass letters to the child. Thus, take out the letter a from the
box and place it between the first set of lines. Then teach to the child that the letter fits completely
within the middle two lines is called the grass letter and ask the child to try to find out other letters
that can be perfectly fit between the two lines. When he has placed all those letters which are fit
between two lines, tell him that these are all grass letters in small alphabet. (a, c, e, i, m, n, o, r, s, u,
v, w, x, z) These letters are called the grass letters.
Concept of the Sky Letters
Next, take out the letter b and place it at the beginning of the second set of guide lines and show to
the child that a letter with a stem goes up to the pink line is called a sky letter. Then, ask the child to
find out all other letters with the stem going up to the pink line. When the child is successful in
completing to fit the letters up to the pink line then make him introduce that these letters are called
the sky letters.(b, t, d, f, h, k, l, b).
Concept of the Root Letters

At the end, on the third set of guide line, place the letter j
The child is ready to learn about the third set of the guide line, tell the child that which
letter with a tail going down to the lower pink line is called the root letter. Then, ask the
child to find out all other letters with a tail going down. These letters are called the root
letters. (q, p, g, j, y).
Grass, sky and root letters are introduced to the child in the Montessori classrooms
through Three Period Lesson. Actually three period lesson is very important in
teaching to the children not only in the Montessori Classroom but also at home. Mothers
of all over the world can make the child intelligent through giving the basic idea of the
knowledge. So, provide the material of learning the knowledge to the child whenever he
likes.
Encourage the child in learning to write these groups of letters on a chalkboard or the
marker board after arranging them on the mat.
2. in the English language, the terms root, grass, and sky letters are applied to the letters of the

lower case alphabet only, although one could in theory claim that all capital letters should be sky
letters. Why this is, will become clear in a moment.
Root letters are those letters on which the lower part of the letter reaches below the line the
letter is written on. The letters to which this term applies are g, j, p, q, and y.
Grass letters are the letters simply 'sitting' on the line, without reaching below and not exceeding
a certain height, i.e. All grass letters are of the same height.
The following letters are consequently all grass letters: A, c, e, i, the dot above the i does not
count, m, n, o, r, s, u, v, w, x, and z.
For the sky letters, one has to imagine a line going across the top edge of the grass letters. All
the letters which have an upper part reaching above this imaginary line are called sky letters.
This term is therefore applied to the letters b, d, f, h, k, l, and t. Another way to define sky letters
would be to say that their height equals the height of capital letters.
This is also the reason why one may wish to refer to capital letters as sky letters, although this is
not generally done.
In 'English crammer', the root letter is g; the grass letters are n, i, s, c, r, a, m, m, e, and r and
the sky letters are l, h, and may be the capital E.

In 'English grammar', we have the g twice as root, n, i, s, r, a, m, m, a, and r for grass

and l, h, and possible E for sky letters.
3. The lower case or small letters of the alphabets have different shapes
and are positioned differently when written on the four lined paper.
The children in a Montessori classroom are shown how to differentiate between
them according to their shape and position on the four lines by giving separate
names to similar shaped and position of the letters.
In order to improve childs awareness regarding the shape and position
of the alphabets on the line, the child is introduced to sorting exercises.
The exercise which gives the child the concept of grass letters, root
letters and sky letters actually prepares the child indirectly for writing
on paper since the child gets a clear concept of the place and position of each
alphabet on the line.
Description:
The children are introduced to the proper placement of alphabets
using equidistant four lines. A large mat with four lines equidistant
lines made on it with the help of ribbons or other such material
mounted on it to make straight lines is used.
The top and bottom lines are pink and the two center lines are aquamarine/blue (as
on primary writing paper).
Letters which fit exactly between the two blue middle lines for example, a,
c, e, i, o, etc. are known as the grass letters.
Letters having a stem which goes up to the pink line are called sky letters, for
example, b, d, h, k etc. are known as the sky letters.
Letters having a stem which goes down to the pink line at the bottom for
example, g, j, p, q, y etc. are known as root letters.