We’ve had lots of fun with our farm unit! It’s a great theme for toddlers as well as preschoolers and kindergarteners. Today’s free farm do-a-dot printable is perfect for reinforcing the beginning sound with letter identification or simply for vocabulary and hearing beginning sounds. As usual, the do-a-dot printable is an instant download and super-easy to prepare!
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 printables is simply a photograph of a farm.
- 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 Farm Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable
To download the farm 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 Farm Do-a-Dot Printable
Disclosure: This post contains some affiliate links (at no cost to you).
Letter F Do-a-Dot Farm Sticker Tray
This do-a-dot printable can be used in a variety of ways, depending on the age and ability of the child. A younger child could just use do-a-dot markers, stickers, or some sort of transfer on the do-a-dot page and focus on the /f/ sound, while an older child could trace the letters, and build the word “farm” with the Montessori movable alphabet. I also use it to introduce the cursive letter “f.” I don’t use the extra font card with young toddlers, but it’s great for preschoolers on up. The font card is from our Montessori-Inspired Farm Pack (subscriber freebie).
You could add a tracing activity to the printable. 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 pencil. I often do that. For a toddler or young preschooler who’s not ready to write letters, you can just leave off the crayon or pencil as I did for this tray.
Scroll down to see lots of ideas for using our do-a-dot printables for a variety of ages and themes.
Montessori-Inspired Farm Vocabulary and Sticker Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers
Here are my two toddler grandchildren, Sophia at 22 months, and Caleb at 19 months, during their toddler school. My daughter, Christina, and her husband, Tom, have “toddler school” for Caleb and Sophia four mornings each week. They do lots of practical life activities, sensory activities, outdoor time, music, vocabulary, Spanish and sign language, story time, and open-ended play. They use the do-a-dot printables for vocabulary, hearing the beginning sound of a word, and fine-motor skills.
When using stickers with our do-a-dot pages, I often use ¾” dot stickers. This time I found some cute farm stickers. If you find stickers that fit on the bottom of Hershey’s Kisses, they’ll typically be the right size for the do-a-dot printables.
With toddlers, I like to do some vocabulary work. Using the 3-period lesson, you can focus on the word “farm.” You can use farm animals from your other activities for additional vocabulary work. You could also use more photographs and books to teach about farms.
After the vocabulary focus, you could casually say that farm 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, “Farm,” /f/, “farm.”
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.
I don’t worry at all about whether toddlers put the stickers exactly on the dots or whether they complete the page. It’s fun to watch Sophia and Caleb get more exact in their do-a-dot work as they grow and progress!
As always, adapt your presentations for your unique child!
More Farm Resources
Farm Set with Barn and Animals on Amazon
Free Farm Printables and Activities for a Montessori-Inspired Farm Unit
- Free Farm Songs and Educational Videos
- Montessori-Inspired Farm Unit {Hundreds of Resources}
- Montessori-Inspired Corn Unit
- Safari Ltd. Farm TOOBS and Keys
- Free Farm Printables and Montessori-Inspired Activities Using Farm Replicas and Printables
- 40+ Farm Sensory Tub
- Inexpensive, Simple-to-Prepare Montessori Grammar Farm
- Montessori-Inspired Farm Animal Matching/Vocabulary for Babies and Toddlers
- Farm, Zoo, & Ocean Animal Sensory Bottles for Babies and Toddlers
- Montessori-Inspired Horse Unit
- Story Stones – Farm Animal Families Treasure Basket
- Free Lamb Printables and Montessori-Inspired Lamb Activities
- Free Lamb Cutting Strips (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Free Lamb Do-a-Dot Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Montessori-Inspired Farm Unit {Hundreds of Resources}
- The Montessori Grammar Farm for Learning Grammar the Hands-on, Fun Way
- Free Duckling Printables and Montessori-Inspired Duckling Activities
- Free Make Way for Ducklings Do-a-Dot Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- The Best Duck and Duckling Books for Kids
- Fun 100 Board Extension – Count 100 Ducks {Free Printable}
- Free Duckling Cutting Strips (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Farm Unit Study Pinterest Board
MONTESSORI-INSPIRED PACKS – SUBSCRIBER FREEBIES
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). 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.
Learn more about my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to. Teach Grace and Courtesy!
The Montessori at Home! eBook and Montessori at Home! eBook and Materials Bundle are AMAZING resources! You can learn more about them here. Buy them in the Living Montessori Now shop.
If this is your first time visiting Living Montessori Now, welcome! If you haven’t already, please join us on our Living Montessori Now Facebook page where you’ll find a Free Printable of the Day and lots of inspiration and ideas for parenting and teaching! And please follow me on Pinterest (lots of Montessori-, holiday-, and theme-related boards), Instagram, and YouTube. You can find me on bloglovin’ and Twitter, too.
And don’t forget one of the best ways to follow me by signing up for my weekly newsletter. You’ll receive some awesome freebies in the process!
Leave a Reply