What is a Montessori 3-Period Lesson?
Three period lessons are used throughout the Montessori environment to help introduce a new lesson/concept and lead the children along a path to understanding and mastery. However, in the area of language they are used to increase, enrich and broaden a child's vocabulary.
It's important to practice the method of presenting a Three Period Lesson several times until you are comfortable giving it with ease. There are no set movements or patterns that you must follow in each of the periods. As long as you understand the principle of the period, and keep it simple and focused, you can ask the child to do whatever is appropriate for the setting, object, or concept you are teaching.
Begin by presenting the child with three objects of contrast and isolate them on a table or mat. For this example the objects will be dog, snake and bird.
1. First Period - Naming Period
It's important to practice the method of presenting a Three Period Lesson several times until you are comfortable giving it with ease. There are no set movements or patterns that you must follow in each of the periods. As long as you understand the principle of the period, and keep it simple and focused, you can ask the child to do whatever is appropriate for the setting, object, or concept you are teaching.
Begin by presenting the child with three objects of contrast and isolate them on a table or mat. For this example the objects will be dog, snake and bird.
1. First Period - Naming Period
- this period is overall rather short as it simply involves giving the object a name
- point to the first object (dog) and say "dog"
- repeat the name several times, clearly and slowly "This is a dog. Can you say dog? dog."
- continue on with the second and third objects (snake and bird)
- once all three objects have been named, review them one last time by pointing to each one and saying the name clearly and slowly
Posted by Montessori Print Shop at 11/25/2010 10:53 AM 
Categories: How To Use Montessori
Tags: How to Use Montessori
Categories: How To Use Montessori
Tags: How to Use Montessori
Thank you for laying it out so clearly. I'm using Montessori in our home and I'm not trained, so your blog is proving to be very helpful to me. Thank You
Thanks for this! I'm taking training now, and this blog has been helpful to fleshing out some of what I'm learning for a home environment.
Thanks again