Living Montessori Now

Montessori Inspiration for Parents and Teachers

FREE R for Run Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)

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We’re having fun following the Summer Olympics! But I’ve designed this free /r/ for run printable to work for a Summer Olympics unit or any summer unit. As usual, the printable is an instant download and super-easy to prepare!

FREE R for Run 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.
  • 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 R for Run Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable

To download the /r/ for run 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).

R for Run Do-a-Dot Work on Magnetic Chalkboard with Mini Fridge Magnets

R for Run Do-a-Dot Tray with Power Magnet Work

R for Run Do-a-Dot Tray with Power Magnet Work

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.

This activity can be used on a magnetic board like the Melissa & Doug Magnetic Chalk/Dry Erase Board I used or even on a cookie sheet or the refrigerator.

These half ball mini fridge magnets are fun for do-a-dot work! (Of course, only use them with a toddler if he or she is past the mouthing stage or is very closely supervised while using the magnets.) Note: The ¾” half ball mini fridge magnets aren’t available on Amazon right now. If you’d like to use magnets, you could use something like these power “push pin” magnets. They’re smaller than the dots, but children probably won’t mind. 

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. For a 2-year-old or other young preschooler who’s not ready to write letters, you can just leave off the crayons.

This activity includes a variety of curriculum areas. It has phonics and writing (if appropriate for your child), math if you want to place the dots in a pattern, and science with the magnets.

Again, 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 /r/ sound in run, while an older child could focus on building the word with the movable alphabet. Older children could focus on using Montessori grammar materials for verbs to go with the word “run.”

Note: The book on the table is A Picture Book of Jesse Owens (Picture Book Biography).

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

/R/ for Run Phonics Activity and Magnet Work

Magnet Work with R for Run Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable

Magnet Work with R for Run Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable

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

My 3-year-old grandson, Caleb (Chrissy Chitwood‘s son) already knows his phonetic sounds. Caleb was fascinated with learning phonetic sounds and learned them much earlier than normal. I didn’t have him do structured writing activities with pencils, though. I still mainly only have him trace letters on sandpaper letters, wooden tracing boards, or our sand 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 /r/ sound at the beginning of “run.” 

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

Both of my younger  grandkids love working with sandpaper letters and letter sounds, and we do more focused work on the letter sounds. 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 /r/ 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 Caleb, we focus on the proper formation of the letter “r” by tracing the sandpaper letter.

Caleb also enjoys blending activities and can easily hear the words, so I wrote the word with sandpaper letters. Caleb then blended the sounds to read “run.” (For a child who’s just starting blending work, you could say each sound and then say them a little faster until your child can hear the word “run.” I only do blending work with a child who is already comfortable with the phonetic sounds.

Caleb loved the magnet work and completed it three times! Note: If you like, you can have do-a-dot markers available for the child to make a copy of the do-a-dot printable to keep after doing the fine-motor work.

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 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 Olympic Resources




Free Sports Printables

Montessori-Inspired Summer Sports Pack

Montessori-Inspired Summer Sports 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 newsletter to get the link and password – or check your inbox if you’re already a subscriber).

Montessori-Inspired Winter Sports Pack

Montessori-Inspired Winter Sports 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 newsletter 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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Montessori at Home or School - How to Teach Grace and Courtesy eBookLearn more about my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to. Teach Grace and Courtesy!

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