DIY D'Nealian Sandpaper Letters, Montessori Language Materials At Home

 We were so excited make this set of D Nealian Sandpaper Letters! 

I printed our template from here and she has even reversed the letters, so all you need to do is print them off. She also did us the favour of placing them very frugally on two sheets of paper as to only use two sheets of sandpaper.  I chose red sandpaper for all the letters,by 3M.

I did not want to paint my boards (made of smooth both sides Masonite) red.  I did paint my vowels boards blue.  A typical early Montessori Moveable Alphabet has blue vowels and red consonants. If you are using these for writing practice on their own aside from the curriculum they do need to be colour coded. The vowels are highlighted during Pink Series work only.

I used a glue stick to place the template on the back of the sandpaper, and then cut them out.  I used an exacto blade to cut the centres of a...b...etc.

We used wood glue with a small brush to glue the letters to the cards.  Then with a foam brush we sealed them with Modpodge. This does two things...makes them wipe-able and seals the sandpaper to keep the grains of sand from rubbing off. 

Modpodge does not adhere to glossy paint, so we just coated the letters on the blue boards.

 If I were to do this again I would use spray sealer over all of the cards as it's easy and works so well.

 This project is very easy to do.  My husband made the double compartment box. 

I will also make a set of cursive in the event that my children are keen to learn. 

 *Update* We have found that the Modpodge marks fairly easily on the sandpaper portion of the cards, in that scrapes go a milky colour. To avoid this clear coat the cards.

Finding the fonts has become a bit of an issue so we created them ourselves. This was a great deal of work but you can find the file available in our shop.

If you make a set please share them with us!

Thanks for visiting with us!