Movable Alphabets DIY

March 21st, 2007

In the Montessori classroom, children are taught to build words from the phonograms, that enable children to “write” words and compose sentences before they have developed good pencil grip. Children learn to “write” and spell what they hear, thus start encoding words(spelling) before decoding words (reading).

The movable alphabets are made from wood or plastic, in prints or cursive. The wooden ones typically cost $100-$200 a set. They are very expensive!

(L -R)Wooden Movable alphabets in print, Wooden Movable alphabets in cursive, plastic movable alphabets in print.

I know there is no where I can afford this. I have decided to make them!

First, I decided to make them from plastic because it looks like it’s easier to cut plastic than wood!

Then, I bought this clip files from Jusco, CBE brand, RM2.80 each.
I choose a cursive font of size 400, choose the setting to be only the outline(to save printer cartridge!) print out 10 copies for consonants, 15 copies for vowels. While watching TV or talking to my mum during one weekend, I cut this letters out and paste them on the files.

Then I cut the individual letter out and cut them using a scissor to cut the outline and a blade for the inside. It took me 2 weekends to finish the cutting.
These letters are stored in a tackle box right now, but I have asked my carpenter cousin to custom make a storage box to keep this letters.
I used up 6 red folders and 3 blue folders, cost RM25.20, a bottle of glue RM0.70, a brand new scissor from RM2 store, total cost of RM27.90, excluding the cost of three weekends of busy hands.:-)
Lessons using movable alphabets:
http://homepage.mac.com/montessoriworld/mwei/Reading/lma/lmaintro.html

http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfsjy/mts/lang/30.htm

montessori education, montessori training, montessori teacher, montessori course, montessori materials, montessori company, montessori reading, montessori printables, montessori method, montessori philosophy

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3 Responses to “Movable Alphabets DIY”

  1. Celine on March 22, 2007

    Hi Leah,
    Applause!! Great job there! Thanks for the DIY tips. Btw, I was wondering, what’s the glue for? And which kind of cursive fonts do u use? I may decide to do it too!! Rather than ‘waste’ RM500 for a set.

    ps. Would there be much different if I make a SMA instead of LMA? would appreciate ur opinion. Thanks

  2. Leah on March 23, 2007

    Celine: to glue the cut out paper letters to the file.:-)
    I plan to do the medium and small movable alphabets the same way too.

    My understanding is: the large movable alphabets are mostly for building pink level words, thus are colored coded consonants and vowels. And the medium and small movable alphabets are in one color only. Use later to “write” sentences and story that may have multiletter phonograms.

  3. Leah on March 28, 2007

    Celine: I use the fonts from http://www.schoolhousefonts.com, the demo version is free but “a” will show as “demo”, so I just work around “d” to get the small letter “a”

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