Laying the Groundwork Beginner Spanish Montessori Materials - Eco Option

Montessori-inspired Spanish world language boxes and learning materials! Brought to you EXCLUSIVELY by El Puente Bilingüe!  

This ECO OPTION set includes:

• 7 Lightweight Vocabulary and Grammar Boxes 

• Box Covers - easy for students to remove
• Learning boards - space-saving size
• Stabilizers for the learning boards
• 1036 Learning Cards presenting over 400 terms (not pre-cut or laminated) in a Digital Download, which you will print using the instructions provided.
  
• Digital Lesson Guidebook 
  
• Digital Set-Up Guidebook 

What is it?

These Montessori-inspired numbers and colors, nouns and articles, adjectives, "All About Human Beings" vocabulary and sentence analysis materials, along with the mini-lesson guidebook have the potential to catapult your students' Spanish language learning to high levels! Watch this free info session at your leisure to learn more. 

Created specifically for Spanish world language learners, these lessons and materials embrace a Montessori approach. They harness the knowledge and skills that students have already acquired through their first-language learning materials and experiences, to support them in learning the Spanish language. Read here for more information on this approach and its effectiveness in language acquisition.  By gaining knowledge and skills concerning the structure of the Spanish language, students will be set up as capable and efficacious lifelong Spanish language learners. 

These are the prerequisite content and skills for the next level of El Puente Bilingüe Montessori materials. Together, these materials make up a fully aligned, scaffolded, Montessori Spanish language learning curriculum, created by a licensed Spanish teacher with a Montessori background and an M.Ed in Curriculum and Instruction.

How does it work?

The materials in the box are for teaching, learning, and practicing the building blocks of beginner Spanish. As they build vocabulary for topics of school, home, family, neighborhood, and the human being, students also gain knowledge of the workings of the Spanish language, including patterns in numbers, word endings, and gender and number agreement. Practice with pronunciation, recalling learned vocabulary, as well as knowledge construction activities are all built into the learning journey.

Finally, students will begin analyzing short sentences in Spanish, where they will interpret messages using learned skills and vocabulary as well as what they already know from universal grammar. Individual and group work time will have consistent opportunities for self-monitoring, collaboration, and construction of knowledge.  In this way, learners will build skills that will empower them as lifetime language learners.

These materials can be used either prior to the next level (pronouns and verbs) or they can be integrated into the scope and sequence of the higher level, which lists prerequisite knowledge in each lesson. 

The guidebook includes clear explanations of how to use the materials as well as the research behind it. There are specific lessons as well as ongoing activity suggestions and printable/reproducible materials in the back of the book, both for student and teacher use. The material is not worksheet focused at all, so the student reproducibles that I am referring to are charts that can be used over and over again. 

When you order El Puente Bilingüe Montessori materials, you will be given access to a video training system designed to support all types of guides, whether it's the classroom guide, assistant guide, the school's Spanish teacher, or a homeschooling parent.

 What we have designed here is something that has never been done. While the El Puente Bilingüe curriculum can be used alone as the sole Spanish language learning curriculum for elementary students, it can also complement an existing Spanish world language program. El Puente Bilingüe is already working to provide curriculum for middle school, as well. 

Who should use this material?

The suggested age for this material is lower elementary or upper elementary, for students who have developed knowledge of very basic English grammar, including nouns, adjectives, and verbs. The curriculum is designed for small group instruction. Each of the lessons contain the following components:

• Learning objectives
  
• Assessment suggestion
  
• Materials list
  
• Prerequisite knowledge information
  
• Lesson delivery
  
• Independent questions or challenges
  
• Mastery track activities 
  

Who should teach this material?

Believe it or not, you don't have to be a licensed Spanish teacher to present this material. If you have a basic understanding of beginner Spanish grammar and you are confident with the prerequisites listed (or could gain confidence with a bit of review) you could teach this material, especially if you are also a Montessori guide. El Puente Bilingüe can assist with a basic review through our ebooks and coursework also sold in this store.

That being said, a Spanish speaker or a licensed Spanish teacher would be able to present this material without difficulty. The lessons are written clearly but with room for creativity. The assessments are generally done through observation. 

Our school is a dual language school. Will these work for us?

These materials are designed to help someone who is studying Spanish as a world language, so the approach they take are not an approach of teaching Spanish to a native Spanish speaker. In other words, there are Spanish language Montessori materials all over the world but they help students who are already speaking the language, as opposed to students who are coming to the language after the age of 6 or 7. Yes, they may serve your community well. But they are treating the learner as a second language learner, so it all depends on the overall approach your school is taking when it comes to your Spanish language learners. 

Spanish varies around the world. What can you tell me about the Spanish presented in these materials?

The Spanish in these materials does not include the use of Vosotros, which is used mainly in Spain. The focus and origin of the Spanish used in these materials is Latin American with much influence having come from Mexico.

What are the box dimensions?

2 boxes are 7 1/3" X 11 1/4" X 2 1/4"

2 boxes are 7 1/3" X 10 1/4" X 2 1/4"

1 box is  4 X 7 X 2 1/4

1 box is 13 1/2" X 9" X 2 1/4"

1 box is 13 1/2" X 4 1/2" X 2 1/4"

What else should I know?

• Currently, this set is also available as a Standard option or a Deluxe option. "Standard" and "Deluxe" options offer a heavier weight box with a polished look, a sturdier design, and a sliding cover. The difference between the two is that the Standard option provides the cards and learning guides as digital downloads for you to print, whereas the Deluxe option includes printed materials (the cards are not precut, however). 
  
• Shipments for the Deluxe and Standard options generally go out about 8 weeks after the order is placed.

Orders for the ECO line go out 2 -3 weeks after purchase.

I spent 3 years working in a Montessori school, and my son attended a Montessori school. I have a masters degree in curriculum and instruction with a concentration in bilingual education, and I am a licensed Spanish teacher. Nowadays I teach dual language for middle schoolers, and I run this business alongside my talented woodworker husband, José Antonio, who was born and raised in Mexico and has been a crucial part of my own bilingual journey.

I have over 12 years of teaching experience, and every one of those years have involved Spanish in some way. I am a lifelong Spanish language learner, married to a lifelong English language learner, and with a bilingual son.

I am very passionate about these Montessori-inspired Spanish language materials, and I am delighted to finally be able to present them to the world!