So I have come to the realisation that Montessori supplies are amazing but so expensive! I love the Language material and decided to create my own sandpaper letters for a quarter of the price! I’m sure many of you are happy about this!
Materials:
26 squares of wood, mounting board or something equivalent (if you use mounting board, prime it with gesso to prevent the board from warping when you paint it)
Tester pots of paint (pink for consonants and blue for vowels)
Craft knife
Scissors
Fine sandpaper
Alphabet template (d’nealian template)
Matte mod podge to seal and protect the letters
1. Print the template off and glue onto the back of your sandpaper. The link I have given you is great because the template is already backwards so you can just stick it on as is.
2. Cut out each letter individually so you can glue them onto your wood pieces. Use a craft knife for the centres of letters.
4. Cut your wood to the desired size (I just made all of mine the same size; though the suggestion is to make certain letter boards bigger to accommodate letters such as t, f, h etc. Paint 5 boards blue and the rest pink. I used tester pots (one of each colour: £1 each)
5. Stick the sandpaper letters onto the boards using pva glue or wood glue. Then coat with matte mod podge which is a sealer and will prevent the sandpaper from wearing off. Voila! The finished product!
If I can make them, anyone can!
So what can you do with sandpaper letters? Well it’s a great way to teach letters to your toddler using the sense of touch. Use three period lessons to teach her the sounds of the letters. You could make a matching game using a moveable alphabet. You could match objects to the beginning sound they make. You could use them to spell short phonetic words! The list is endless! There are loads of pre-reading lesson ideas online to choose from!
I hope you enjoy!
Appreciating Minds 