We’re having so much fun with our heart unit featuring both human heart and valentine heart activities that I have two free do-a-dot printables for you today! I have a free heart do-a-dot printable as well as a free valentine printable for you. They’re both instant downloads and super-easy to prepare!
Montessori-Inspired Printables at Living Montessori Now
My daughter, Chrissy Chitwood (a former Montessori child), and I are partnering to bring you a series of Montessori-inspired printables. The printables are typically themed and use a number of Montessori principles (although you don’t need to be a Montessori teacher or homeschooler to use them):
- They use isolation of quality.
- They use photographs or realistic images to emphasize reality. Whenever I can, I’ll tell you the specific name of the object or animal featured on the credits page. This month’s do-a-dot focuses on the words “heart” and “valentine” with images of how the words are used.
- They typically use traditional Montessori colors such as red for consonants and blue for vowels.
- They use lowercase letters, which are what we introduce letter sounds with in Montessori education. (Children tend to pick up the uppercase letters without being introduced if they’re introduced to the lowercase letter sounds.)
- They often feature themed printable versions of Montessori materials.
Free Heart Do-a-Dot Printable
To download the heart do-a-dot printable, click here and then click on the file image in the upper right corner of the PDF to save to your computer (just choose where you want it saved).
Montessori-Inspired Activities Using the Heart Do-a-Dot Printable
Disclosure: This post contains some affiliate links (at no cost to you).
Tray with H for Heart Do-a-Dot Printable and Heart Transfer
Tray with H for Heart Do-a-Dot Printable and Heart Transfer
Note: This is just one example of how you can use the do-a-dot printable. There are many ways to use our do-a-dot printables. Scroll down to see examples from previous posts. Just choose an activity that’s appropriate for your child’s age and skill level.
I used a Multicraft tray, 22 red acrylic hearts from our initial heart work, and quick sticks.
I also included the letter “h” heart cursive font card (part of our Montessori-inspired heart pack – subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my free email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber).
For interest, I also added the human heart from the Safari Ltd. Human Organs TOOB.
You could have a variety of transfer activities with do-a-dot printable. Or you could have a totally different type of do-a-dot activity. See ideas below. Again, just choose what is best for your child’s skill level and interests.
You could add a tracing activity to the printable. If you laminate your printable, you can use an erasable crayon like the Melissa & Doug Learning Mat Crayons or Crayola Erasable Crayons. If your page isn’t laminated, you could add a pencil or colored pencil. I often do that. For a 2-year-old or other young preschooler who’s not ready to write letters, you can just leave off the crayon or pencil.
Human Heart Review, Movable Alphabet Word Building, Handwriting Practice, and Fine-Motor Work
Enjoying Human Heart Work and the Challenge of Transferring Slippery Acrylic Hearts with Quick Sticks
This do-a-dot printable can be used in a variety of ways, depending on the age and ability of the child. A younger child could just use do-a-dot markers or some sort of transfer on the do-a-dot page and focus on the /h/ sound, while an older child could trace the letters, and build the word or words with the Montessori movable alphabet.
If you want to know how to introduce the short letter sound for h, check out my post on how to teach letter sounds using Montessori principles.
For a child who’s ready for (or already using) the movable alphabet, you could have the child build the word. My 5-year-old granddaughter, Zoey, likes to use the movable alphabet to build the word. (We use the small movable alphabet. I have the movable alphabet from Alison’s Montessori, which I love. You can also get a movable alphabet from Amazon or make your own.) Heart isn’t a word that I teach phonetically, though. I simply teach it as a sight word that can’t be sounded out but needs to be remembered.
Before building the word, we reviewed our human heart work from the Usborne book See Inside Your Body. Then Zoey traced the words with red and blue colored pencils and used the movable alphabet to build the word “heart.”
Normally, quick sticks are fairly easy to use as a transfer tool. The acrylic hearts are especially difficult to pick up. Zoey laughed that they were like slippery fish. For a younger child, you’d probably want to leave off the transfer tool if you’re using the hearts. It’s a great advanced transfer activity for older preschoolers and kindergarteners, though.
Free Valentine Do-a-Dot Printable
To download the valentine do-a-dot printable, click here and then click on the file image in the upper right corner of the PDF to save to your computer (just choose where you want it saved).
Montessori-Inspired Activities Using the Valentine Do-a-Dot Printable
Disclosure: This post contains some affiliate links (at no cost to you).
Tray with V for Valentine Do-a-Dot Printable and Heart Transfer
Tray with V for Valentine Printable and Heart Transfer
Note: This is just one example of how you can use the do-a-dot printable. There are many ways to use our do-a-dot printables. Scroll down to see examples from previous posts. Just choose an activity that’s appropriate for your child’s age and skill level.
I used a Multicraft tray, 13 red acrylic hearts from our initial heart work, and quick sticks.
I also included the letter “v” valentine cursive font card (part of our Montessori-inspired heart pack – subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my free email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber). You could also add the valentine phonogram card from our subscriber pack to work on i-e.
You could have a variety of transfer activities with do-a-dot printable. Or you could have a totally different type of do-a-dot activity. See ideas below. Again, just choose what is best for your child’s skill level and interests.
You could add a tracing activity to the printable. If you laminate your printable, you can use an erasable crayon like the Melissa & Doug Learning Mat Crayons or Crayola Erasable Crayons. If your page isn’t laminated, you could add a pencil or colored pencil. I often do that. For a 2-year-old or other young preschooler who’s not ready to write letters, you can just leave off the crayon or pencil.
Heart and Valentine Activities
Montessori-Inspired Heart Unit {Hundreds of Human Heart and Valentine Heart Resources}
Montessori-Inspired Heart and Circulatory System Activities
Free Heart Printables and Montessori-Inspired Heart Activities {Human Heart and Valentine Hearts}
More Valentine Resources
MONTESSORI-INSPIRED PACKS – SUBSCRIBER FREEBIES
Don’t miss our themed monthly packs! You’ll get the link and password for the Living Montessori Now subscriber library with the current pack and all the past monthly packs if you subscribe to the Living Montessori Now weekly newsletter!
Free Do-a-Dot Printables and Ideas for Using Them
I love the versatility of do-a-dot printables! If you’re doing a month-long theme, you could easily change out the type of do-a-dot activity weekly to add interest. Here are four ideas of hands-on activities for any of our do-a-dot printables from my frog do-a-dot printable post (see post for details and materials used).
Just click on an image to go to the post with the related free printable!
Note: I’ve arranged the following gallery in alphabetical order, although some posts have two do-a-dot printables (and two different letters). Also, I don’t introduce letters in alphabetical order. You can find out the order in which I introduce letter sounds here. I deviate from that order for our unit studies, though, and focus on a letter that’s simply related to our unit. That’s in addition to our other letter work.
You can see all our free do-a-dot printables with the latest at the top here.
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