In my previous blog post, Montessori Sandpaper Letters: 3 Easy Ideas To DIY At Home, I talk about associating sounds and symbols in this sensory, hands-on phonics activity.
As your child explores the sandpaper letter lesson and learns the sounds that go with them, you can explore beginning sounds even further with objects!
You could also use pictures or cards instead of objects, but I have found that young children love objects even more.
During my first year as a Montessori teacher, one of my strongest memories is that many of the youngest children (three-year-olds) overwhelmingly wanted to work with the language objects that went with the sandpaper letters.
Although they weren’t ready for that lesson because we hadn’t explored I-Spy games yet, we sat together and explored the objects but talked about the names of the objects (vocabulary) and the beginning sounds we heard.
In this post, I will share how to do the sandpaper letters with objects lesson I learned from my teacher training and how it went with my four-year-old daughter, Annie, at home!
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You have great lessons ideas! I just signed up for your resource library!
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I am a huge Montessori supporter! The theory behind this style of education is solid! Nice job!
I went to a Montessori school when I was young. Brings back a lot of memories. I would share this with my friends back home. Thank you!
I love the sandpaper idea! Great ideas!
This is such a helpful breakdown. I don’t have a little one yet, but will have to forward this post to my cousin!
I love helping my daughter learn through play! Plus this game is so simple which is crucial. What age do you think this is best geared toward? My just-turned-2-year-old might be too young for it, right? but I’m so excited for when she’s ready to learn through more advanced games like this!
Hi Catia,
Thank you for your question. This lesson is geared towards 3 to 3 and a half and up. It’s important to teach your 2-year-old vocabulary words and explore with sounds you hear first. Before using the sandpaper letters, use the objects, name them, and point out the beginning sound without the letter symbols. If you’re interested, check out the language lessons you could start out with for your 2-year-old. Start with my blog post, The Essential Guide To 11 Fun Oral Language Development Activities at this URL: https://brightlittleowl.com/oral-language-development/
Thank you so much!
I love teaching kids! I don’t know much about Montessori learning, it’s kind of looked down on here, but this really got me interested. I think it’s a great way to teach children.
What a wonderful hands on activity to teach the beginning sounds.
Loved it. Very creative yet simple enough to implement. Great job!
What a cute game and wonderful way to teach those beginning sounds.
As always, a detailed and informative post with tips and resources to help parents and educators.. Love the ideas..
This is helpful. My daughter is just beginning with this and this can definitely make learning more fun. Thank you for the guide on how to do the sandpaper letter. Appreciate it.
Hi Clarice,
I am so glad you enjoyed the beginning sounds activity with the sandpaper letters and objects!
I also believe that using objects in lessons in a better way to teach the objectives in a lesson. Pictures are great as well, but objects is just more fun.
Hi Carmen,
Thank you so much! Objects are much more fun for young children when they match beginning sounds!
This is such a smart way to teach kids an important skill. I wish I’d known about this technique when my kids were first learning to read!
Such a fun and detailed post. You really provide great tips for the little ones learning. Thank you for sharing!
Hi Debbie!
I am so glad that you enjoyed the beginning sounds activity!
It is nice to have some activities to fit in learning with kids. These are great ways to find educational opportunities in games.
What a cute game to play with my daughter!
I love how helpful and thorough this post is! I am so excited for my daughter be old enough to start with letter sounds
This is amazing for kids to learn. It’s fun and makes it easy. I will recommend this to my family. Thank you for sharing!
Hi Fransic,
Thank you so much for recommending the beginning sounds activity to your family!
This is great! I’ll be saving these to do with my boys.
What a great blog about learning beginning sounds. I love the Montessori method and all of the downloads for worksheets and activities. Thank you!
I love how you have developed such engaging games that also aid with reading and writing. Fun while learning is the best way to help with development. Well written and thought out read, than you for sharing!
What a fun way to teach beginning sounds to children. I am a huge fan of Montessori learning…and this is just another reason why! Your idea of including several items (recommending 3) that start with the same letter seems like that would be key to reiterate the sound more than once!
Hi Michelle,
Thank you so much! I am so happy that you found the beginning sounds lesson helpful and that you’re a big fan of Montessori!