Living Montessori Now

Montessori Inspiration for Parents and Teachers

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

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I love snowperson activities in the winter … even though I now live in a climate without snow! For our current snowperson unit, I have a free printable for you that’s great for a winter theme in general, a snowperson theme, or a phonics activity (either beginning sounds or “ow” phonogram work). As usual, the printable is an instant download and super easy to prepare!

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

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

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.
  • 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 Snowman Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable

To download the /s/ for snowman 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).

Tray with Snowman Do-a-Dot Printable and Snowflake Punch along with Snowman Font Cards

Tray with Snowman Do-a-Dot Printable and Snowflake Punch along with Snowman Font Cards

Tray with Snowman Do-a-Dot Printable and Snowflake Punch along with Snowman Font Cards

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 /s/ sound, while an older child could trace the letters, and build the word “snowman” with the Montessori movable alphabet. I also use it to introduce the cursive letter “s.”

I don’t use a font or phonogram card with young toddlers, but they’re great for preschoolers on up. I often like to have more than one font card and a phonogram card if available. I love this toddler-safe wooden display from Montessori Services for showing three cards at once. (The cards are from our subscriber library Montessori-Inspired Snowperson Pack.)

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.

Punching Out Paper Snowflakes

Punching Out Paper Snowflakes

For this do-a-dot printable, we used a snowflake punch. The one I got two years ago was a bit too hard to use for toddlers, even when they’re standing, but my 3¾-year-old grandson, Caleb (Chrissy Chitwood‘s son), was now able to punch out the snowflakes using the snowflake punch. (You can see how we used the snowflake punch when Caleb was a toddler in this post.)

Scroll down to see lots of ideas for using our do-a-dot printables for a variety of ages and themes.

“Snowman” Word Analysis and Letter Formation Work with Fine-Motor Snowflake Punch Activity

Gluing Paper Snowflakes on Snowman Do-a-Dot Page

Gluing Paper Snowflakes on Snowman Do-a-Dot Page

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

Caleb was ready to follow a number of steps with this activity.

First, he found the movable alphabet letters to spell “snowman.” He’s working with the green series phonograms, and we’ve been focusing on the “ow” in snowman. 

Then, Caleb traced the dotted letters on the snowman do-a-dot page. We really didn’t focus on tracing letters until he was 3½. Instead, we used activities such as our salt/sand writing tray, tracing sandpaper letters, and tracing letters on our printed alphabet wood tracing board. You can see the steps Caleb was using last month. This month, I just reminded Caleb where to start and which direction to go with each letter, and he was able to easily trace the letters.

Caleb uses triangular grip pencils to trace the letters on the do-a-dot page. Triangular grip pencils are a great way to help young children develop the proper pencil. grip. 

For children under age 3, 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 /s/ sound at the beginning of “snowman.”

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

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.

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

For older children and any children who already know their letter sounds but still enjoy do-a-dot work, I often 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.)

More Snowperson Resources (and Posts with at Least One Snowperson Activity)



Free Snowperson Printables and Montessori-Inspired Snowperson Activities

Free Snowperson Printables and Montessori-Inspired Snowperson Activities
Free Snowman Printables and Montessori-Inspired Snowman Activities

More Winter Resources


Free Winter Printables and Montessori-Inspired Winter Activities

Montessori-Inspired Snowperson Pack

Montessori-Inspired Snowperson Pack for DIY Cards and Counters, Number or Letter Matching, Number or Letter Basket, Bead Bar Work, Hands-on Math Operations, Number or Letter Salt/Sand Writing Tray, Letter Tracing, DIY Movable Alphabet, and Creative Writing (subscriber freebie, so just sign up for my newsletter to get the link and password – or check your inbox if you’re already a subscriber).

Montessori-Inspired Winter Pack

Again, 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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