DIY Montessori Inspired Sensory Letters

DIY Sensory Letters - Montessori Alphabet

I've had a set of Montessori sandpaper letters on my Amazon wish list for about a year now.  They aren't overly pricey, but other items keep getting priority over the letters.  I figured I chould make my own sensory letters in the meantime.

Supplies:

• Homemade Puffy Paint
• cardstock

Directions:  I cut the cardstock into 4x4 pieces and wrote each letter on a piece.  Keeping with the Montessori movable alphabet and the letter tiles from All About Reading I made the vowels red and the consonants blue.  I left the letters out to dry.

At the moment we only have a lowercase set.  I plan to make an uppercase set as well.  My five year old has no problem writing his uppercase letters, and I knew he could benefit more from the lowercase set for now.

Once dry I had JZ trace each letter with the index finger of the hand he writes with.  Children retain information better when more than one sense in stimulated.  In addition to seeing how a letter is formed, tracing it with his finger helps ingrain the correct formation into JZ's head.

Storebought puffy paint could also be used for a raised alphabet, but the homemade recipe is more textured due to the salt in it.  **Update** I made these sensory letters almost a year ago, and they are still in tack.  We use them on a regular basis.  Now my preschooler gets a lot of use out of them.

For more hands on alphabet and prewriting exercises follow my Alphabet Games and Activities board on Pinterest.

Click the images below for more activities with sensory letters: