In my previous blog post, How To Increase Phonemic Awareness With These 4 Sound Games, I talk about the I-Spy Games. Once your child has explored quite a bit with these sound games, it’s time to move on to the sandpaper letters; associating the sounds with the symbols.
The purpose of the sandpaper letters is for your child to trace the tactile letters with her fingers to experience the letter symbol. It helps your child to get an internal impression of the letter shape, which prepares her later on for writing.
When my daughter, Annie, turned three-and-a-half last winter, I first introduced the sandpaper letters to her at home. She loved tracing them, and we continued for the next several months and got through them all!
I had a spare set of letters I purchased when I was a Montessori teacher and kept them all these years, and I was glad to experience them with Annie!
In this post, I’ll share three easy ideas for you to DIY your letters at home. I’ll also share the sandpaper letter lesson I learned from my Montessori training!
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What a brilliant idea! We have never tried sandpaper letters and we’d love to try. Thank you for these DIY tips. Super appreciate it.
LOVE this! What a thorough explanation and description of how to use the letters too. Thanks for sharing!
Such great ideas! It is helpful to have these with visuals and in one place.
This is such a neat idea! lol I would want to trace those textured letters too! Sharing with my friends with toddlers.
Great ideas! I will have to try that one day!
How have I never heard of sandpaper letters before? I love this. What a great way to add another level of processing by touching the rough surface.
What a great idea! I’ll have to try this with homeschooling.
such a fun and creative way to learn letters.. and so colorful too
That’s a brilliant idea to teach kids using the sandpaper letters. My boy is also now on the stage where he is tasked to learn about phonics as well. This post is such a great help.
Hi Akyn, I’m so glad you found the sandpaper letters lesson helpful! That’s great that your son is ready to learn phonics as well.
I am going to need to make some of these for my daughter. She is learning to write some letters so this would be perfect to help.
Hi Samantha, It’s great that you want to make sandpaper letters for your daughter!
This looks like a great and easy way to teach kids letters! I have never heard of sandpaper letters before, but I bet the texture makes it fun to learn.
Hi Diana, Yes, the sensory texture of the sandpaper letters makes it so intriguing and fun!
Great ideas! I am definitely going to use some of them when my daughter is older.
This looks like a lot of fun & I like the idea of using colored salt in place of actual sand. Thanks for sharing this awesome idea! I will pass this onto a friend of mine with small children.
I love this and the interaction of sandpaper sounds so fun, I would have loved this (I think!) as a kid. This is great and I am getting more interested in setting up my own kids to do montessori teaching. Thanks for sharing!
These ideas are so creative and easy to do. So vibrant to engage all senses.
This is so creative!
I sure do wish I had known about Montessori when my children were small. However, it is fun sharing these ideas with my grandchildren! The sandpaper letters are new to me. Thanks for sharing the DIY options of creating our own. I also found the section on what order you should present the letters….my mind would have automatically done it in alphabetical order. Thank you so much for the wonderful tips!
Hi Michelle, I’m glad you found reading about the order to learn the sandpaper letters helpful. When the kids get to choose the letters that call to them in any order they wish, they seem to be more excited and motivated about them! But, of course, if you’d like to do alphabetical order, that’s fine, too!
This is a fun idea to do with the kids. I miss doing crafts like before. Thank you for sharing!
I love these! Great learning ideas that you can do easily at home!