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Eleanor
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| Posted: July 31 2007 at 4:08am | IP Logged
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If you have sandpaper letters or a movable alphabet (whether homemade or purchased), and you and your children think they're wonderful... please tell us about them, or post a link to a site where we can find out more. I've seen quite a few forum and blog posts with this type of information, but thought it might be helpful to have it all in one place.
Oh, and if you have a set that turned out to be duds for some reason, please tell us about those, too, so we can learn from your experience. 
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I'll start, with our sandpaper letter saga:
Our first set was purchased for about $10 from a teacher's store. It turns out that they're only about half the size of the standard Montessori letters, i.e., too small to be suitable for very young children. In addition, the consonants & vowels are all the same color: white on a black background. Finally, they're in manuscript (aka "printing"), while we had planned to start with cursive. All in all, I'm not sure what I was thinking when I bought them! Still, they're quite well made, and don't take up much space (they're basically like a deck of cards), so I'm thinking it might make sense to hang on to them in case they're needed for future practice with manuscript letters.
Next, I ordered "real" SP letters, but there was some sort of delay, and it kept dragging on for weeks. I would have canceled the order and gone elsewhere, but we're using red vowels and blue consonants (to match some other materials we have), and there aren't a lot of suppliers who have these, especially in cursive.
As a temporary measure, I tried making my own, using the "glue and sand" method. I downloaded a cursive font, scaled the letters up to an appropriate size, and printed them onto colored card stock, using the "outline" font style in a grey color so the letters were barely visible. So far, so good. Then I filled in the outlines with glue, and stuck sand to them. Ooh, yuck... The ones made with white glue looked messy and uneven, and felt too abrasive to the touch. The ones made with a glue stick looked and felt much better, but the sand kept falling off. In addition, the thin card stock kept buckling under the weight of the sand. I probably could have got it right eventually, using backing boards, finer sand, and a more careful gluing job, but I didn't have the patience.
Finally, I resorted to a more standard, albeit labor-intensive method:
1) Print the letters onto plain paper and cut them out;
2) Use them as templates to cut the sandpaper;
3) Make backing boards out of one layer of colored card stock and one layer of cereal box cardboard, sandwiched together and run through the laminator;
4) Use the Xyron permanent adhesive cartridge to stick the letters onto the cards.
These weren't as hard to make as I'd expected, and we've been happy with them so far. In fact, they turned out so well that I decided to cancel our order... only to notice that it had just shipped.  Oh well, I guess my homemade version can go in our "outdoor school." They're probably not sturdy enough for long-term use anyway (especially with my 2-year-old), as the edges can be bent. But it was a huge relief to finally have a set that worked!
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: July 31 2007 at 5:35am | IP Logged
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Wow! That is quite a saga! You've done it all!
My dd is too old for the sandpaper letters, and we just use a printed moveable alphabet for now. I will pick up a wooden one eventually.
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Theresa
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Land O' Cotton
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| Posted: July 31 2007 at 6:50am | IP Logged
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Here's my sandpaper letter story...
I printed out the letters from the jmj site, put them onto 4 X 6 index cards, laminated them, then applied red glitter glue to the consonants. Of course when the glitter glue dried it was easy to pick off from the laminated cards, so I'm back to the drawing board. I'm trying to do the cursive letters just to give it a try.
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Vicki
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SeaStar
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| Posted: July 31 2007 at 6:54am | IP Logged
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I picked up a large set of sandpaper letters at a garage sale (homemade by a teacher) and they have worked just fine. All the letters are the same color, and they are print. I just made a lower case alphabet using chip board glitter letters from Michael's- again, all the same color.
Not pure Montessori, but the kids love them and know their letters. Sometimes when I get stressed about having perfect materials, I have to remind myself that I never had any Montessori materials as a kid, so whatever I can do for mine is a bonus. If I get too stressed, then it's no fun for anyone.
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
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Meredith
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| Posted: July 31 2007 at 9:22am | IP Logged
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SeaStar wrote:
| I just made a lower case alphabet using chip board glitter letters from Michael's- again, all the same color. |
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These are mine as well, Sandpaper Letters, make-your-own. I need to change out the "a" and the "g" as they are typeset print, but other than that my 5yo LOVES them!
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Meredith
Mom of 4 Sweeties
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CatholicMommy
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| Posted: July 31 2007 at 9:25am | IP Logged
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I made our first homemade set using the patterns in Hainstock's book. I used tissue paper from some random gift bag to trace everything, cut them out and traced them onto the back of fine sandpaper, cut all of that out... For the boards, I used (what I have now discovered) is old posterboard - meaning it's actually STIFF  I covered these pieces on both sides with the appropriate colors of construction paper (I would have used cardstock had I known about it at the time, but I just starting out), and made sure the glue went all the way to the edges (I always water down elmer's glue a bit so that it spreads easier and when the water dries, the glue is left in a very thin but solid layer).
These have worked out great, except I really wanted cursive ones as time went on....
SO. I did finally make ones with sand and glue - but I again watered down the glue a bit. I did not use a pattern really on these ones, though I could have - I just made the letter in light pencil then drew around it to make it thicker. I did not laminate anything but I did use colored cardstock to cover some thick cardboard I have (the cardboard is another story). Afterwards, I also coated the sand with some polyurethane ($3 or $4 for a small can at Wal-Mart - goes a LONG way). This helped to smooth it out a bit and it's actually nicer feeling than the sandpaper. Thus far, our sand does not come off and the cards are holding up - but they're only a month old.
(I used the same technique on our land and water globe)
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Christine
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| Posted: July 31 2007 at 9:43am | IP Logged
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I made our sandpaper letters about 8 or 9 years ago, using the letter templates in the back of Elizabeth Hainstock's book. I rubber-cemented the sandpaper letters onto tag board. Five children have used these and our sandpaper numbers and they are still holding up well (one or two of the letter cards have been scribbled on).
If I had to make the letters again, I would use felt instead of sandpaper. A few of my children did not like the feel of the sandpaper. They all like the feel of the flocked felt letters in The Red Letter Alphabet Book and The Blue Number Book, recommended by Alicia.
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Christine
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SeaStar
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| Posted: July 31 2007 at 10:22am | IP Logged
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Meredith wrote:
SeaStar wrote:
| I just made a lower case alphabet using chip board glitter letters from Michael's- again, all the same color. |
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These are mine as well, Sandpaper Letters, make-your-own. I need to change out the "a" and the "g" as they are typeset print, but other than that my 5yo LOVES them! |
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I was able to make a very nice "a" by cutting down the extra letter p in the set. I also cobbled together a nice "g". I trimmed off a lot of the extra little pieces, so I have a very nice, plain print.
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
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Meredith
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| Posted: July 31 2007 at 10:36am | IP Logged
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Excellent idea Melinda, I will do it! I'm glad they worked out for you too  Thanks!
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Meredith
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Meredith
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| Posted: July 31 2007 at 10:45am | IP Logged
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Christine wrote:
| If I had to make the letters again, I would use felt instead of sandpaper. A few of my children did not like the feel of the sandpaper. They all like the feel of the flocked felt letters in The Red Letter Alphabet Book and The Blue Number Book, recommended by Alicia. |
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Thanks for this link Christine, I appreciated her input on those books. I am inclined towards the felt as well. I've been cutting out many letters this past few weeks for my phonics series and I'm thinking of doing the cursive and double phonograms sets in felt. It's really pretty easy with the sticky back sheets from the craft store Appreciate your post, thanks!
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Meredith
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vmalott
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| Posted: Aug 01 2007 at 3:10pm | IP Logged
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Christine wrote:
| If I had to make the letters again, I would use felt instead of sandpaper. |
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I had made a whole alphabet out of fine sandpaper, but I really disliked the feeling of the sandpaper on my fingertips that it was difficult for me to present them correctly!  They were also starting to peel away from the matboard since I affixed them with rubber cement.
I wound up using pre-cut, sticky back felt letters that I picked up at the craft store. I like the feeling of the felt much more. Granted, the font size is much smaller than the Montessori ones, and I haven't yet researched if there is anything other than capitals, so that is one caveat.
My just turned 3yo loves the letter cards, though, and does know most of the alphabet, so I guess it's working here so far.
My "moveable alphabet" are those white plastic letter tiles that I picked up years ago at Wal-Mart. I have them alphabetically arranged in one of those large, flat bead boxes. My 4yo enjoys using them with the pink object sets that I've put together, so I guess they're working here as well.
I know these things aren't orthodox Montessori materials, but I think they're helping us achieve at least some of the objectives of the original materials and they are most certainly easy on our budget.
Valerie
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Valerie
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SeaStar
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| Posted: Aug 01 2007 at 3:18pm | IP Logged
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That's what I love about Montessori- you can take the ideas and run with them. Adapting them for home use is not "pure" Montessori, but I'm sure Maria Montessori did the same thing- use what was available. And when you think about it, there was a lot less available in her time. She might have preferred sticky back felt, too, had it been available- you never know....
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
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Eleanor
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| Posted: Aug 01 2007 at 5:09pm | IP Logged
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"The Montessori Method" has an interesting story that relates to Melinda's comments.
During her early work with children with disabilities, Dr. Montessori had a "splendid alphabet" of large, lower-case letters made for her students. These letters were cut from wood and backed with bronze for durability. The children would run their fingers over them, and match them to identical letters that were written on cards. This alphabet seemed to be a wonderful learning tool.
Later, when she opened the first Children's House, she had a much lower budget, and couldn't afford to have a similar alphabet custom-made. She thought about using the letters that were sold for storefront signs, but she couldn't find them in cursive, only in printing. (She was quite firm on the importance of starting with cursive, because she believed that the curved lines came more naturally to young children than the straight lines of printed letters.)
After much delay, she finally gave up, and decided to make her own letters out of sandpaper, mounted on boards. Then she realized that she could make many extra copies of each letter, using plain paper, so the children could use them to spell words. She and her colleagues stayed after class, cutting out these letters from ordinary writing paper, and painting them blue or red. Thus, she had the first "sandpaper letters" and "movable alphabet" -- and she found that these items were much more useful than her former, much fancier wooden alphabet.
Not long after that, one of her student teachers came up with two more ideas: 1) storing the movable alphabet letters in separate compartments in a box (which she describes as rather clumsily handmade from cardboard), rather than loose in a basket, and 2) affixing a horizontal strip of white paper to the back of each letter, so the child wouldn't get it backwards or sideways. The first adaptation has obviously become standard, but the second hasn't. I wonder why not? It seems as if it would be very helpful. Since we got our "cutout" movable alphabet, I've been spending a great deal of time helping my daughter turn the letters the right way round, and I even have problems figuring some of them out myself. (For instance, our "h" is almost identical to an upside-down "y.") Some of the sandpaper letters can also be confusing. I've been thinking about various ways to deal with this, and right now I'm leaning toward putting a removable sticker dot at the beginning of each letter.
Anyway, to me, this anecdote suggests that the specific choice of materials (e.g., sandpaper, felt, or velour for the tactile letters; wood, paper, felt, or cardboard for the movable alphabet), and the absolute precision of the craftsmanship, aren't nearly as important as the large size and consistent style of the letters. In MM's early alphabets, the shortest letters were about 8 cm (3") high, with the others proportionately taller. From what I've read (e.g., in "Montessori on a Limited Budget"), the youngest children, around ages two to four, will benefit the most from letters of this size. Five- or six-year-olds might be okay with somewhat smaller ones.
Another thing to note is that many children are able to "write" quite lengthy compositions with the movable alphabet, a long time before they develop fluent handwriting skills. Because of this, it seems like a good idea to have at least two sizes of alphabets: a large, cut-out one for beginners, and a smaller one (e.g. printed on cards) for more advanced work.
Based on my personal experience -- and this isn't a Montessori-endorsed concept! -- if I had a kindergartener who was enthusiastic about creative writing, but was being slowed down by immature handwriting skills, I'd also be inclined to let him or her use an old manual or electric typewriter. No word processors, and no white-out... just a simple, mechanical, "you press that key, you get that letter" deal. But I'd keep this as a "free time" activity, and stick to the traditional materials during "school time."
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4Real Forums : Nurturing the Years of Wonder
Topic: Favorite SP letters & movable alphabets?
