If you’re looking for an easy way to make your DIY authentic Montessori sandpaper letters at home, look no further. Sandpaper letters are an important part of the Montessori curriculum, and I’ll admit… they were the most intimidating project to start making. However, after making this printable and DIYing the entire set, I promise you it’s much easier than you might think! Don’t get me wrong, this project IS time-consuming, but it is easy and totally worth it in the end.

Why should I DIY the sandpaper letters and not buy them pre-made?
I contemplated for nearly a year on whether or not I wanted to take on this project. Purchasing the uppercase and lowercase sets online would be a lot easier, and I could probably get away with only spending $100 for them. But that’s the thing about the Montessori method… every major learning activity/tool can cost up to $50 (or more!). That adds up fast. So, picking and choosing which items to make vs. buy is an important task when you’re trying to do Montessori homeschool on a budget. Ultimately, I decided that making them myself meant they would be easily replaceable, repairable, re-makeable, and durable enough for little hands. Use the DIY tools & materials you already have on hand (see my post 8 Must-Have Montessori Homeschool Materials and Tools) and have these awesome cards ready for your child’s first language art lessons.

Why sandpaper letters?

Maria Montessori came up with the concept of sandpaper letters at the first school she opened, which happened to be in a poverty-stricken neighborhood in Rome where mothers and fathers were leaving their children as young as 2 or 3 years old to wander the neighborhood while they went off to work (I KNOW… CRAZY!). The school was named Casa dei Bambini (or “Children’s House”). She had the difficult task of figuring out how to teach reading and writing to these children and believed that from the age of 4 or 5, a child could (and would) burst into reading and writing spontaneously – if they were taught in conjunction with one another. By using a tactile surface like sandpaper, the children were able to trace the letter with their fingers, recite the phonetic sound, and prepare themselves for reading and writing at the same time. This process also creates a mind-body connection, helping with their comprehension. To make these letters she used very simple materials and simply cut the letters out of sandpaper and glued them to square pieces of cardboard.

The tutorial I have put together for you here is just as simple, but a bit of a modernized take on her original method of creation. I highly recommend taking the additional steps to ensure durability if you are trying to use these for more than one child.

These printables and cards are also directly inspired by the authentic NAMC homeschool curriculum I mentioned in my post about the first 3 years of Montessori homeschooling.

About The Printable
Below this post, you’ll find two printable’s for the sandpaper letters, one for vowels and one for consonants. Click the download now button and the PDF will download to your computer, or click the link and it will open in a new tab.

Step 1: Gather the materials

• Free printables on this page
• Light blue cardstock (vowels)
• Light pink cardstock (consonants)
• Printer with the ability to print on cardstock
• Paper cutter (or sharp cutting scissors)
• X-Acto knife
• Cutting mat (or thick cardboard for cutting on)
• Sandpaper sheets – Fine or Medium Grit
• Glue – Gorilla glue, super glue, anything permanent!
• Laminator
• Lamination Sheets
• Blue and red Sharpie markers
  
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Step 2: Download and print the templates onto the colored cardstock

At the top of this post, you’ll find two printables. Print the vowel printable on the blue cardstock, and the consonant printable on the pink cardstock. Ensure your printer is set to the right paper setting for cardstock.

Set the pages that contain the letters on them aside, leaving you with the blue and pink pages with empty rectangles on them.

Step 3: Cut the outside edge of the blank cards with a paper cutter

Next, cut the blank rectangles from the blue and pink cardstock using a paper cutter or sharp scissors. You will end up with 12 blank blue rectangles and 40 blank pink rectangles (enough for each lowercase and uppercase letter). Don’t worry too much if your lines aren’t perfectly straight or some of the black ink from the printer shows on the edges. Once you are done laminating and trimming the cards, you won’t even notice, and I promise you… your child won’t notice or care either! This project is time-consuming enough- so don’t obsess over perfection.

Step 4: Laminate the blank blue & pink cards and trim from the lamination sheets

I wanted to stay true to authentic Montessori cards, and that meant keeping the size recommendations given by the NAMC homeschool curriculum I have. Because of the size, each lamination sheet will hold 2 blank rectangles. Once you are finished laminating all of the blank rectangles (2 per lamination sheet), cut them out from the lamination sheets. I always run them through the laminator a second time after I have cut them out to make sure the edges are bonded well, but that step is completely optional. It only takes a few extra minutes to do it and from my experience, it does help with durability.

Step 5: Cut the letters from the cardstock using an X-Acto knife

Now that you’ve finished laminating the blank rectangles, it’s time to start the process of making the actual sandpaper letters. Begin by laying out your cutting mat (highly recommend using a cutting mat, but some good thick pieces of cardboard can be used in a pinch). Place one of the letter pages on the cutting mat and carefully cut out the black letter using an X-Acto knife. Since you will likely be completing this project over a few days (or even weeks in my case… an hour here, an hour there…you catch my drift), I organized the cut letters in envelopes so that everything was neat, tidy, and easy to put away and take back out.

TIPS (From Firsthand Experience…)
If you don’t have much experience using an X-Acto knife, do not worry. Here are a few tips that should help you get a good start:

• Don’t stress about perfection! These will be glued to sandpaper and don’t need to be perfect. If you cut through a letter, save both pieces. They are meant to be used as a guide for cutting the sandpaper
• Use a fresh blade in the X-Acto knife and replace the blade the second it seems to be getting dull.
• For letters with spaces in the middle (Dd, Pp, Bb, etc.), cut the inner region out before cutting the outer edge of the letter.
• Hold your X-Acto knife with a nice grip just as you would hold a pen during writing and cut towards yourself.
• Rotate the paper on curved edges a little bit at a time as you cut the curve
• Use a ruler to cut along the straight edges by placing the X-Acto knife alongside the ruler to keep it straight

Step 6: Glue the letters to the back of the sandpaper backward & let dry completely

After you have cut each letter from the cardstock it’s time to glue them to the back of the sandpaper. I tried a variety of glues to test which one would be the best for this project and found that gorilla glue’s permanent adhesive dried clear and didn’t seep through the sandpaper. Of course, you can use any kind of permanent glue you’d like but do NOT use super glue. It will leave an ugly watermark under the sandpaper you won’t be proud of.

When you glue the letters to the back of the sandpaper, be sure to glue them backward. Put the glue on the black ink side of the letter and then adhere it to the sandpaper. You can use something heavy, like books or weight, to keep the sandpaper flat while it dries. Once they are very dry (usually after 24 hours) you’re ready to move on to the next step.

Step 7: Cut the letters from the sandpaper to make sandpaper letters

After the letters are dried to the sandpaper, cut the letters out again using a combination of the X-Acto knife and a sharp pair of scissors. I found that for some letters using the scissors was easier, while other letters were best cut using an X-Acto knife. Use your best judgment and remember to change out your blade if it’s getting dull. Take your time, but don’t be too picky. Children won’t notice a slanted line or a bit of unevenness when they use these cards. When you’re done, you will have the entire alphabet of lowercase and uppercase letters in sandpaper. You’re almost finished!

Step 8: Glue the sandpaper letters to the blank laminated cards in the position shown on the printable

You have probably noticed that the letters you cut out were off-center on the rectangle cards, and this is on purpose. This is how traditional Montessori sandpaper letters are constructed. When gluing your letters to the laminated rectangles, refer back to the printable to see approximately where it should be glued to the card. Make sure that your laminated card is in the landscape position and glue the sandpaper letters to the laminated rectangle cards (vowels on blue cards, consonants on pink cards). Use a weight, book, etc., for a few minutes to flatten the letter on the card and let the letters dry completely for 24 hours.

Step 9: Add red and blue dots for beginning and ending of finger tracing

The last step to complete these sandpaper letters is adding a red and blue dot to each card using Sharpie. Draw a small blue dot above the spot on the letter that you would begin tracing, and a small red dot near the spot on the letter that you would end tracing. When placing the red dot, be sure to place it inside the letter for letters like b, d, p, and q. Once you’ve completed this, you have officially completed the entire set of authentic Montessori sandpaper letters!

Step 10: Begin using the sandpaper letters with your child to practice phonetic sounds and letter tracing

We use our sandpaper letters all the time. I pull them out to use in conjunction with other learning activities and I use them during themed learning sessions (for instance, if we are learning about apples, we might pull out the Aa, Pp, Ll, and Ee cards). Other times, we have fun tracing and phonetically sounding each letter of the alphabet one at a time. You can use them in conjunction with your phonetic sound tubs, or, when practicing sight words. The possibilities are endless!

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