For our summer unit, I’m featuring the phonetic sound /s/ for sun for children learning their beginning letter sounds. For beginning readers, sun is perfect for word building and blending with the CVC word “sun.” The free sun do-a-dot printable is an instant download, versatile, and super easy to prepare.
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 photograph of the sun in the sky. This could be great for an astronomy unit as well as a spring, summer, or weather theme.
- 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 Sun Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable
To download the sun 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 Sun Do-a-Dot Printable
Disclosure: This post contains some affiliate links (at no cost to you).
Sun Do-a-Dot Phonics Tray with Pom Pom Transfer
Sun Do-a-Dot Phonics Tray with Pom Pom Transfer
Pom poms are fun with do-a-dot printables and provide a great fine-motor activity. Right now, I have these materials available for my 2-year-old grandkids, Sophia and Caleb. You can use a variety of tools for transfer activities, such as quick sticks, sugar tongs, or toast tongs (what’s pictured). I used a wooden Multicraft tray for the activity. (Note: With toddlers, be extra careful to avoid leaving out materials, such as pom poms, 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 2-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.
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 /s/ sound in sun while an older child could build the word with the movable alphabet. I included the cursive “s” font card from our Montessori-Inspired Summer Pack. The font card has cursive letter “s” and the same sun image. I like to introduce children to both print and cursive letters. I don’t use a font card with young toddlers, but it’s great for preschoolers on up.
Scroll down to see lots of ideas for using our do-a-dot printables for a variety of ages and themes.
Sun Phonemic Awareness Activity and Do-a-Dot Work
Concentrating on Using Toast Tongs to Transfer Pom Poms to the Sun Do-a-Dot Printable
This type of activity is wonderful for fine-motor development, increasing attention span, and reinforcing letter sounds.
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 /s/ sound at the beginning of “sun.”
For a phonics lesson with young toddlers, I might casually say that sun starts with /s/ (the sound, not the letter name). This is just to introduce hearing the phonetic sound. I don’t focus on the letter “s,” although I use the printable that we already have available. We often focus on the child hearing the beginning sound by saying something like, “Sun, /s/, sun.”
Both of my 2-year-old grandkids love working with sandpaper letters and learning letter sounds, so we’re doing 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.
If you want to know more about how to introduce the /s/ 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 preschoolers who are working on blending, for this printable, I’d focus on word tracing, word building with the movable alphabet, and sounding out the word “sun.”
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 Summer Resources
Amazon Affiliate:
For more Montessori-inspired summer activities, check out these posts with lots of activities and resources:
- Free Summer Printables and Montessori-Inspired Summer Activities
- Free Sun Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable
- Montessori-Inspired Summer Playdough Activities
- Montessori-Inspired Activities for Casey at the Bat
- Top 10 Summer Themes for Preschoolers
- 20 Outdoor Phonics Activities
- Montessori-Inspired Summer Activities with Spielgaben {Free Printables}
- Free Summer Songs and Rhymes for Circle Time
- Montessori Nature Tray with Vocabulary – Parts of the Plant
- Montessori-Inspired Summer Themes and Activities (an especially helpful post if you’re looking for a variety of summer themes)
- How to Have a Healthy and Courteous Tea Party Picnic
- How to Have a Healthy and Courteous Teddy Bear Picnic
- 50+ Creative Ways to Use Materials Found on Your Nature Walks
- Free Summer Playdough Math Pack (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Montessori-Inspired Playdough Math Activities for Summer {Free Printables}
- Montessori Summer Resources for Classroom or Home
- Fun with Montessori-Inspired World Travel Activities and Games
- Free Travel Printables and Montessori-Inspired Travel Activities
- Summer Fun Pinterest Board
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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