Living Montessori Now

Montessori Inspiration for Parents and Teachers

FREE Resilience Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)

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Resilience is a theme that can be adapted for a variety of ages. Even adults need it … especially this year. I designed the resilience do-a-dot printable this month to be one that kindergarteners and first graders could benefit from along with preschoolers. As usual, the free resilience do-a-dot printable is an instant download, versatile, and super easy to prepare.

FREE Resilience Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)

Note: Be sure to read to the bottom of the post where you’ll find lots of ideas for using do-a-dot printables along with at least one free do-a-dot printable for each letter of the alphabet!

Montessori-Inspired Printables at Living Montessori Now

My daughter, Chrissy (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 printable has images of a girl getting back up again after falling while skiing and a resilient boy with a prosthetic leg.
  • 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 Resilience Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable

To download the resilience do-a-dot phonics 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 Resilience Do-a-Dot Printable

Disclosure: This post contains some affiliate links (at no cost to you).

Tray with Resilience Do-a-Dot Printable and Markers

Tray with Resilience Do-a-Dot Printable and Markers

Tray with Resilience Do-a-Dot Printable and Markers

Note: This is just one example of how you can use the do-a-dot printables. 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 with Do-a-Dot markers and a resilience font card on mini wood easel. For older children, you could add the resilience “ce” phonogram card and focus on how the word resilience is spelled. Even older children enjoy using the do-a-dot markers, though!

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. (I show the pencils on the tray here, but we don’t use them for tracing work with Caleb and Sophia.)

Again, 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, stickers, or some sort of transfer on the do-a-dot page and focus on the /m/ sound in months and/or the /s/ sound in seasons, while an older child could focus on the ea phonogram in seasons, and build the word with the movable alphabet.

If you would like help with introducing phonetic sounds, introducing objects with sounds, or beginning phonics in general, check out my DIY Beginning Montessori Phonics with Preschoolers.

/R/ for Resilience Phonics Activity and Do-a-Dot Work

Using Do-a-Dot Markers to Complete the Resilience Do-a-Dot Page

Using Do-a-Dot Markers to Complete the Resilience Do-a-Dot Page (Photo Taken at His Home)

This type of activity is wonderful for fine-motor development, increasing attention span, and reinforcing letter sounds.

My 2½-year-old grandson, Caleb (Chrissy Chitwood‘s son) already knows his phonetic sounds, thanks to sound games and small objects with sandpaper letters. Caleb was fascinated with learning phonetic sounds and learned them much earlier than normal. I didn’t have him do structured writing activities with pencils, though. I still only have him trace letters on sandpaper letters, wooden tracing boards, or our sand tray.

For toddlers, I typically use the do-a-dot printables for vocabulary, hearing the beginning sound of a word, and fine-motor skills. Generally, with toddlers, I’ll just focus on the /r/ sound at the beginning of “resilience.” For toddlers and young preschoolers, I’ll often tell them resilience means that they get back up after they fall or they bounce back after something goes wrong.

For a phonics lesson with young toddlers, I might casually say that resilience starts with /r/ (the sound, not the letter name). This is just to introduce hearing the phonetic sound. I don’t focus on the letter “r,” although I use the printable that we already have available. We often focus on the child hearing the beginning sound by saying something like, “Resilience, /r/, resilience.”

Note: Resilience is a difficult concept for toddlers and young preschoolers to understand. If you’re focusing on the letter “r” rather than growth mindset, you might prefer to use our free raccoon, recycling, reduce reuse recycle, or rock do-a-dot printable that you’ll find linked in the gallery at the bottom of this post.

Both of my younger  grandkids love working with sandpaper letters and letter sounds, so we do more focused work on the letter sounds. This is what I do with preschoolers who are learning their letter sounds. We follow the order shown in this post along with adding the featured letter. I don’t worry about going out of order for the monthly theme.

I only use printables with toddlers that can be used for hands-on work, such as do-a-dot work, scissor cutting (cutting strips), or another type of printable that can be made into a manipulative. Printables when used with manipulatives are great for fine-motor development, work on important skills, and fit with the hands-on activities that are developmentally appropriate for toddlers.

Caleb had fun filling in the dots with do-a-dot markers. He completed 3 pages with one color on each page. Then he decided to make 2 dots of each color for his fourth page! The photo was taken at Caleb’s home.

With Caleb, we focus on the proper formation of the letter “r” by tracing the sandpaper letter.

If you want to know more about how to introduce the /r/ sound, check out my post on how to teach letter sounds using Montessori principles.

If you would like help with introducing phonetic sounds, introducing objects with sounds, or beginning phonics in general, check out my DIY Beginning Montessori Phonics with Preschoolers.

For older children who already know their letter sounds but still enjoy do-a-dot work, I add the print movable alphabet word building, phonogram work, another hands-on activity to go with the do-a-dot work, and/or cursive movable alphabet and word analysis work. (Note: These examples have more than one type of additional activity, which I like for older children.)

As always, adapt your presentations for your unique child!

Growth Mindset Resources and Activities


Free Resilience Printables and Montessori-Inspired Resilience Activities

Peace and Mindfulness Resources and Activities (which are also helpful for resilience)


Montessori-Inspired Calming Pack

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). You’ll find at least one free do-a-dot printable for each letter of the alphabet!

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.

For complete themed alphabet do-a-dot packs, see our Animal Alphabet Do-a-Dot Pack, Spanish Animal Alphabet Do-a-Dot Pack, and Healthy Food Alphabet Do-a-Dot Pack available for purchase in the Living Montessori Now shop.

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