Preschool Letter M

We were back to share our Preschool Letter M learning journey! Things had been very busy at our house for the previous few weeks, which was why we had been absent from blogging for a little while. We only managed to squeeze in two preschool days this week, but we still explored Letter M through beginning sounds, letter formation, sound position, early reading and fine motor activities.

Our focus number for the week was number 5. We practiced forming the numeral, matching different number representations and recognizing it among other numbers.

Some weeks allowed us to complete lots of activities, while other weeks needed to be kept shorter. This was one of those busy weeks, so I chose a mixture of familiar resources and a few new challenges that would keep Filip interested without making our preschool time feel rushed.

Throughout this post, you can click the linked resource names to find the complete packets in my Teachers Pay Teachers or Kinder Resources stores. Some of the photographs also link to free Letter M printable pages.

Day 1: Introducing Preschool Letter M and Number 5

We began Day 1 with a Letter M beginning sounds basket. I filled a small basket with toys and objects whose names began with the /m/ sound.

Our basket included a Mickey Mouse mask, a monkey, a motorcycle, a milk bottle, two mice, a mechanic and a lovable minion. Filip removed the objects one at a time, named them and listened to the sound at the beginning of each word.

Beginning with real objects made the new sound easy to hear and gave us a relaxed way to introduce the focus letter before moving on to printed activities.

We then brought out our (TpT) Alphabet Play Dough Mats (K-R link here).

Filip began with our usual finger tracing practice. We talked about the different strokes needed to form uppercase and lowercase M, and he carefully followed the arrows with his finger. Once he was familiar with the movement, he traced the letters again using a whiteboard marker.

We then changed the material and brought out some small blue gems. Filip placed the gems along the Letter M paths, taking care to follow the formation arrows in the correct order.

Positioning each small gem required patience and careful hand control. It also slowed the activity down and encouraged him to look closely at the straight lines and changes in direction that make up the letter.

By this stage, Filip could confidently identify beginning sounds in simple words. I wanted to take the activity a little further and see whether he could hear our focus sound in the beginning, middle and ending positions of words.

We brought out our (TpT) Sound Hound Letter Sound Game and sorted the picture cards according to where the /m/ sound could be heard.

Before placing each card, we said the word slowly and listened carefully. Filip decided whether the M sound came at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the word. He was definitely ready for the challenge and absolutely loved it! Click on the picture to get the Letter M Sound Hound activity.

Here is the completed sort. We would definitely be using this activity again the following week!

To change things up, we used Dawn DeLorenzo’s Gumball Dot It Letter M activity to identify uppercase and lowercase M.

Filip searched for the focus letters and covered them with dot paint. Here is my little man saying “Mmmm” as he dotted away! Repeating the sound while completing the activity helped keep the connection between the letter shape and its sound.

Filip also completed a lowercase m handwriting page from The Measured Mom.

This gave him an opportunity to move from the large formation mat to smaller letters on handwriting lines. Lowercase m required several careful curves, so we worked slowly and concentrated on keeping the letter correctly positioned on the line.

Next, it was time to introduce our focus number for the week: number 5. We used our (TpT) Number Play Dough Mats (K-R link here).

Number 5 was a little tricky to form, so Filip began by finger tracing the numeral several times. Once he understood the path, he used a whiteboard marker to trace it on the laminated mat.

We then used the same blue gems from our Letter M activity to cover the number 5. Filip followed the numeral’s formation path and added five gems to the ten frame.

Using the numeral and ten frame together helped connect the written number with a quantity of five.

Filip also completed a number 5 cut and paste activity. These pages were becoming quite easy for him, but they still provided useful cutting practice, so we continued to include them. He matched the numeral, number word and picture representations before cutting and gluing the pieces into place.

I also introduced a number activity that I had purchased a very long time ago from Teacher Created Resources.

The original unit contained blackline pictures, but I had digitally colored the images during a time when I apparently had far too much time on my hands!

The objective was to find the focus number represented in numeral, word and picture form. Filip searched through the dog bones to find all the pieces that represented number 5.

Day 2: Kinetic Sand, Beginning Sounds and CVC Words

We started Day 2 by bringing out our kinetic sand. We had originally purchased it from Toy Kingdom in Australia and had not used it since our Preschool Farm Week. It was definitely time to use it again! Filip carefully formed uppercase and lowercase M on our laminated Alphabet Play Dough Mats. The kinetic sand felt very different from ordinary play dough and needed to be pressed and shaped gently along the letter paths.

Using a different sensory material gave him another way to experience the shape and movement of Letter M.

We also used the kinetic sand on our number 5 mat. Filip carefully pressed and scrunched the sand into shape along the numeral before adding five pieces to the ten frame.

Next, Filip completed the Letter M page from our (TpT) Beginning Sounds Color It unit (K-R link here).

He named each picture, listened for its beginning sound and used dot paints to mark the pictures that began with M. Click on the picture to get the Letter M page.

We then tried another new activity: a Letter M alphabet crown. I cut out the crown and picture pieces first, and Filip glued the pictures into place.

As he worked, we named each picture and emphasized the /m/ sound at the beginning of the word. Once the pieces were attached, we joined the crown together so he could wear it. Click on either picture to get the Letter M crown.

After our Letter M work, we returned to number 5. Filip dotted his way through the (TpT) Number 5 Maze (K-R link here).

He searched for number 5 among the other numerals and followed the correct path across the page. At one point, he almost dotted number 9 by mistake, but caught himself just in time! Click on the picture to get the Number 5 maze.

Filip then completed a (TpT) Number 5 Concepts Worksheet (K-R link here).

Here he is writing number 5 very carefully. The page also gave him practice with number recognition, counting and number order. Click on the picture to get the Number 5 worksheet.

We also read some simple words using our (TpT) CVC Word Slider Cards (K-R link here).

Filip moved the slider slowly and sounded out each letter: “m…o…p.” Once all the sounds were visible, he blended them together and read the complete word.

Click on the picture to get the Letter M word slider cards.

We finished our Preschool Letter M week with some (TpT) Beginning M CVC Puzzles.

Filip matched the picture and letter pieces to build each word. I am not quite sure what he was thinking about in the photograph below, but he was certainly concentrating! Click on the picture to get the Letter M CVC puzzles.

And there you have it, Preschool Letter M all completed in two busy days!

Filip practiced recognizing and forming uppercase and lowercase M, listening for the sound in different positions and using the letter to read simple CVC words. He also explored number 5 through formation, counting, matching, a number maze and a concepts worksheet.

Even though our learning week was short, we included plenty of hands-on practice. The beginning sounds basket, blue gems, kinetic sand and crown kept the activities playful, while the Sound Hound game, word sliders and CVC puzzles gave Filip opportunities to use his growing phonics skills.

Most of all, it was lovely to be back sharing another small part of our preschool learning journey.

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I have included links throughout this post so you can easily find the complete resources in my Kinder Resources and Teachers Pay Teachers stores.

To check out more resource, click either store link below.

Happy Teaching!

View Other Preschool Letters