The Search Through Letters

I love working on Montessori’s sandpaper letters with a three-year-old! A child’s wonder, eagerness and capabilities with this material amaze me every time.

The sandpaper letters are glued securely on boards that are kept in a box on the shelf; there is only one set so that we can all share them. This sharing involves waiting a turn, and it makes the letters special.

The letters are cursive to delineate between every single letter–no two letters in cursive look like their inverse, the way that printed letters do–making them easier for children to identify. (Interestingly, students seem to have no trouble figuring out print letters once they know these cursive letters). The cursive forms also guide a child’s hand and arm to trace them in flowing, steady motions with ease, making them inviting and satisfying for young children. They typically want to trace them again and again, simultaneously speaking the sound that matches each shape: “t” for /t/, “sssss” for /s/, “mmmmm” for /m/. Both the ways to trace them and the corresponding sounds are introduced and guided by the teacher. In the English set of letters, consonant letters are on pink boards and the vowels are on blue, to subtly point to the latter’s importance.

The teacher introduces only three new letters at a time, and each session begins by reviewing what the child already knows. This is a fun moment, kind of like a recall game, where the child walks over to the box at the shelf and searches for the letters he already knows. If he only knows a few so far, he’ll bring each to the teacher to tell her what they are, and then they choose three new ones together to learn that day. If the child already knows most of the letters in the box, he might choose three of the remaining ones by himself to bring to the teacher to learn. Next, they sit down with the three new letters and begin a one-on-one lesson; tracing each and making the corresponding phonetic sound.

The child’s search at the box is an exercise in and of itself, and a very important one. Repeated moments of searching one’s mind to recall information are called for all throughout the day in a Montessori classroom. This builds up the mental muscles for remembering things, and that ability transfers to other moments and subjects: this is a very important aspect of self-education.

I love watching a child standing at the sandpaper letter box, making the sound of each letter to himself or herself as they file through them, looking for ones they know and new ones they want to learn. I think it sets our children up with a little method they can employ for tackling information in the world for the rest of their lives!

The letter box seems insurmountable when a child first begins with just three letters, but with repeated visits and study and review, and by tackling just three at a time and building on what they already know each time, children absorb this way of using such tools to understanding the world of knowledge.

For some it takes many months to learn all 26 letters so they can begin using them to write and to read, and for others it may take just weeks, but they all make it through and see one another succeed. Sharing this one set of sandpaper letters makes this a communal learning experience, where children help each other and each gets a spontaneous review every time a classmate is working on them. Realistically, the letters are being used almost all day, every day, in some way or another, with many children in a primary classroom.

This all begins at age three with a set of 26 sounds and their corresponding shapes.

Every time, it begins with a search.