DIY Tracing Trays, Montessori 3-Part Cards, and FREE Pre-Writing Follow The Line Activity promote hands-on learning and allow children to engage in kinesthetic learning by doing | Video Tutorials.

Have you ever thought about how to make learning more enticing? How to kindle the enthusiasm? How can you spark interest and sustain the attention of your little one? The added sensory input of feeling rice, salt, or other fillers helps the brain to encode (that is to put to memory) how we write the alphabet and shapes. Most importantly, DIY Sensory tracing trays, puzzles, Montessori 3-part cards, and literacy language puzzles allow little people to engage in ‘Experiential Learning’ by doing rather than passively absorbing the information.

He does it with his hands, by experience, first in play and then through work. The hands are the instruments of man’s intelligence… [However,] never give to the mind more than you give to the hand!

Dr. Montessori

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Transform your sensory play into The Ultimate Experience with this eBook featuring tried-and-tested recipes that have stood the test of time! The recipes are broken down into taste-safe, time to set up, cooking or no-cook, and more! Click below to download your FREE Guide!

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DIY Montessori Tracing Trays Activities

Engaging in activities like tactile tracing in a Montessori sensory tray isn’t just about exploring textures or shapes and patterns—it’s a crucial step in developing the fine motor skills necessary for writing. Before children can even begin to tackle the intricacies of holding a pen or a pencil, they must first build up their dexterity and control through sensory experiences like finger tracing. These activities lay the foundation for fluent and confident writing, making them an essential part of early childhood education.

Dyed Rice DIY Montessori Tracing Trays

Sensory tracing trays, Montessori 3-part cards, and similar tools are foundational to the Montessori method.

40+ pages of St. Patrick’s Activity Pack!

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Tracing Trays are Pre-Writing Activities

Before your child even picks up a pencil, it’s essential to lay the groundwork for strong fine motor skills and hand control. These skills are crucial for mastering the art of writing! At just 18 months old, your little one can begin honing these abilities through activities like “controlled scribbling.” This involves making repeated marks such as open circles, diagonals, curves, horizontals, and vertical lines.

But did you know that you don’t need paper to practice? Offering these pre-writing strokes for your child to trace in sensory materials like rice, polenta, flour, or even dirt can be incredibly beneficial. Tracing in a sensory tray requires less pressure, making it easier for little hands and ensuring they won’t tire quickly.

By exploring their world sensorially first, your child is laying the foundation for understanding concrete concepts before diving into the abstract—a fundamental principle of Montessori education. So, let’s embark on this exciting journey of discovery and development together!

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Sensory Fillers for Montessori Tracing Trays

Below are some of the fillers you can use to make a DIY tracing tray:

1. dyed rice (shades of green)
2. dyed rainbow rice
3. polenta /millet (small yellow grain)

You can also use flour, salt, sugar, or any other small grain. If you wish not to use pantry items, try sand, dirt, or glitter.

GREEN RICE TRACING TRAY

You can either pour your tracing filler into the tray or make it interesting by adding paper for a color pop. Here, I placed white cardstock under a clear tray. (You can also choose a complimentary color paper, like red or orange, for added contrast.)

Follow the recipe for the rainbow rice below to make shades of green rice.

RAINBOW RICE TRACING TRAY

Here, since the tray is wooden and not clear, I placed paper INSIDE the tray. To contrast the rainbow rice, I used white cardstock. However, you can skip the paper layer and offer to trace it on a wooden tray. Follow the recipe below to make dyed rice.

How to Make Dyed Rainbow Rice Recipe and Video Tutorial

See here the blog post for details.

Polenta Montessori Tracing Tray

Here, I am using polenta (you can also use millet, teff, or quinoa ~ any fine grain will do) and red cardstock to give it a color pop.

Hands-on Learning

These resources, coupled with puzzles, language objects, and more, cater to kinesthetic learners, but they also benefit auditory, visual, and tactile learners. By engaging in ‘hands-on learning,’ which is synonymous with ‘Experiential Learning’ dating back to Aristotle’s era, children can better grasp concepts by actively participating in the learning process.

Crucially, hands-on learning supports various learning styles, ensuring that auditory learners benefit from discussions and explanations, visual learners thrive through observing and diagrams, and tactile learners excel through touch and manipulation.

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FREE Follow the Line St. Patrick’s Day Activity

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TIPS AND HACKS TO USE St. Patrick’s Day PRINTABLE

• To laminate, you can use an iron instead of a laminating machine. (I am using these thermal laminating pouches.) Instructions: set your iron at a low temperature, as if you would iron silk. To be safe, place cardstock over the laminating sheet and iron over it. (See HERE how I used an IRON to make a flower bookmark.)
• Alternatively, you can use sheet protectors, insert your page into it, and use dry-erase markers. 
• Corners can be pointy, so I love using a corner rounder.
• For a quicker and more precise straight cutting, I am using a paper trimmer instead of scissors.
• Buy rainbow dot markers HERE Or buy similar ones on Amazon HERE.

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More Fun Ideas to Use Montessori Tracing Trays

Check out HERE Dyed Salt Recipe and the 1st Phonetical Set Tracing.

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Pre-Writing Strokes

Before your child learns to hold a pencil for the first time, s/he needs sufficient fine motor control and hand strength to be able to attempt the pre-writing strokes. So, we need to prepare the hand to hold a pen or a pencil way before your child is able to write! The best way to do it, is through simple and engaging invitations to play and various sensory, hands-on Montessori pre-writing activities.

See a detailed post about Pre-Writing Strokes here.

If you think of it, letters and numbers are made out of lines and curves. And the very first line your little one will master is vertical, followed by curves in a circle, and finally by a / slanted line.
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Starting at about 18 months, a child starts controlled scribbling. Toddlers may make repeated marks on the page— like open circles and diagonal, curved, horizontal, or vertical lines. Over time, children make the transition to holding the crayon or marker between their thumb and pointer finger. THIS IS WHEN YOU CAN ENCOURAGE to follow lines/strokes on a Montessori Tracing tray!

Left to Right Progression

Also, with this DIY, your little one is learning left-to-right progression, which is a very valuable skill that sometimes goes unnoticed since it is so natural to us adults. However, it is NOT intuitive to little people, and a lot has to happen in their brain to move objects with hands, as well as eyes from left to right. We want to practice this skill because this is how we read and write.

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DIY Salt Rainbow Montessori Tracing Tray

Puzzle | Montessori 3-part Cards Video Tutorial

Tracing trays, 3-Part Montessori cards and literacy puzzles allow children to absorb information through tactile senses. The added sensory input helps the brain to encode (put to memory) letter recognition, proper letter formation, and the way shapes are formed.

DIY Salt Rainbow Montessori Tracing Tray

Instructions

First, layer colorful paper on the bottom of the tray. (Alternatively, place a clear tray over the paper so that your filler does not get stuck in between papers.) P

Next, pour your sensory filler. I used salt as a taste-safe option. You can also use sugar or baked flour.

By incorporating tracing activities, such as tracing in salt on a sensory tracing tray, we are not just adding another layer to tactile learning. We are enhancing sensory experiences and deepening understanding. Research consistently demonstrates that children taught using hands-on methods consistently outperform those taught through traditional means.

Thus, offering physical tools that engage children visually and kinesthetically is invaluable, as it enables them to actively explore concepts through tracing, matching, transferring, and manipulating, catering to the diverse needs of learners.

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Nomenclature Montessori 3-Part Cards and Literacy Puzzles

Montessori 3-Part Cards

Montessori Nomenclature Three-Part Cards refer to card materials that children manipulate to internalize the information on the cards and learn about their world. In a Montessori environment, children use these cards as a foundation for classification, reading, writing, culture, geography, and art. These Nomenclature cards allow a child to build vocabulary, enrich language skills, develop visual discrimination, and promote rational thinking.

Montessori 3-part cards are excellent tools to increase mental ability and are suitable for a wide age range. You can use 3-part cards with toddlers as matching cards and as actual 3-part cards with older children who are learning to read.

How to Use Montessori 3-Part Nomenclature Cards

For children who are not yet reading, start with a control card, which is a card that has a picture and a label, also called a labeled-picture card.

Then, match a picture-only card and place it to the left of the control card.

Lastly, match a label card to the label on a control card. (Note, even a child who can not read might be able to match the label visually. That matches the sequence of letters.) Place the label card under the picture-only card on the right. You can start with one to three cards. 

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Lower to Upper Case Matching Literacy Puzzle

Instructions

Cut out the clovers. (You can cut along the clover’s outline with scissors or use a paper trimmer to cut as squares.) Then, cut along the red dotted lines. Invite a child to connect the corresponding lower and upper case letters. Control of error: each matching clover set will fit together like puzzle pieces. Optional: laminate for durability.

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Join Montessori St Patrick’s Course

This Clover literacy puzzle, along with St Patrick’s Megapack, is part of the St Patrick’s Kids Activities course.

Clover Alphabet matching is suitable for children aged three years and over. This literacy puzzle should be introduced to children who are familiar with the entire alphabet.

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DIY Montessori Tracing Trays

Have you made DIY Montessori Tracing Trays or 3-part cards, or literacy puzzles? Leave a comment if you did!

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♡ Enriching the Mind one Heart at a time ♡

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