sandpaper letters
I finally got around to starting on those sandpaper letters a couple days ago. I now have the 16 consonant cards completed and have started work on the vowels. Cutting through mat board with dull scissors: not so easy.
I read Montessori Read & Write some time ago and noted that Eliza was around "level 3" (of phonemic awareness) then, which the book says is a good time to introduce sandpaper letters. It looks like she's at "level 4" now, but dear ol' mom is a bit slow. :) I'm not a very crafty person. (Digging out art supplies and letting Eliza loose on them is more my speed.)
From Livable Learning (a free website - I donated because I found it useful), I printed out the "MM Script" template and took the idea of making the cards 3" x 5" so they can fit in an index card holder. From Montessori Read & Write, I took the idea of placing the letters on the right-hand side (for right-handed children - Eliza is strongly so) to make it easier to steady the card with the left hand while tracing the sandpaper letter with the right.
Eliza continues to enjoy the "I Spy..." games at home, and I'm hoping she'll dig these sandpaper letters (I've been holding off on introducing them until the set is completed), especially since most of her beloved wooden letter magnets have disappeared from the fridge (who knows where) over the last year. One game she herself invented is to string together the magnets to make some nonsense word and ask me to pronounce it.
(Alas, I still don't have a new camera, but I've been trying to make do with the poor-resolution still photos that my camcorder can take.)
3 comments:
The sandpaper letters look great! You''ll have to be sure and blog about what Eliza thinks about them once you give the letters to her.
Those look really nice, I remember having some of those in my class when I taught kindergarten, some kids really liked them. I am curious what kinds of activities you have planned with them, or is it totally up to E?
Jenny - I sure will. :) I'm going to finish up the vowels (and maybe the diphthongs if I get ambitious) this weekend.
Sara - We're going to use them for sorting and tracing the letter with fingers right now (although there are more advanced activities, so I'm hoping these cards will stay in decent shape for future use). If she 'gets' the tracing bit, I'd be happy to put out some sugar for her to draw letters in with her finger. She taught herself to scribble letters some time ago, but only a few of them are recognizable to me, so I thought it might be easier for her to scribble letters with her finger in sugar than to try to control a crayon. I think she would find that really fun.
Post a Comment