Sweet Pea was 4 years old.
From: I found this quick Do-A-Dot letter recognition idea at Tons of Fun and also at A Mommy’s Adventures.
Material:
- Do-A-Dot Markers.
- A-Z Letter Maze Worksheets. (All of the letter worksheets are included in one file. Right click on link and select “Save Link As…” or “Save Target As…” to save the worksheet to your computer. This is a .pdf file and requires Foxit or Adobe Acrobat to view.) You can also get more worksheets from Tons of Fun and A Mommy’s Adventures.
Procedure:
- Using the first worksheet, explain to your tot that it is a letter maze.
- Use the Do-A-Dot marker to make a dot on the first letter (in the circle) and then ask your tot to find another “A” directly adjacent to the first one.
- When your tot points out the next “A”, make a dot over it.
- Again, ask your tot to point to the next “A” and when he does, hand him the Do-A-Dot marker to put a dot over it.
- Explain that your tot is supposed to keep finding the next “A” until he gets to the last circle.
- Let your tot try on his own, helping if needed.
Observations: When I first saw this activity, I only printed out a couple of the letter mazes for Sweet Pea, but was surprised by how much Sweet Pea took to them. In fact, she insisted that I print out the rest of the letter mazes right away.
Sweat Pea recognizes all her upper case letter and is only a bit shaky on a few of the trickier lower case letters (i l and j) so I thought these worksheets would be too easy for her, but she loved them.
I would highly recommend this activity for any other tots who have just learned or are still working on their letters.
Notes from the Trenches: Unfortunately, there is no way to erase these Do-A-Dot markers. Sweet Pea accidentally stamped the wrong letter on one of the worksheets and I thought there were going to be tears. I only avoided a meltdown by printing a new worksheet.
Rating: 3 Stars * (Fun, Easy, Independent)
I’m so excited to have found your site. you have given me some wonderful ideas!!
Love these mazes-thanks!!
I did this activity with my son and he really enjoyed. Thanks.
Hi Shannon,
I post a weekly Fun Friday blog for the nanny agency I work for, and have used your letter mazes with my 2 yr old son. Is it ok if I post a link for the download on our blog? Thanks in advance!
I am happy that you like my do-a-dot mazes and I truely appreciate you asking about linking them to your blog. I would appreciate it if you would please link to my post about the do-a-dot mazes (http://totschool.shannons.org/?p=5254) instead of directly to the .pdf file. Linking to the blog post helps me gain new readers and allows them to see other posts that might interest them (as opposed to just printing the .pdf and never seeing the rest of my site). Thanks again for asking!
I like these but I wish you had them in manuscript print. That is the handwriting my students use.
Hi Deanna,
Where can I find the font “manuscript print”? The font I used used is called Montessori Script. Did you actually download my maze worksheets and take a look at them? I think they might work for you. The worksheet you see in the photographs is not one of mine. It is from Tons of Fun and I’m not sure what font she used.
-Shannon
I just stumbled on this and know my four year old will love this! He loves mazes so this adds a new challenge. I plan to print and have them laminated so we can wipe them clean.
Great idea to laminate them!
Thank you so much for this information. I’m about to start letters of the week with my 3 year old and I know he will love the letter maze and letter dots.
God Bless you.
[…] letter mazes are found from Sharron’s Tot School website. She has created one for each letter of the alphabet. Each pages contains upper and lower case […]
[…] Letter Mazes: Basically, this is a page for each letter of the alphabet, full of rows and rows of letters. The objective is for the child to dot only on a particular letter, so it’s like a seek and find activity. This is another free download found online at Shannon’s Tot School. […]
[…] from Shannons Tot School […]
[…] Students circle upper and lowercase letters to get through the maze. There is a differnt maze for each letter of the alphabet. Get them here […]