Making a New Sentence Analysis Material: How

This post will make the most sense if you read the two before it:

How Montessori Teaches Grammar

Making a New Sentence Analysis Material: Why

A HUGE thank you to Don Morris, Aviation Technologies Professor at SIU, and well-known for Intricate wooden laser cut engine kits with functional gears, pistons, valves and cams (article from Geeky Gadgets) for this donation!

I can't believe these pieces are considered scraps!

lots of little pieces left to sort!

Since we were so fortunate in receiving this large donation of wooden pieces last week, I'm able to handmake the Montessori Sentence Analysis material and make it just the way I want it, simply dyeing the appropriate shapes the appropriate colors! The questions are written on the classroom charts and on each child's personal charts, so I'm not actually writing the questions on any of the arrows. I did dye more pieces than we needed, just to have them, but the bare minimum needed to accompany the Mandala material is

black (Noun color):
one large circle, one medium circle, one small circle, three arrows

red (Verb color):
one large circle

blue (medium blue, Adjective color):
three triangles, three arrows

orange (Adverb color):
four small circles, four arrows

stencil showing the Sentence Analysis shapes

all we need are arrows, circles, and triangles

Dyeing Instructions

I followed the directions in How to Make Brightly Colored Food-Safe Wood Stain. For just a few pieces (3 or 4), a snack size ziploc baggie is fine. For larger quantities I used a quart sized bag. I did not increase the quantity of the dye recipe when I upped the bag to quart size, since even a tablespoon of dye is extremely strong.

I found that the liquid food coloring was easier (except for the black) since it dissolves right away into the warm water. For the black with liquid food coloring, you either need to dye pink and then overdye black (since black liquid food coloring tends towards the green) or use the gel. If using the gel, you need to zip the bag shut, massage the gel into the warm water until dissolved, and then open the bag and add your pieces. It is a bit of a pain, but it does save time over dyeing once and then overdyeing.

For the liquid food coloring, I used McCormick and for the gel food coloring I used Tylina Sweetshop Black Gel, 0.7 oz. I got the McCormick at the grocery store and the Sweetshop at Party City.

For either kind of coloring, I placed the pieces in the bag, massaged the color onto both sides of each pieces, laid down the bag so that the liquid was all around them, and then started the timer. I flipped the bag over several times while it was dyeing, and would massage the color (through the baggie walls) on the pieces when I did it. Using a pair of plastic tweezers to take the pieces out saves your fingertips from being dyed. And I just placed them on a cookie drying rack placed over a folded towel to air-dry.

This was surprisingly easy and each batch actually took only a few minutes!

Black Recipe
liquid food coloring

5 drops red, 1 T warm water, 3 minutes

allow to dry, then overdye with

5 drops black, 1 T warm water, 6 minutes

Black Recipe
gel food coloring

9 drops black, 1 T warm water, 10 minutes

Red Recipe
liquid food coloring

10 drops red, 1 T warm water, 5 minutes

Medium Blue Recipe
liquid food coloring

8 drops dark blue, 1 T warm water, 10 minutes

Orange Recipe
liquid food coloring

2 drops yellow, 3 drops red, 1 T warm water, 3 minutes

make sure your pieces will fit in your ziploc bag

mix color & water, add pieces, and let sit
these are orange Adverb circles

dividing up the large Verb circles into two bags of dye
to make sure they get really red

medium-blue for the Adjective triangles

make sure the pieces are spread out in one layer

overdyeing pink with black
having a base color counteracts any tendency towards greenish black

success!
the first day's batch is done

the large Subject circles

experimenting with gel food coloring for the black

it makes a nice strong color
these are Direct Object and Indirect Object

always make sure the liquid covers the pieces

the second day's batch is done

project complete!

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