Living Montessori Now

Montessori Inspiration for Parents and Teachers

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

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We have so many free do-a-dot printables that we don’t design one for each unit any more. But we’re completing a vertebrate series, which has included free do-a-dot printables that work well for both younger and older kids. Today’s free do-a-dot printable is a mammals do-a-dot phonics printable  … as usual, an instant download and super easy to prepare.

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

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

Often older children have fun with do-a-dot printables, so we’ve been preparing a free do-a-dot for each class of vertebrates (amphibians, reptiles, fish, birds, and mammals) as we study them. (We already have one for amphibians, one for reptiles, one for fish, and one for birds. This completes our vertebrate series!). Younger children can focus on the beginning letter sound of each vertebrate class while older children will focus on spelling as well as cursive if desired.

This is also a great time for older children to review mammals and the traits of mammals. Younger children could simply identify the animals on the printable. You could say something like, “These animals are all mammals.”

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 collection of mammals.
  • 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 Mammals Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable

To download the mammals 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).

Tray with Mammals Do-a-Dot Printable and Magic Letter Work

Tray with Mammals Do-a-Dot Printable and Magic Letter Work

Tray with Mammals Do-a-Dot Printable and Magic Letter Work

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

For our mammals do-a-dot tray, I used a Multicraft tray with a white crayon and do-a-dot markers. I also added the cursive /m/ for mammals card from our subscriber freebie mammal pack. (Note: There’s also an /m/for mammals card in print or cursive.) If you prefer, you can use a variety of tools for transfer activities, such as quick sticks (training chopsticks), 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.

Mammals Phonics and Do-a-Dot Activities

Working with White Crayon Do-a-Dot Magic Letters

Working with White Crayon Do-a-Dot Magic Letters

This type of activity is wonderful for fine-motor development, increasing attention span, and reinforcing letter sounds for younger children. For older children or children who are ready, it’s a great printable for working on spelling rules for double letters and/or cursive work. It’s also perfect for reviewing mammals and their traits.

My 5-year-old granddaughter, Sophia, and 5-year-old grandson, Caleb, worked on the mammals do-a-dot printable together. First, we talked about the traits of mammals. Then we talked a bit about the cursive letters in mammals and used the movable alphabet to spell “mammals.” We also talked about the double letter when spelling “mammals.”

Both Sophia and Caleb print well now, but they still used a triangular grip pencil to trace the letters. 

Sophia and Caleb took turns using a white crayon to make a letter “m” in each dot. The magic letter activity is a fun twist on do-a-dot work. (Note: A washable white crayon doesn’t show up properly, but a plain white crayon works perfectly when the do-a-dot marker is added.)

After they drew a white “m” in each dot, they used the do-a-dot markers to make the letter m’s appear!

Do-a-Dot Work at Different Ages

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 /m/ sound at the beginning of “mammals.” 

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

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 /m/ 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.)

Mainly Non-Human Mammal Resources and Activities:

Montessori-Inspired Mammal Pack

Montessori-Inspired Mammal 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).

Mammal Toys on Amazon

Free Mammal Printables and Montessori-Inspired Mammal Activities

Free Mammal Printables and Montessori-Inspired Mammal Activities

Favorite Books for a Mammal Theme

Favorite Books for a Mammal Theme

Free Mammals Songs and Educational Videos

Free Mammal Songs and Educational Videos

All-About Me-Related Posts About Humans (Since We’re Mammals, too)

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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