If you are looking for letter of the week crafts for the letter M, I have a fun craft for you! This letter M craft is so much fun for preschool and kindergarten students. It’s a great way to combine craft time with letter recognition practice and learning the sound of the letter M. It’s also a perfect way for young children to practice their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. In this post I will explain the simple steps for completing this fun project, and provide the free printable templates for this letter M alphabet craft. I hope you enjoy it!
Letter M Craft Materials
This easy letter M craft only requires a few simple materials. You probably have most if not all of them already in your home or classroom. It is a super inexpensive craft, especially if you use a reusable tray!
You will need:
- White paper (8.5 x 11 inch printer paper) or card stock – You can also use colored printer paper if you prefer.
- Paint – Any kind of acrylic, tempera paint, or craft paint will work, but I strongly recommend washable paint just in case there are spills or your young learners get a little wild with their marble painting. We used washable tempera paint and it was perfect.
- A tray – It needs to be at least 11 x 13 inches so that there is space all around the letter M craft printable. The easiest thing to do for this craft is to use a disposable tin foil pan. That way you don’t have to worry about covering the tray or cleaning it after the craft is done – it can just go in the trash, paint and all. But for a more economical and environmentally friendly option, you can use a plastic tray and wash it at the end. You can also cover your tray with extra long foil to contain the mess and then just throw the foil away at the end.Â
- A marble – You can use any size of marble. An extra large one would work really well. You can even use two or more marbles to make the activity even more fun.
- Smock – This is optional but I always recommend using a smock or paint clothes when dealing with young children and paint!
Instructions for the Letter M Craft
This letter M craft is super easy to prepare and very easy to do. It is a perfect activity for homeschool, preschool, or kindergarten classroom use. You can also just do it for fun at home with your young children! It’s a wonderful way to enjoy time with your little one while teaching him or her the sound of letter M! As a bonus, you can practice identifying colors by talking about the paint with your preschooler.
Step 1: Prepare the tray. If you are using a disposable tray, you are all set, you don’t need to prepare it. If you are planning to line a tray to keep it clean, use some plastic wrap or long tin foil to cover the tray up to the rim. Try to keep the lining nice and smooth on the bottom so it doesn’t interfere with the marble rolling.
Step 2: Print out the letter M craft printable, M is for Marble on white 8.5 x 11 inch printer paper, card stock, or colored printer paper, whichever you prefer. You will find the printable below.
Step 3: Place the upper case M sheet from the letter M craft printable on the bottom of the tray. You can tape it down in the corners to keep it secure if you would like.
Note: the letter M craft printable has both an uppercase letter M and a lowercase letter m. When I am teaching letter sounds to my children, I typically introduce them to upper case letters only because some of the lowercase letters are very confusing for younger children. For example, b, p, d, and q are the same shape, just with a different orientation, and can easily be confused. For the letter M, however, the upper case and lower case letters are so similar that it’s pretty easy for a young child to connect the two and understand that they are the same letter. I think it is fine to introduce the lower case and upper case versions of M at the same time without risking confusion. You can use the upper case M only for this activity if you prefer to keep it simple.
Step 4: Squeeze a few globs of paint into the tray around but not on the letter M craft printable.
Step 5: Place the marble in the tray.
Step 6: Teach or remind your child of the sound of the letter M. Show her the letter M craft printable and tell her that letter M makes the sound mmm (make the M sound), like the sound at the beginning of the word marble (and mom, and monkey, and map). Say the word marble emphasizing the mmm sound at the beginning.
Tell your child that he will paint the letter M with a marble to help him remember the mmm sound of M. M is for marble!
Step 7: Show your child how she can paint the letter M by rocking the tray back and forth and side to side to roll the marble into the paint and then roll it across the letter M.
When your child has painted the letter M craft printable as much as he would like, carefully remove it from the tray and lay it on a covered surface to dry.
Step 8: Your child can now marble paint the lowercase letter m from the letter M craft printable if she would like. Simply place the lower case letter m sheet in the tray and explain to your child that this is lowercase letter m. It makes the same sound as uppercase letter M, which she just painted. Emphasize and repeat the mmm sound as you are explaining this.
Step 9: Now your child can paint the lower case letter m in the same way as he painted the uppercase letter M.
Step 10: When she has finished painting lower case letter m, remove it from the tray and place it on a covered surface to dry.
Step 11: When the letter M marble paintings are all dry, it’s time for your child to practice their fine motor skills and cut out the upper case and lower case letter m’s. Older children can probably do this on their own, but younger kids may need some help with this step. Just make sure that the letters are recognizable when your child is finished cutting them out.
Now your child can put his M artwork on display to help him remember the sound of the letter M!
If you want to use the letter M craft printable in more fun ways, you can have your child add some googly eyes with a glue stick and cut out some hair, fangs, and other features to make a letter M monster!
I hope you and your child or children enjoyed these fun letter M crafts! Thank you for visiting and feel free to check out more educational activities for learning the sounds of the letters of the alphabet in the links below! Please come again soon!
Letter M Craft Printable
Printable Alphabet Letter Crafts and Activities
Letter K Activity
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