One of my favorite Montessori pre-writing activities were sand letters, or for that matter, any touch & feel letters. These are incredible tools because they guide the child’s finger onto themselves enabling the child to grasp the shape of a letter which will help him/her recognize letters and then write them.

But they were expensive! so I thought of trying few methods of making my own touch and feel letters. Here are the first type of Arabic Touch and feel Letters:

I am currently teaching my toddlers English & Arabic letters, we are doing English Letter crafts and will soon start Arabic letter crafts as well. Insha Allah. so coming back to the Touch and feel Arabic letters, I used:

• Cardboard 7 X 12 in
• Cutter
• Markers
• Pipe cleaners
• Glue gun
• scissors

pipe cleaners were great for texture, in case you cant find pipe cleaners, a good alternative can be a thick Yarn.

I just cut the cardboard (from the Milk Carton) in 7X12 in pieces and hand drew Arabic Letters and colored them with markers.

Then, I used the similar colored pipe cleaners and measure them and cut them the size of each letter. Then added some glue and pasted the pipe cleaners onto it. Like that:

and Tada… 🙂 Here are the first 6 letters. I am thinking to use both sides of cardboard to have lesser pieces to handle.

Tried them onto my toddlers, and this is how my 2.5 years old is automatically tracing the ‘Jeem”. The feel of the pipe cleaner is great, the edges might be a little pointy and you might want to secure the edges or glue it for safety.

My toddlers loved them. I hope you will give them a try too 🙂