Learning the visual appearance of
each letter in English and the sounds
that each letter makes is an essential
beginning step towards literacy.
In the Montessori approach, we do a huge array
of spoken language activities with the children
to prepare them for writing and reading.
But we have one primary tool for teaching
children the shapes of each letter and their individual
sounds: the Sandpaper Letters.
The Presentation
Before you start, you always want to wake up
the child's finger tips. You're also going to want
to preserve the life of your letters. So, for both
of these reasons, always begin Sandpaper Letter
work by washing and thoroughly drying
your hands. Then, draw the child's awareness
to the sensitivity at the ends of their fingers by
using a sensitizing brush (available through
Amazon). In my training, we used a small
dish of water. We would dip our finger tips in
and gingerly dry them with a tiny towel. Although
it was really sweet, it was also a petri
dish for infection.
The general approach to the Sandpaper Letters
is to choose three or four letters (depending
on the interests and abilities of the
child), show them how to trace a letter, say its
sound, and then say a few words that feature
that sound. The first time we choose letters,
stick with pink and blue. We often encourage
the children to choose the first letter of
their name or their friend’s name, and we stick
with the single pink (consonants) and blue
(vowel) letters.
For example, we would trace the M a few
times (modeling how much we adore tracing
it), say the sound ‘mmmmm’ after each
trace, and then pause and say ‘mmmmm,’ ‘mmmmommmm,’
pause long enough for the
child to possibly step in ‘mmmmoney,’ pause
again ‘mmmmaybe,’ …” After each word, we
pause and encourage the child to add more
words that they like which feature the sound.
The sound can be at the beginning, middle, or
end of the word.
The Three-Period Lesson
Period 1: Tracing, as described above, is actually
the first period of the famous Montessori
Three-Period Lesson. After you've presented
and traced each letter, touch each letter, and
say its sound.
Period 2: Say a letter’s sound, and ask the
child to find that letter. For example, you
might say, “Show me the buh.” Keep it lively by
varying the action in the second-period (e.g.,
point to the …, trace the …, move the …, pick
up the...). The second period is where most
learning takes place.
When the child accurately finds the sound
you request most of the time, add distance
to increase the challenge. Leave the letters
on the table and move to a different place in
the room. Ask the child to bring you a letter
Developing
Letter-Sound
Knowledge:
Montessori
Sandpaper
Letters
Note: If you don’t own a set of Sandpaper Letters, you can make them yourself using our downloadable template.
www.maitrilearning.com/products/sandpaper-letters-pdf-download
by Julia Volkman
20 TOMORROW'S CHILD © JANUARY 2021 WWW.MONTESSORI.ORG
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