Living Montessori Now

Montessori Inspiration for Parents and Teachers

FREE Fall Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)

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Fall is filled with gorgeous colors and images. Our fall unit features some of those images along with the phonetic sound /f/ for fall. As usual, the free fall do-a-dot printable is an instant download, versatile, and super easy to prepare.

FREE Fall Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)

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, Christina (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. This month’s do-a-dot printable is simply a fall scene with leaves and trees.
  • 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 Fall Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable

To download the fall 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).

Montessori-Inspired Activities Using the Fall Do-a-Dot Printable

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

Fall Do-a-Dot Phonics Tray with Maple Leaf Punch and Glue Activity

Tray with F for Fall Do-a-Dot Printable and Maple Leaf Punch

Tray with F for Fall Do-a-Dot Printable and Maple Leaf Punch

I used a Multicraft tray, a maple leaf punch, and a bamboo condiment cup to collect the maple leaves until they’re used (along with any extra maple leaves). I had purchased this maple leaf punch 5 years ago, and it’s no longer available. A ¾” punch works best.

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 or glass gems, 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 2½-year-old grandkids trace letters or numbers except with their fingers. I just showed how 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.

Fall Phonics Activity and Do-a-Dot Work

Using a Leaf Punch to Make Paper Maple Leaves for Fall Do-a-Dot Page

Using a Leaf Punch to Make Paper Maple Leaves for Fall Do-a-Dot Page

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

For this activity, my 2½-year-old grandson, Caleb (Chrissy Chitwood‘s son), loved being able to use the maple leaf punch. With 2-year-olds and young preschoolers, it often works best if they stand up to punch out the leaves. I like the type of maple leaf punch I had. It was a Martha Stewart punch, but it’s no longer available. One with a handle works especially well for 2 year olds.

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 /f/ sound at the beginning of “fall.”

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

Both of my 2½-year-old grandkids love working with sandpaper letters and letter sounds, so we do more focused work on the letter sounds now. 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.

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.

Having Fun Gluing Paper Maple Leaves to Fall Do-a-Dot

Having Fun Gluing Paper Maple Leaves to Fall Do-a-Dot

Caleb really enjoyed punching out the paper maple leaves and gluing them to the dots on the letter “f.”

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

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!

More Fall Resources


Free Fall Printables and Montessori-Inspired Fall Activities

Montessori-Inspired Fall Pack

Don’t miss our themed monthly packs! You’ll get  the link and password for the Living Montessori Now subscriber library with the current pack and all the past monthly packs if you subscribe to the Living Montessori Now weekly newsletter!

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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