Language in Elementary - Grammar Boxes

The grammar boxes were my first set of confusion when I started to make the material!

A necessary material? Perhaps you wouldn't have to use the boxes themselves; the exercises with the cards though are invaluable, and the layout with the boxes creates a special sense of importance - these aren't "just cards."

• In the grammar boxes, each part of speech is distinguished by a color and that color does not always correspond with the grammar symbol; this incongruence was done intentionally, because Dr. Montessori did not want the children to just match the color of the symbol to the color of the cards. There is actually no significance to the colors except that they are different. 

• The two colors that are the same in both the symbol and the grammar box material are the two most important parts of speech: the noun and the verb. 
• The different colors help to distinguish one part of speech from the others. 
• Each compartment within each box is a different color for a different part of speech. 
• The grammar boxes themselves are empty except for little cover slips of white paper; all of the material we use with the grammar boxes is contained within the filler boxes. 
• The number of each grammar box refers to the number of compartments within the box.
• Each box contains a series of "filler boxes" which may be used in varying quantities by varying children.

Grammar Boxes by Number - the color in parentheses indicates the color for the new part of speech in card and compartment as well as the background of the sentence strips
(homeschool tip - 1) use colored cardstock with white or black *paint* markers (a bit pricey, but last a long time and usable for SO many things!)
2) use white card with colored permanent markers, colored pencils, colored pens, or the different colors of paint markers - perhaps draw a colored border around the edge just to emphasize the color.)

Grammar Box 1) It doesn't exist. It "would" be the noun box. But you can't make phrases with a single noun, so there's no grammar box. There are noun activities contained within filler boxes and the noun cards are black (the typical noun color).

Grammar Box 2: noun and article (orange or gold - some use tan)

Grammar Box 3: noun, article, adjective (medium brown)

Grammar Box 4: noun, article, adjective, verb (red - typical verb color)

Grammar Box 5: noun, article, adjective, verb, preposition (purple)

Grammar Box 6: noun, article, adjective, verb, preposition, adverb (pink)

Grammar Box 7: noun, article, adjective, verb, preposition, adverb, pronoun (green)

Grammar Box 8: noun, article, adjective, verb, preposition, adverb, pronoun,
conjunction (yellow)

Grammar Box 9: noun, article, adjective, verb, preposition, adverb, pronoun,
conjunction, interjection (royal blue)




Dr. Montessori selected these colors - again, the colors are not significant except that they do NOT match the color of the grammar symbol itself. Consider the fact that Dr. Montessori selected this lay-out before setting out to make any changes to the colors (as in, before trying to match the colors to the grammar symbols as in primary). Why would Dr. Montessori do it this way, with mis-matching colors?