A woodland animal unit is a perfect time to focus on the phonetic sound for /x/ at the end of “fox.” Today’s free fox do-a-dot printable can be used for reinforcing the beginning sound /f/ and the ending sound /x/ with letter identification or simply for vocabulary and hearing beginning sounds.
Since fox is a CVC word, it’s also a great printable for beginning readers and spellers. 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 printable has a photograph of a red fox.
- 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 Fox Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable
To download the fox do-a-dot phonics printable with both /f/ for fox and /x/ at the end of fox, 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 Fox Do-a-Dot Printable
Disclosure: This post contains some affiliate links (at no cost to you).
Tray with F for Fox and X at the End of Fox Do-a-Dot Printable and Rubber Stamp Footprint Work (Plus Do-a-Dot Activities for Bear and Raccoon)
Fox Letter X (and Letter F) Tray with Rubber Stamp Work
Note: This is just one example of how you can use the do-a-dot printable. 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.
I used a Multicraft tray, wild animal tracks rubber stamps (12 in set), fox, bear, and raccoon figures from the Safari Ltd. Nature TOOB (for interest and to compare the footprints), and the Melissa & Doug washable stamp pad. (I wanted to make a variety of colors available for this, although almost any washable stamp pad works well.
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 2-year-old or other young preschooler who’s not ready to write letters, you can just leave off the crayon or pencil.
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 /f/or /x/ sound in fox, while an older child could trace the letters, and build the word with the movable alphabet.
Note: I also have free printables for these woodland animals: bear, raccoon, and great horned owl (although there isn’t a rubber stamp in the set for the owl). I just put these printables on the same tray as the fox printables.
Montessori-Inspired Woodland Animal Do-a-Dot Phonics and Rubber Stamp Activities
Do-a-Dot Activities for Multiple Ages, Including Woodland Animal Footprint Stamping Work
For toddlers, I 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 /f/ sound at the beginning of “fox.” Both Caleb and Sophia are comfortable with the names of woodland animals, so we didn’t focus on the woodland animal names for this activity.
For a phonics lesson with young toddlers, I might casually say that fox 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, “Fox, /f/, fox.” For a preschooler who’s already comfortable with the /f/ sound, I’ll introduce /x/ at the end of “fox.”
Caleb and Sophia are starting work with sandpaper letters, so we’ll be adding those to our do-a-dot printable work in the future.
I don’t normally encourage Zoey to do our do-a-dot activities any more since she recently turned 6 and already reads well. Of course, she’s always welcome to do them anyway. This month was a perfect time to have my three grandkids do some do-a-dot work together.
I gave Zoey our raccoon do-a-dot page from a previous unit. Even though she didn’t need the manuscript tracing work or /r/ letter sound work, I used the activity to focus on cursive letters and spelling. We talked about the phonics rules in the word “raccoon,” and Zoey used our cursive movable alphabet to spell “raccoon.” You’ll see the word to the right of her do-a-dot page in the picture.
Caleb likes bears, so I gave him the bear do-a-dot page from a previous unit along with the bear footprint rubber stamp.
It’s fun to see how multiple ages can often benefit from the same activity although at different levels. For Caleb and Sophia, the rubber stamp activity is more of an introduction to rubber stamp work. Where they place the animal tracks isn’t important, although it’s fun to watch their development in do-a-dot work. Zoey was very careful to place each raccoon footprint exactly in the dots, starting at the beginning of the letter and “walking” in the direction the letter is formed.
More Woodland Animal Resources
Free Woodland Animal Printables and Montessori-Inspired Woodland Animal Activities
Montessori-Inspired Owl Unit with Free Printables and Activities
Free Raccoon Printables and Montessori-Inspired Raccoon Activities
Free Bear Printables and Montessori-Inspired Bear Activities
Free Mitten Printables and Montessori-Inspired Mitten Activities (The Mitten book features woodland animals.)
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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.
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