Analyses

The material for word analysis consists of small cards for articles (tan), nouns (black) and adjectives (brown). There is one box with three compartments, each section marked with a card bearing the respective title: article, noun, adjective. At the front of the box is a space for other cards containing printed sentences to be analyzed.

Descriptive Adjectives

The child is to read the sentences, find the objects described in them, and finally build the sentences with his cards as follows: suppose the card reads:

The child finds the three colored tablets used in the familiar exercise of the "Children's House" for the education of the sense of color. He places these tablets on his table. Then he builds the phrases out of his word cards:

Beside the completed expression he places the green color-tablet. Passing to the next phrase, he does not disturb the words the and color. He removes only the word green and substitutes for it the adjective blue, at the same time removing the green tablet and substituting for it the blue. Similarly, for the third phrase, he changes the adjective, putting the red tablet at the end. Thus the three different objects were distinguished only by the adjective:

All the phrases and sentences refer to objects used in the previous educational material. Occasionally the teacher will have to prepare something herself (e.g., hot, cold, warm, or iced water; clear water; colored water). For this exercise on water, the box contains six slips with the six printed phrases. In the box-sections, the child finds the corresponding word-cards which are exactly in the number needed for the exercise (not corresponding, that is, to the number of words in the phrases, since the articles and nouns are not repeated). There are five groups of such exercises, dealing with various kinds of sensation.

The teacher who is observing notices whether the child has taken the right objects; if so, she proceeds to the permutations.

Permutations

At this point, the teacher should recall (in dealing with Italian) the grammatical rules for the position of adjectives, some of which (the fundamental ones) will certainly be very useful to her in executing these first permutations:—

I. In general, the adjective follows the noun. If placed before the noun, it is less conspicuous; if placed after, it assumes more importance and has a different force.

II. When the adjective is used to signify the exclusive superlative of a quality, it is not only placed after the noun, but is preceded by the article. (Umberto il buono, "Humbert the Good.")

Example:—The child has composed the following phrase with his cards: il triangolo rettangolo "the right-angled triangle." The teacher can interchange the words thus: il rettangolo triangolo, "the triangle right-angled." Similarly also, for other phrases:—

Both the meaning and the child's habits show him the normal position of the adjective. In some phrases, such as,

the placing of the adjective before the noun renders the meaning vague, figurative, emotional, or generic, whereas it would be clearly descriptive and precise were the adjective in its normal position:

(In English the normal position of the adjective is before the noun. The permutation develops a strong rhetorical flavor, of which the child will become conscious later in his studies on poetic inversions.—Tr.)

After the teacher has made these changes, if they have interested the child, she may say for example: "The adjective comes after its noun" (for Italian); "The adjective comes before its noun" (for English). In this way she will have given a lesson in theoretical grammar.

Inflection of Adjectives

Another exercise to be done at the table deals with the formation of the singular and plural of adjectives in the two genders. This exercise brings the child in contact with a great many adjectives of quality. Two series, one of twenty masculine, the other of twenty feminine adjectives (in the two numbers) and two other series, twenty singulars and twenty plurals (in the two genders), form four groups of cards, one-half of which (tied separately) serves to direct the placing of the other half. Here are the words in their groups:

Here, just as with the four noun forms (masculine, feminine, singular and plural), class games may be found useful. The plural forms may be dealt out to the class, while one child reads aloud the singulars, one after the other. The child, who, in a given case, has the proper plural, reads his card in answer. Similarly, for masculine and feminine.

Logical and Grammatical Agreement of Nouns and Adjectives

Another table exercise consists in arranging two groups of fifty cards, of which twenty-five are nouns (constituting the directing group), while the other twenty-five are adjectives. The nouns are put in a row and the child looks among the adjectives (which have been thoroughly shuffled) for those which are best suited to the different nouns. As he finds them he places them by the nouns with which they belong. Sometimes the nouns and adjectives placed together cause a great deal of merriment by the amusing contrasts that arise. The children try to put as many adjectives as possible with the same noun and develop in this way the most interesting combinations. Here are two groups which come prepared with the material:

For a class game with these lists, the nouns may be placed on one table and the adjectives on another. Moving as during the "silence" lesson, each child selects first a noun, and then an adjective. When the selections have all been made, the pairs are read one after the other amid general enthusiasm.

Descriptive Adjectives

The study of the adjective may furnish occasion for giving the child a knowledge of physical properties (of substances) so far unknown to him. For example, the teacher may present a piece of transparent glass; a piece of black glass (or any opaque screen); a sheet of white paper with an oil stain. The child will see that through the transparent glass objects may be seen distinctly; that through the oil stain only the light is visible; that nothing at all can be seen through the opaque screen. Or she may take a small glass funnel and put into it a piece of filter paper, then a sponge, then a piece of waterproof cloth. The child observes that the water passes through the filter paper, that the sponge absorbs water, and that the water clings to the surface of the waterproof. Or take two glass graduators and fill them with water to different heights. In the case of the graduator filled to the very top, the surface of the water is convex; in the other, it is concave.

The commands are printed on little slips of paper which are folded and all held together by an elastic band with a series of brown cards containing the adjectives used in the commands. Here is the material prepared:

—Fill one graduator with water to the point of over-flowing, and another not so full. Notice the form assumed by the surface of the water in each case and apply the proper adjective: convex, concave.

—Take various objects such as filter paper, cloth, a sponge, and see whether water can pass through them, applying the adjectives: permeable, impermeable, porous.

—Take a piece of clear glass, a sheet of black paper, a sheet of oiled paper; look at the light through them, applying the adjectives: transparent, opaque, translucent.

Object lessens demonstrating comparative weights may also be given by putting successively into a glass of water, oil, alcohol colored with aniline, a piece of cork, a little leaden ball (to be dropped). Then the command would be:

—Compare the weights of water and of colored alcohol; water and oil; water and cork; and water and lead. Then tell which is heavier and which is lighter than the other.

As an answer the child should give a little written exercise something like the following: Water is heavier than oil, etc. The children actually perform these little experiments, learning to handle graduators, funnels, filters, etc., and to pour the last drops of water very carefully so as to obtain the concave and convex surfaces. They acquire a very delicate touch in pouring the colored alcohol and oil on the water. Thus they take the first step into the field of practical science.

To continue the study of adjectives of quality, there is a series of commands relating to the comparative and superlative. An example of the comparative crept into these experiments on weight. Here are additional commands where the little slip and the brown cards are kept together.

—Take the blue stairs or any other objects and put with each object the proper adjectives from the following list: thick, thin, thickest (Ital. grossissimo), thinnest (Ital. finissimo).

—Take the eight tablets of the color you like best, arrange them according to shades and apply the proper adjectives of quality from the following: light, lightest, dark, darkest.

—Take the series of circles in the plane insets, and pick out the circles which correspond to these adjectives: large, small, intermediate.

—Take the cloths or other objects adapted to these adjectives: smooth, smoothest, rough, roughest, soft, softest.

—Take the cubes of the pink tower or any other objects adapted to these adjectives: large, largest, small, smallest.

—Grade a number of objects according to weight so as to fit these adjectives to them: heavy, heaviest, light, lightest.

Adjectives of Quantity

Just as above, the slip is tied with the series of brown cards by an elastic band. Thus a group is formed. In our material the following three groups are available:

—Take the counters and make little piles which correspond in quantity to these adjectives: one, two, three, four, five, six, etc.

—Take the beads and make little piles of them to fit these adjectives: few, none, many, some.

—Decide first of all on some definite number of beads (two) and then make other little piles to fit these adjectives: double, triple, quadruple, quintuple, sextuple, tenfold, half, equal.

Ordinals

—Build the blue stair and on each step place the proper adjective from the following: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth.

—Place the following adjectives on the different drawers of the cabinet, beginning with the top drawer: first, second, third, fourth, fifth.

—Differentiate between the drawers of the cabinet by the following adjectives, beginning with the lowest: first, second, third, fourth, fifth.

Demonstrative Adjectives

As occasion may offer, the teacher may assemble a group of children and give them a few simple explanations on the meaning of certain words: questo, "this" (near us); cotesto, "that" (near you); quello, "that" (over there away from both of us). (Note: English lacks the demonstrative of the second person.)

Then she can distribute these commands which require collective actions of the class:—

—Gather in that (codesto) corner of the room near you; then all of you come over to this (questo) corner near me; then all of you run over to that (quello) corner over there.

—Choose one of your school-mates and tell him to put a box on this (questo) table; a small plate on that (quello) table over there.

—Tell one of your companions, pointing at the place, to put a green bead in this (questo) vase; a blue one in that (codesto) vase; a white one in that (quello) vase over there.

Arrange the children in groups in three different places in the room, and then give this command:

—Let that (quello) group over there take the place of this (questo) group. Let that (codesto) group break up, the children going back to their tables.

Possessive Adjectives

In like manner the teacher explains the meaning of the words my, your, his, her, etc. She may do this with a simple gesture. Here are the commands:

—Point out various objects saying: This is my slate; that is your slate; that (over there) is her slate.

—Point at the different seats, saying: That (over there) is his place, that is your place, and this is my place.

—Pass around the little baskets, saying: This is my basket. Whose is that other basket? Is it your basket? And this one? Ah, this one is his basket.

—Let us take a turn around the room and then return to our seats. You go to your seat and they will go to their seats. Then we will divide up our things. Let us put our things here and their things there. We will go to your seats and you go to their seats. Meanwhile they will get up and then come over here to take our places.

[Signora Montessori does not differentiate between the possessive adjective and the possessive pronoun; perhaps because there is in Italian no characteristic pronominal form. Strictly speaking the Italian predicate form mio (e.g., Questo libra È mio) is adjectival, while the form il mio (i.e., with the definite article) is pronominal (e.g., Questo È il mio). English has, however, the pronominal possessives: mine, yours (thine), his, hers, ours, yours, theirs, used also as predicate adjectives. The above exercise should therefore he repeated later under the subject of pronouns in a slightly different form.—Tr.]

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