The Pink, Blue, and Green Phonics Series

As the Montessori child moves throughout the language sequence, he follows a prescribed order of learning and putting together phonetic sounds, to become a better reader and writer.

Consonant and Vowel Sounds

The Montessori reading sequence is primarily focused on the phonetic aspect of language. The child spends a lot of time learning the initial sounds. Next the focus is on identifying middle sounds
of words (emphasizing short vowel sounds), and the ending sounds of words. She does a lot of sorting activities. Objects and pictures are sorted by their initial, medial, or ending sounds. Many rhyming activities prepare the child for word family work, as well as refining the identification of ending sounds.

Blending Sounds

Once the child masters the twenty-six basic sounds of the alphabet, the directress will then start blending sounds with the child. She may do this with sandpaper letters or the movable alphabet, and it is done quite literally. The directress will place the two letters at opposite sides of the workspace, then slowly say their sounds. As she continues to repeat the sounds, she will move them closer together and say the sounds faster, until visually the sounds are next to each other and orally they are blended. A third and final sound will then be added. Many times word families are introduced.

The child also interdependently practices blending sounds with the movable alphabet. He will try to make up some of his own words, sounding out words that he knows. He will also practice dictation given to him by the directress.

Pink Series

The pink series focuses on words with three individual sounds. Most commonly they are consonant-vowel-consonant (c-v-c) words, such as cat, hog, pin, rug, ten, etc. Occasionally the ending sound may be a double, as in hill or muss. The child practices reading these words in pre-made readers or word lists. He labels objects or pictures with cards. He practices spelling all of them with the movable alphabet. He also begins to learn sight words and starts work in appropriate phonetic readers.

Blue Series

In the blue series, short vowels are continued, but there are often more than three individual phonemes in the word. The child has to sound out consonant blends, which are when the two consonants keep their individual sounds. Initial consonant blends include bl, br, bl, cr, dr, fl, fr, gl, gr, pl, pr, sc, scr, sk, sp, spr, st, str, tr. Final consonant blends include ct, ft, lt, mt, nt, pt, st, lm, ln, lp, mp. Consonant digraphs are also introduced. These include ch, ph, sh, th, wh, kn. Words may be as short as raft and whip, or as long as infant and pumpkin.

Activities in this series again include object and picture labeling and movable alphabet practice. Some may be sentences instead of words. Readers are more difficult.

Green Series

In the green series, the rest of the phonetic sounds are introduced. Long vowels are introduce with the “Magic E” or “Silent E”. Vowels change their sound as r-controlled vowels: ar, er , ir, or, ur. Digraphs and diphthongs are also introduced as more phonograms (vowel/vowel and vowel/consonant combinations that make a unique sound when together).

Digraphs are two vowels that next to each other make on individual sound, such as ai and ea. Diphthongs are a pair of vowels that make two vowel sounds within the same syllable, such as oi, ou, oy. Again the child practices sorting, labeling, reading word lists, spelling with the movable alphabet, and reading more advanced books. As all of these phonograms are introduced, the potential length of the word is indefinite.

The Pink, Blue, and Green series allow a natural flow of Montessori phonetic education. They provide a solid foundation for the blossoming reader to be able to decipher words well into his future.