Montessori Grammar Symbols: Printable Activity Pack

Learning grammar doesn’t have to be dull and tedious! The Montessori Grammar Symbols Printable Activity Pack offers children a chance to play around with the different parts of speech and explore grammar while having fun. In the process they’ll develop vocabulary and sentence construction abilities, while they master each part of speech effortlessly.

What are Montessori Grammar Symbols?

Montessori grammar symbols are visual representations of the different parts of speech used to introduce and allow children to explore different grammatical concepts.

Because parts of speech are already a very abstract concept, Montessori’s grammar symbols can help children better understand what function each word plays in a sentence, without getting caught up on the proper terminology. As students work with the grammar symbols, they’ll begin to conceptualize the importance each part of speech has within a sentence. Eventually, they’ll be able to easily distinguish between nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc. — minus the boredom associated with traditional grammar work!

How to Use the Montessori Grammar Symbols Activity Pack

Introduce the different parts of speech and their corresponding symbol.

I like to use these magnetic word tiles separated into small containers. Students can use the parts of speech symbols or the moveable symbol cards to create different phrases.

Use the symbolizing sentence cards to create sentences.

Younger children can use word cards as needed. To make this activity more interactive, you can challenge your kids to come up with different types of sentences:

• Make a sentence that’s silly.
• Make a sentence about something scary.
• Make a sentence that describes something.
• Make a sentence that makes absolutely no sense.

The options here are endless!

Once a student has created a sentence, they can record it in their learning journal. This is a great opportunity for kids to practice basic punctuation, too.

After copying the sentence into their journal, they may also choose to illustrate the sentence as well.

Match the symbolizing sentence cards.

Each of the symbolizing sentence cards has a corresponding matching example sentence. Children can practice matching each sentence to its corresponding symbols.

A control of error is located on the back of each sentence card, making this an excellent independent activity for students.

I keep our symbolizing sentence cards separated into groups of 8, so it’s not too overwhelming at first.

Write a sentence and then challenge your students to label the different parts of speech.

You may either use the included worksheet for these blank sentence cards, or simply cut them apart if you prefer.

With my youngest, I like to use our command sentences that my daughter uses to practice reading, or simple sentences from a beginning reader book.

For older students, excerpts from poems provide a wonderful challenge.

Create sentences using the symbol sentence cards, using the reference lists as needed.

Begin with one symbol sentence card. As students grow more comfortable creating sentences to match the symbols, you can increase the challenge by having them select 3-4 symbol cards to create a paragraph about a topic of their choice.

Example lists are included for your children’s convenience, in case they get stumped over a part of speech.

This activity is often part of our morning basket routine because it’s a quick 5-10 minute grammar activity that helps reinforce the following concepts:

• the parts of speech
• the parts of a sentence (subject/predicate)
• spelling rules
• punctuation rules

Use the label cards to illustrate how words can function as more than one part of speech.

Whether you’re changing the ending of a word or examining the way in which some words can be used differently in sentences, this activity allows children the opportunity to explore both the function each word plays in a sentence and play around with the different parts of speech.