I got the idea to make felt letters from a friend. About halfway through making the blue letters, I decided that it was so easy, I should just go ahead a make a felt movable alphabet.
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This post contains affiliate links at no cost to you.
A traditional Montessori movable alphabet is a set of wooden letters used by preschoolers to start forming words and sentences. In a traditional set the constants are red and the vowels are blue.
While I would love a traditional set {and I hope to eventually get one} but they are very expensive. At this point, I just can't justify the expense. My set cost less than $5 to make. I stuck with traditional colors but you could make a set in any color. Ideally, you would use lower case letters, but I went with capitals for this one because that is what my child was learning in his non-Montessori school.
To make you'll need:
Stiffened Felt -- found at Michael's or any fabric store. I used about three paper-sized sheets for a full alphabet set. The amount you'll need depends on the letters you want to make.
Permanent marker
Scissors/Exacto Knife
Letter Template -- I made these using Microsoft Word. I just picked a font I liked -- Arial Black size 250 -- printed them and then cut them out.
These were very simple to make. I'll you need to do is trace the templates on the felt with the permanent marker and cut out the letters. I used scissors for the majority of the letters, but an exacto knife for the inside sections of letters with holes {like A, R, O}.
I made a full set of red constants plus some extras of the more frequently used letters, and a several full sets of vowels.
At this point, I don't really expect Henry to use these to make real words, since that a little beyond his skill level. But we will use them to make words and identify letters. I will keep a set on our felt board which is moving to our new classroom.
