Living Montessori Now

Montessori Inspiration for Parents and Teachers

FREE Cricket and Katydid Do-a-Dot Printables (Montessori-Inspired Phonics Instant Download)

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I have two free do-a-dot printables for you today! We’re having a noisy insect unit, so we have both “c” for cricket and “k” for katydid! The cricket do-a-dot printable is also perfect for an Eric Carle activity based on his book The Very Quiet Cricket. As usual, the download with the printables is an instant download and super-easy to prepare!

FREE Cricket and Katydid Do-a-Dot Printables (Montessori-Inspired Phonics Instant Download)

 

Disclosure: This post contains some affiliate links (at no cost to you).

Note: Be sure to read to the bottom of the post where you’ll find lots of ideas for using do-a-dot printables along with at least one free do-a-dot printable for each letter of the alphabet!

Montessori-Inspired Printables at Living Montessori Now

My daughter, Chrissy (a former Montessori child), and I are partnering to bring you a series of Montessori-inspired printables. The printables are typically themed and use a number of Montessori principles (although you don’t need to be a Montessori teacher or homeschooler to use them):

  • They use isolation of quality.
  • They use photographs or realistic images to emphasize reality. Whenever I can, I’ll tell you the specific name of the object or animal featured on the credits page.
  • They typically use traditional Montessori colors such as red for consonants and blue for vowels.
  • They use lowercase letters, which are what we introduce letter sounds with in Montessori education. (Children tend to pick up the uppercase letters without being introduced if they’re introduced to the lowercase letter sounds.)
  • They often feature themed printable versions of Montessori materials.

Free Cricket and Katydid Do-a-Dot Phonics Printables

To download the cricket and katydid do-a-dot phonics printables, click here and then click on the file image in the upper right corner of the PDF to save to your computer (just choose where you want it saved).

Cricket and Katydid Do-a-Dot Tray with Cricket Transfer Activity 

Cricket and Katydid Do-a-Dot Tray with Cricket Transfer Activity

Cricket and Katydid Do-a-Dot Tray with Cricket Transfer Activity

Note: This is just one example of how you can use the do-a-dot printables. There are many ways to use our do-a-dot printables. Scroll down to see examples from previous posts. Just choose an activity that’s appropriate for your child’s age and skill level.

I used a Multicraft tray, mini wood easels with a “c” for cricket font card (available in print, D’Nealian, and cursive) and “k” for katydid font card, chopsticks, quick sticks (which are great until children can use chopsticks), and cricket fishing lures (just soft plastic with no hooks) that I used for a math activity. There were 36 in the pack, and I needed 20 for the math activity and 15 for this activity.

I’ve started putting out triangular grip pencils for my 3-year-old grandkids for any writing or drawing they want to do. Triangular grip pencils are a great way to help young children develop the proper pencil. grip.

I also have Do-a-Dot markers available for the katydid do-a-dot and to use with the cricket do-a-dot as well.

You can use a variety of tools for transfer activities, such as quick sticks, sugar tongs, or toast tongs. (Note: With toddlers, be extra careful to avoid leaving out materials, such as pom poms, glass gems, or cricket fishing lures, that could be a choking hazard. I typically keep small objects up out of reach for toddlers and get them out when I’m directly supervising their work.)

You can add erasable crayons or markers to a laminated page for preschoolers to work on tracing skills. I don’t have my grandkids trace letters or numbers before age 3 except with their fingers. Above age 3, I place colored pencils on the tray for children who are ready for tracing work. If you laminate your printable, you can use an erasable crayon like the Melissa & Doug Learning Mat Crayons or Crayola Erasable Crayons. If your page isn’t laminated, you could add a pencil or colored pencils. I often do that. If you only have a 2-year-old or other young preschooler who’s not ready to write letters, you can just leave off the crayon or pencils.

Scroll down to see lots of ideas for using our do-a-dot printables for a variety of ages and themes.

/C/ for Cricket and /K/ for Katydid with Cricket Transfer and Do-a-Dot Work

Working with Cricket and Katydid Do-a-Dot Pages

Working with Cricket and Katydid Do-a-Dot Pages

This type of activity is wonderful for fine-motor development, increasing attention span, and reinforcing letter sounds.

My 3-year-old grandkids, Sophia and Caleb, are very secure with the letter “c” and the /c/ sound, but I wanted to use this work to focus on proper letter formation and the concept that both “c” and “k” can make the same sound.

Although they’re both interested in tracing their names and do well with that, I don’t typically have them do writing work other than their names yet. I have triangular grip pencils if they ask to do tracing work. Otherwise, we still emphasize tracing the sandpaper letters and writing letters in our sand/salt tray.

For toddlers, I typically use the do-a-dot printables for vocabulary, hearing the beginning sound of a word, and fine-motor skills. Generally, with toddlers, I’ll just focus on the /c/ sound at the beginning of “cricket” and the /k/ sound at the beginning of “katydid.”

For a phonics lesson with young toddlers, I might casually say that katydid starts with /k/ (the sound, not the letter name). This is just to introduce hearing the phonetic sound. I don’t focus on the letter “k,” although I use the printable that we already have available. We often focus on the child hearing the beginning sound by saying something like, “Katydid, /k/, katydid.”

Both of my 3-year-old grandkids love working with sandpaper letters and other letter activities. This is what I do with preschoolers who are learning their letter sounds. We follow the order shown in this post along with adding the featured letter. I don’t worry about going out of order for the monthly theme.

If you want to know more about how to introduce the /c/ sound and /k/ sound, check out my post on how to teach letter sounds using Montessori principles.

I only use printables with toddlers that can be used for hands-on work, such as do-a-dot work, scissor cutting (cutting strips), or another type of printable that can be made into a manipulative. Printables when used with manipulatives are great for fine-motor development, work on important skills, and fit with the hands-on activities that are developmentally appropriate for toddlers.

With both Sophia and Caleb, we focus on the proper formation of the letters by tracing the large “c” and “k” first. Sometimes we use the sandpaper letter or our salt/sand tray.

I’m amazed at how well Sophia can use chopsticks! She and her mom and 7-year-old sister, Zoey, like to eat with chopsticks, so Sophia has very advanced skills for her age. She actually can hold them better than the grip she’s using in the photo! She used a perfect chopstick hold for much of the work, and she transferred all the crickets with the chopsticks more than once!

Caleb worked with the letter “k” and Do-a-Dot markers while Sophia did the cricket transfer. Caleb already knows his letter sounds, so our emphasis was on letter formation.

If you would like help with introducing phonetic sounds, introducing objects with sounds, or beginning phonics in general, check out my DIY Beginning Montessori Phonics with Preschoolers.

For older children who already know their letter sounds but still enjoy do-a-dot work, I add the print movable alphabet word building, phonogram work, another hands-on activity to go with the do-a-dot work, and/or cursive movable alphabet and word analysis work. (Note: These examples have more than one type of additional activity, which I like for older children.) 

As always, adapt your presentations for your unique child!

After our work, we listened to the sounds of crickets and katydids on YouTube.

And, of course, I read The Very Quiet Cricket to my grandkids! It’s very popular with them, especially the cricket sound at the end of the book!

More Insect Resources




Free Noisy Insect Printables and Montessori-Inspired Noisy Insect Activities

Montessori-Inspired Noisy Insect Pack

Montessori-Inspired Noisy Insect Pack for DIY Cards and Counters, Number or Letter Matching, Number or Letter Basket, Bead Bar Work, Hands-on Math Operations, Number or Letter Salt/Sand Writing Tray, Letter Tracing, DIY Movable Alphabet, and Creative Writing (subscriber freebie, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password – or check your inbox if you’re already a subscriber).

Free Do-a-Dot Printables and Ideas for Using Them

I love the versatility of do-a-dot printables! If you’re doing a month-long theme, you could easily change out the type of do-a-dot activity weekly to add interest. Here are four ideas of hands-on activities for any of our do-a-dot printables from my frog do-a-dot printable post (see post for details and materials used).

Just click on an image to go to the post with the related free printable! 

Note: I’ve arranged the following gallery in alphabetical order, although some posts have two do-a-dot printables (and two different letters). You’ll find at least one free do-a-dot printable for each letter of the alphabet!

Also, I don’t introduce letters in alphabetical order. You can find out the order in which I introduce letter sounds here. I deviate from that order for our unit studies, though, and focus on a letter that’s simply related to our unit. That’s in addition to our other letter work.

You can see all our free do-a-dot printables with the latest at the top here.

For complete themed alphabet do-a-dot packs, see our Animal Alphabet Do-a-Dot Pack, Spanish Animal Alphabet Do-a-Dot Pack, and Healthy Food Alphabet Do-a-Dot Pack available for purchase in the Living Montessori Now shop.

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