Alphabet in kindergarten: from body to letters, building the Montessori alphabet.

Playing with flour to learn the letters of the alphabet: activity for a week.

Sensory pregraphics with the letters of the Montessori alphabet:

touch, recognize, name.

To bring children closer to the alphabet in a concrete and fun way, you can use natural materials that are easy to find, pleasant to touch and very low cost, such as corn flour.

Below you will find activities to propose in the course of a week, but which can be extended for longer, based on the interest of children and their habit to manipulate materials unstructured.

The manipulation process does not exclude the use of the notebook, but it can be proposed earlier and in parallel to the activities on the table so as to allow children to experience with their body what they will later reproduce with their eyes and hands.

Free manipulation of material, playing with flour.

Monday.

This activity requires:

One kg of corn flour.
A plastic plate and bag for each child.
Scoops and pallets to collect the flour fallen out of the containers.

It is very important before starting to establish the rules of engagement with children, that is: the activity will be fun and enjoyable for everyone if... and decide with them the rules to be followed. For example

If the flour falls from the plate or table I have to collect it, otherwise I will not have any more to work with, so I must carefully measure my movements.
If the flour falls repeatedly, it means that something is wrong, I stop to think for a moment how I can do better.
My dish with the flour will serve for several days, I must take care of it and at the end of the activity I have to put it in the bag with my name.

Each group can establish its own rules which, whatever they may be, must serve to carry out a quiet and profitable activity without waste of material and time.

Keep in mind that also the action of collecting the fallen flour with a shovel is very useful to build new skills.

The first step is to divide a small amount of flour in the children’s plates to allow them to manipulate it, observe it, experience it, in its ductility.

They will start to draw on their own and use it as a blackboard to write on, having fun.

Graphic dictation: write letters and names on the flour.

Tuesday.

farina di mais manipolazione scrittura

Reusing the previous day’s dishes and flour, we give the children time to draw freely, then propose to write letters intentionally.

You can start from the initials of their names: the teacher writes the letter correctly on the blackboard or on a sheet visible to all, stops to indicate which is the right direction from which to draw it and names it correctly several times, while children write and rewrite.

This activity becomes not only a graphic and manipulative exercise, but also a phonological game, which helps them to recover information and knowledge about the letters of the alphabet, their sounds and the correct way to pronounce them.

After tracing all the initials you can proceed to writing their full names.

Montessori alphabet: build the letters and cut them out.

Wednesday and Thursday.

The Montessori alphabet is built with wooden tiles on which the letters are drawn, each letter is covered with sand and this offers children an important sensory stimulus.

These tiles lend themselves to being touched and manipulated and allow you to internalize, thanks to the sensory stimuli they give, both the shapes and the sounds of the letters.

For my personal revision of the letters of the Montessori alphabet I chose to use corn flour, pleasant to handle and easier to manage with children.

This activity requires:

One kg of corn flour, preferably with a coarser consistency.
Sheets of photocopiable A4 paper.
Vinyl glue.

We will prepare a model on which, after dividing the sheet of cardboard into four sectors, we will draw a letter in each space, until we have exhausted all the alphabet.

Every child will have all the letters of the alphabet at his disposal.

The second step is to work gradually, dividing the children into small groups, to allow them to draw each letter with a brush dipped in PVA glue and then cover it with yellow flour.

Once the letter is covered, the excess flour will be dropped in a low and wide container to allow recovery and reuse of the material.

Once all the letters are finished and let the glue dry, the children will cut out the sheet of cardboard in four parts, making a letter for each tile.

Here is the Montessori alphabet.

How to use the Montessori alphabet?

Friday.

Once constructed, the Montessori alphabet can be used to stimulate recognition of individual letters, to learn and consolidate the use of different phonemes, to play phonological games.

The first action to do with children is to work in the circle of conversation, showing the different letters and pronouncing their sound:

This is the C, search among your letters, pronounce the sound C.

After having uttered the sound, one will proceed to trace each letter with the fingers, to sense its form through the senses and consolidate their knowledge.

Once the children have become familiar with the material, the real game can begin: suggest more actions to be carried out:

Can you give me the letter B?
Trace the letter.
Pronounce the sound of the letter.
Find a word that begins with B.

I have indicated these activities for a week but in reality this type of work can take several weeks.

The letters should be proposed gradually, in the order of two or three per day and then consolidated at home, using the material to play with parents.

If these activities have been useful share them with those who can be enriched and if you want other ideas to propose the alphabet to children read also:

Graphomotricità from body to notebook having fun.