All Montessori classrooms have a wide variety of three part cards available, but this beautiful material tends to gather dust quickly if not established as a valuable practice in the classroom. In this newsletter, learn how to fall in love with three part cards and unlock the value of this material for all ages.
Three Part Cards
The three part cards are sometimes referred to as the nomenclature cards and they provide a hands on way for children to expand their vocabulary. A valuable first lesson is for children to practice identifying a picture and see a word below the image.
As children observe the world around them, they will be able to easily identify a picture of a dog on a three part card. Yet, they may not fully grasp that the word “dog” describes the picture they see. This step of association is vital to the child’s growth in language development and is supported with the use of this wonderful material.
When teaching the animal three part cards material to toddlers and pre readers, using the card with the picture and word is a great first lesson. After giving the child the initial lesson, invite them to practice independently. You may find that the child asks about the other two cards naturally, or that they begin to see that there are similarities between the cards. Once the interest is there, expand the lesson by asking the child to find the picture card that matches the other card. If a child enjoys this step, you can add the additional step of matching the correct word to the three part card set.
The three part cards are a material that gets heavily used year after year. Invest in ones that will last. At Montessori N’ Such we love these beautifully made wooden three part cards that offer a variety of subjects for your students to explore, like shapes and numbers.
Adding the additional expansion of objects is a fantastic way to expand this lesson even further. By offering three part cards that also have objects with them, the entry to using this work expands even further. Younger members of the classroom may enjoy matching the objects to the full card with image and name, whereas kindergarteners may be ready to match all parts of the three part card and the objects. Try this three part animal set or expand your North American and South American animal materials. We all love a material that can be used again and again!
Need another option for the youngest members of your classroom? Introduce the concepts of matching through these wooden fruit cards. Each set come with images of a whole piece of fruit and a slice of it to match to. This is a wonderful way to introduce a level of abstraction to your child’s visual association skills.
