The Three Period Lesson - The Montessori Way to Teach the Child New Vocabulary
Before I get into the Three Period Lesson and how you can use it to teach new vocabulary, let me remind you of one thing. Your child has been learning new vocabulary organically every day by listening to you talk. For instance, when you go for a walk with your toddler. You see a firetruck outside and say: “Look, there is a firetruck.” Or you see a Golden Retriever running in the park and ask: “Do you see the Golden Retriever playing in the back?”
However, there is a lot of vocabulary we cannot introduce this way, such as the names of ocean animals, dinosaurs, etc. In these cases, the Three Period Lesson allows us to expand on the child’s vocabulary. For toddlers, we can use figurines to introduce new names. Schleich figurines are popular for this work, and toddlers love playing with them. Picture cards work well for preschoolers to introduce new vocabulary.
The Three-Period Lesson
The lesson is used in Montessori classrooms to introduce 3 new vocabulary words (names of countries, colors, geometric shapes, etc.). It has 3 parts. I’ll describe all 3 of them, but I want to stress that we use only the first two periods for toddlers. For preschoolers, we can use the whole three-period lesson.
Example: Introduction of the names of animals living in Alaska.
First Period
Take the animals out of the basket and lay them on the table or a floor mat.
Hold each animal and name it. For example, say: “moose.” Let your child hold it and explore the animal with her hands. Repeat the word: “moose.” (Saying just the name is better than using the whole sentence: “This is a moose.” It helps the child to focus on the actual name only.)
Do the same with the remaining two animals.
After naming each of them, rearrange the items and repeat the first period a couple of times.
Notes
If you have a young toddler, this might be your only step before you lose their focus. And that’s okay.
For (verbal) preschoolers - invite them to repeat the names you introduce.
Second Period
In this step, we’ll find out what names the child knows by asking him to show us a particular animal. We’ll do that in the form of playing games:
For example, say: “Can you show me the moose?”
Ask about the other animals in the same way: “Can you show me the bald eagle?”, “Can you show me the muskox?”
After the first round, rearrange the animals and repeat this step several times.
Tip: for the next rounds, make it fun by changing the wording. For example:
“Point to the moose.”
“Place the moose in my hand.”
“Put your hand over the moose.”
“Where is the moose?”
“Can you place the moose back in the basket?”
Notes:
If your child points to a different animal than you asked, go back to the first period and spend more time there. For young toddlers, we want to avoid correcting them too much. If your child shows you the moose instead of the bald eagle, you can say: “You wanted to show me the moose.” Then remember what names the child struggles with and introduce them again next time.
Third Period
In the third period, we point to each animal and ask: “What is this?” The child responds, and that’s the end of the lesson.
Notes:
If the child doesn’t know the name, go back to the first period.
The third period is done only with preschoolers. We intentionally don’t do this with toddlers. Asking them, “What is this?” puts too much pressure on them, and we don’t want to test them this way. Often, they tell us what they know by themselves when we give them the space and time to express themselves.
Will you give the Three Period Lesson a try?