DIY Sandpaper Letters

The Sand paper letters are one of the basic, essential and brilliant materials in the Montessori classroom. This tactile material broadens the child’s understanding of the letters in the alphabet. By tracing the letters with two fingers, the child learns to easily recognize the shapes of these letters and its sounds.

Buying this material is fairly easy as it is readily available in stores worldwide. I will suggest buying one if you are running a school. However, I did not want to spend money excessively since I only had one child to teach, who already has an understanding of the alphabets. I decided to make it myself. My DIY skills were quite rusty, nonetheless, I gave it a go. After a couple of visits to the nearest stationary shop, I had all the materials needed to get started.

Materials needed:

1. Although there isn’t a specific color code for this material, I chose pink and blue colored paper. These colors are chosen to match with future activities and for easier reference. I used pink paper for the consonants and blue for the vowels.

2. Sand papers with varied thicknesses are available in hardware shop. Personally, I found the sandpaper with the 800 grid the most suitable.

3. Print a draft of the alphabets you intend to use. I personally felt the way the letters ‘a’ and ‘g’ were written in the Century Gothic font the most apt for children. Do note that the font size I used was 375, but this can change according to your preference.

4. A green insulation tape is used as a ‘control of errors’, which is an essential feature of Montessori materials. This allows the child to understand the position and correct orientation of the letters.

5. Last but not least we need some craft glue, scissors and rulers.

Here is how I made the letters.

First, I cut 26 cards of 14 x12 cm, along with the alphabet template. Five blue cards for the vowels and 21 pink cards for the consonants.

Using these letter templates, I cut the shapes of individual letters on the Sandpaper. Then, I mounted the letters to the cards using craft glue.

I used the green tape to make the marking at the bottom of the card. Using green insulation tape made my work easy.

If you are making this material for toddlers, you can try the same with felt material instead of sandpaper.

You can use the same method to make sandpaper numerals.