For the Love of Language

I love the sandpaper letters.  I love introducing them to new children and there is such excitement in the air when the children know it is their turn.  In my early days of teaching, I wasn't such a big fan of the sand paper letters.  I never found them exciting and it bothered me.  I once worked with a teacher who said (who was not trained in montessori), "I don't believe in the sandpaper letters".  That comment stayed with me for a long time.  It really bothered me probably because I had my own doubts in those early days.

It's funny how you evolve as a teacher and how your teaching style evolves and changes.  I have come to realized that children really love to touch and talk about things they see.  So this got me to thinking...how do we make the sand paper letters more interesting.

When the sandpaper letters are first introduced they are done so in a grouping of three and you trace your fingers over them and give the child the sound.  Then you invite the child to take their turn to do this.  I wanted to extend this lesson by adding tiny phonetic objects to our three sound groupings to sort.  We've also made pink sound books and have the children make a rubbing in their sound book as a way of marking or recording that work.  We then practice those sounds and match the objects each time until they are mastered.  Once mastered we move on to another three sounds.

I've even been known to keep a small dinky car in my teacher apron and have had the child drive the car to the sound for "p".  We have noticed that since we have implemented this extension to our sound work that more children are seeking us out for sound work and they are grasping the sounds quicker.  I think it has a lot to do with that tiny little object that needs to find a home under the right sound.

At the bottom, I've attached a small clip of a child working with the sand paper letters so you can see what we are doing and what we mean when we talk with you about this work.  You will also have a better understanding about it when your child just starts sounding out all kinds of words they happen upon.  Oh, and I do love when that happens because it is so empowering for children to realize that they can read on their own.  ~Ms. Michelle