Sandpaper letters are one of the most commonly heard-of Montessori materials. And they should be! They were an important part of my phonics work as a Montessori teacher and Montessori homeschooler … and now as a Montessori grandma.
Disclosure: This post contains some affiliate links (at no cost to you).
Montessori-School-Quality Sandpaper Letters
Montessori schools need to buy high-quality sandpaper letters (photos from Trillium Montessori and To the Lesson!), but you can purchase inexpensive sandpaper letters or make your own for home use.
Where to Purchase Inexpensive Sandpaper Letters
If you’d like to purchase sandpaper letters for home use, there are a number of inexpensive options:
Kid Advance on Amazon (These are the sandpaper letters I have. They’re also available in cursive.)
If you’d like tactile letters that are inexpensive and may or may not be sandpaper, there are many options on Amazon.
Here’s a more thorough list of Montessori material suppliers along with comments from parents who purchased from various companies: Where to Buy Montessori Materials.
How to Make Your Own Sandpaper Letters
If you’re crafty or enjoy DIY projects, you might like to make your own sandpaper letters. There are some great tutorials available:
There are patterns and directions for making your own sandpaper letters (in addition to many other Montessori materials) in the book Teaching Montessori in the Home: Pre-School Years: The Pre-School Years
by Elizabeth G. Hainstock.
DIY Sandpaper Letters
- Beautiful Sun Montessori has a tutorial for making handmade wooden sandpaper letters.
- Royal Baloo used printable letters (free instant download) and colored sand to make sandpaper letters.
- Making Montessori Ours has DIY sandpaper letters in D’Nealian and cursive.
Welcome to Mommyhood has templates (subscriber freebie) for making sandpaper letters using plywood and sandpaper.
Dancing With Dinosaurs has cursive sandpaper letters on card.
Little Tiger Growing Up made an attractive set of DIY sandpaper letters with sandpaper and colored cardboard.
Montessori Mom has a free sandpaper letter printout: Free Montessori Sandpaper Letters Printout.
Kaisu Parents has directions for making sandpaper letters from vanguard paper/manila card. Do It Yourself : Alphabet Cards (1) -Montessori Sandpaper Letters.
Happy Early Learning used cardstock and sandpaper along with printable templates.
There are some basic directions for making sandpaper letters at Family Education.
Playground Parkbench has letters made using printed letters on cardstock and textured materials.
How to make sandpaper letters from Momtessori: Do I need any white out for this? {Sandpaper letters}.
ABC Jesus Loves Me has both instructions and templates for making sandpaper letters (and numerals).
Montessori Materials has sandpaper letter templates.
Soul Food Time used sandpaper on plywood rectangles.
Montessori My Life used carbon paper to trace the letters to make sandpaper letters.
Practical Mama made sandpaper letters with poster board and sandpaper.
Practical Mom used thin MDF board and sandpaper.
My Domestic Monastery used sandpaper letters on wood pieces.
At Totally Tots, Julie from Nurturing Learning showed how to make simple sandpaper letters that used cardstock, sand, and glue rather than cutting letters from sandpaper.
Tried & True used a Silhouette machine to cut out the letters for sandpaper letters.
Sage-Ness made Hindi and Gujarati sandpaper letters.
Pumpkins and Me has a free printable template (instant download) for making phonogram letters.
DIY Alternatives to Sandpaper Letters
I have free printable templates (instant download) for making tactile nature letters.
Kingdom of the Pink Princesses made glitter glue letters that can be prepared easily in any language.
DIY Alternatives to Sandpaper Letters
- Jojoebi has directions for making a version of wooden sandpaper letters with pre-cut boards and sticky-backed felt.
- Gift of Curiosity has hot glue letters (photo) and glitter glue letters.
- Learn Play Imagine has puffy paint letters.
- Teach Me Mommy has directions and free printable templates (subscriber freebie) for making pipe cleaner letters.
The Moffat Girls made DIY Montessori Sandpaper Letters with felt on wooden discs.
Dabbling Momma has salt letters on wood pieces.
Make, Take & Teach made tactile letters with outdoor tread on poster board.
Some alternatives to sandpaper letters from Momtessori: This is the next best thing …
Sandpaper Letter Presentations and Extensions
How to introduce sandpaper letters, including a video on introducing sandpaper letters: How to Teach Concepts and Vocabulary to Your Preschooler Using the Three-Period Lesson (my post and a Montessori Primary Guide video)
In What Order Should You Introduce Letters to Your Preschooler? (another post of mine)
My post with video on how to pronounce the phonetic sound for each letter: Teach Letter Sounds to Your Child Using Montessori Principles.
Montessori – Sandpaper Letters by InfoMontessori (This is a basic lesson for introducing three sandpaper letters.)
To the Lesson! has a post with helpful ideas for record-keeping for sandpaper letters.
Sandpaper Letter Extensions
- The OT Toolbox has free printable cursive cards (subscriber freebie) for making letters with Wikki Stix.
- Peaceful Parenting has a number of extensions for sandpaper letters and phonetic sounds (including a sandpaper letter with salt tray): On the Road to Reading: Eight Months of Montessori Literacy Work.
- No Time for Flash Cards has sandpaper letter tracing, a fun extension.
Homeschool Creations has free printable playdough mats (instant download) for making playdough letters.
I typically have a writing tray using salt, sand, or another textured material for my monthly themes.
Printed Alphabet Tracing Board FromJennifer on Etsy
This printed alphabet tracing board FromJennifer on Etsy is a wonderful extension to work with sandpaper letters. Be sure to get the lowercase version.
More DIY Montessori Materials
You’ll find lots and lots of ideas for DIY Montessori materials in my post on how to make your own Montessori materials.
Learn more about my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to. Teach Grace and Courtesy!
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Thanks Deb, for featuring my photo in your wonderfully informative post and for the link to my record keeping idea. I can’t tell you how much I look forward to your posts which are always so well done, accurate, and full of ideas and inspiration! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Sasha
Thanks so much for your very kind comment, Sasha! I always enjoy your posts – and find them very inspirational, too! 🙂
Thanks for all those links to sandpaper letters. I also wrote a post for Totally Tots that shows I we made our sandpaper letters, without cutting out any sandpaper. http://totallytots.blogspot.com/2011/11/little-hands-on-abcs-and-123s-simple.html
Julie from The Adventures of Bear
Thanks so much for sharing your link, Julie! That’s a wonderful idea … so simple and a great way for kids to get involved, too! I added your link to my post. 🙂
Nice resources to buy or make sandpaper letters. With all the cutting making would require on this project one might even choose to spend the extra to buy them ready-made… or enlist help of older children to help cut! -heather
Thanks, Heather! Buying inexpensive sandpaper letters is a great option for many homeschoolers – and I love the idea of having older children help cut DIY sandpaper letters! 🙂
Thank you Deb! This post was right on time. Ken and DJ have a strong interest in writing cursive. I love the sandpaper letters, this should put them in the right direction. Thank you so much for sharing.
Thanks, Discovering Montessori! Your kids are so great at helping prepare activities that I bet they’d have fun helping you prepare the letters, too! 🙂
Great post, as always! I cut sand paper and glued it on card stock for English Alphabets. Another easy idea is to use glitter glue. I used this to create our native language alphabets. Here is my post on that ->http://pinkprincesskingdom.blogspot.com/2011/04/glitter-glue-letters.html
What a great idea … thanks so much for sharing your link! I added your photo and post to my post! 🙂
I remember looking for ideas to make these… It is so nice to see all these resources in one place ready to share!! Fantastic post!!
Thanks so much for your kind comment, Cherine! I had fun finding the resources … and I’m glad my post is helpful! 🙂
Thank you so much for this great post! You went above and beyond with all of the ideas, links and resources. I’ve saved many of your posts for when my son is a bit older. Thanks!
Thanks for your kind words, Emily! I’m so happy to hear you’re saving my posts for when your son is older. 🙂
Ohh, I have been thinking that I really want to make some sandpaper letters for Boogie! You read my mind 🙂 Thank you for all the great resources!
Thanks, Sierra! I’m glad my timing is right for you! 🙂
I have not decided what to do about sandpaper letters yet. Definitely something to think about! Making my own seems like something I could do but my crafty skills are somewhat lacking!
Some of my Tot School activities have a montessori feel- we did a ton of art and craft too!
Thanks for your comment, Lulu! It’s nice that the tutorials make it easy for those of us who are somewhat craft-challenged! 🙂
What an array of resources! I am off to check them you.
Thanks so much, JDaniel4’s Mom! I’m impressed with all the inexpensive and DIY options that are available online now. 🙂
I LOVE the letter with the salt tray! What a fantastic idea! Fantastic post.
Thanks so much for your kind comment, Katie! 🙂
This is a wonderful collection of resources, Deb. I linked to it in my post about introducing the letter sounds with the Sandpaper Letters.
Hello! I love your site and am doing Montessori preschooling with my son. I am making sandpaper letters and have a question – is there a certain purpose and importance of using the d’Nealian letters or is it okay to just use Arial?
Thanks so much for your kind comment, Sara! Many Montessorians use d’Nealian letters because they connect together easily. Many others use a simple print font, too. Some choose a font based on what their children will use later on. It’s really up to your preference. Have fun!
Thank you so much for featuring our sandpaper letters in your post 🙂
So many great ideas here! I love your Blog – full of information and activities to try! 🙂
I have not decided what to do about sandpaper letters yet. Definitely something to think about! Making my own seems like something I could do but my crafty skills are somewhat lacking!
Hi Deb, thanks so much for sharing this! I’ve been coming back to it as a reference as I gather the materials for my DIY sandpaper letters. My question is, should the letters be a certain size? I have found that the letters I have printed look awfully small on the wood slat that I have. Thank you!