Home-made sandpaper letters -

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I decided to make the sandpaper letters for my son after reading “Teaching Montessori in the Home: Pre-School Years“. It was also a great crafts project to keep me busy while we were trying to get the basement finished. I used the instructions and patterns at the end of “Teaching Montessori in the Home: Pre-School Years“.

Montessori Books I recommend

Materials used:

Pack of extra fine sandpapers.
Poster paper or cardstock (red and blue)
Glue
Carbon paper (or Printer paper and crayon) for transfer tracing

Materials needed to make sandpaper letters

Instructions:

First I traced the letters on the back of the sandpapers. I used the print letters given at the back of the book. I realized I needed a carbon copy paper. But it was so cold outside, that I didn’t want to go to the store. I Macgayvered with a black oil crayon on a white paper to do the same thing. You need to trace the letters backward so that the mirror image on the other side (sanded) will be correct.

Then I cut the letters out. This part is really tedious. You might need an X-acto knife as well as good scissors.

I cut 3″x4″ rectangles out of the poster boards. Blue for vowels and red for consonants.

I glued the sandpaper letters to rectangle cards.

Here they are. The weird letters in the picture above are additional vowels in the Turkish alphabet.

I cut the bottoms of two milk cartons to make containers for the letters. I am trying to find nice adhesive cover paper to decorate those. Once I do it, I’ll post the photo here.