Living Montessori Now

Montessori Inspiration for Parents and Teachers

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

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Our weird insect unit has been great and truly educational! Today, I have a free do-a-dot for you with a leafhopper as the weird insect. As usual, this leafhopper do-a-dot phonics printable is an instant download and very easy to prepare.

FREE Leafhopper Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable (Montessori-Inspired 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. This printable has a photograph of a leafhopper (Cicadella viridis).
  • 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 Leafhopper Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable

To download the /l/ for leafhopper do-a-dot phonics printable, 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).

L for Leafhopper Do-a-Dot Tray with Circle Punch

Tray with L for Leafhopper Do-a-Dot Printable and Circle Punch

Tray with L for Leafhopper Do-a-Dot Printable and Circle Punch

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 /l/ sound, while an older preschooler could trace the letters and build the word “leafhopper” with the Montessori movable alphabet. You can also use it to introduce the cursive letter “l” and/or to focus on the spelling of leafhopper.

For our leafhopper do-a-dot tray,I used a Multicraft tray with ¾ inch circle punch, green printer paper, glue, and colored pencils. Your child will need to punch out 12 circles for the dots on the letter “l.” I also added /l/ for leafhopper font card in cursive from our subscriber freebie weird insect pack. If you prefer, you can use a variety of tools for transfer activities, such as quick sticks, sugar tongs, or toast tongs.

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 pencils. I often do that. For 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.

Leafhopper Phonics and Do-a-Dot Activities

Working with Leafhopper Do-a-Dot Printable

Working with Leafhopper Do-a-Dot Printable

This type of activity is wonderful for fine-motor development, increasing attention span, and reinforcing letter sounds. For older children or children who are ready, it’s a great printable for working on “ea” and “er” in leafhopper.

My 4-year-old grandson, Caleb (Chrissy Chitwood‘s son) has been working on the Montessori green series, including phonograms “ea” and “er.” We’ve also done some introductory work with the cursive movable alphabet.

Caleb enjoyed finding the cursive letters for “leafhopper.”

Then he used the 3/4 punch to make circles for the letter “l” dots. After cutting them out, he glued each circle on the letter “l.”

Caleb used triangular grip pencils to trace the letters. At the end, he printed his name on the paper.

For children under age 3, 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 /l/ sound at the beginning of “leafhopper.” 

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

With preschoolers who are working on 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 /l/ sound, check out my post on how to teach letter sounds using Montessori principles.

I only use printables with children under age 3 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.

For older children who already know their letter sounds but still enjoy do-a-dot work, I often 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.)

More Weird Insect Resources

Free Weird Insect Printables and Montessori-Inspired Weird Insect Activities

Favorite Books for a Weird Insect Theme

Favorite Books for a Weird Insect Theme

Montessori-Inspired Weird Insect Pack

Montessori-Inspired Weird 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).

More Insect Resources

There are Montessori-inspired insect packs for butterflies, ants, bees, ladybugs, and noisy insects (subscriber freebies, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password – or check your inbox if you’re already a subscriber).



 

Free Noisy Insect Printables and Montessori-Inspired Noisy Insect Activities

Free Noisy Insect Printables and Montessori-Inspired Noisy Insect Activities

The Best Ant Books for Kids

The Best Bee Books for Kids

The Best Ladybug Books for Kids

Helpful Animal Classification Posts

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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