Sun Roll, Cover and Write Printable Mats
These printable sun roll and cover mats are perfect for summer! Teach numbers or teach letter recognition, letter sounds and letter formation with fun, hands-on sunshine activities.
Sun Roll and Cover
They would be a great addition to your late spring or early summer math centers and literacy centers.
We are still having such a great time with these roll and cover mats. The kids really enjoy them.
All of the different theme versions are among the most popular printables on my site. So I guess that means the kids you teach are loving them too.
They are proving to be very helpful in teaching my 5 year old letters and numbers. She enjoys the game-play aspect of the activity and she loves writing with dry-erase markers.
Benefits of these Summer Roll and Cover Mats
They cover a variety of math and literacy skills while also being differentiated to the needs of learners at a variety of levels of ability.
Here are some of the skills covered while using the mats:
Number sense – Number recognition, counting, subitizing, one to one correspondence, writing numbers and number words.
Literacy skills – Letter recognition, letter sounds, beginning sounds recognition, writing uppercase and lowercase letters.
The sun roll and cover mats include all of the letters in the alphabet.
There are uppercase tracing letters, lowercase tracing letters and handwriting lines for children who have moved beyond tracing and just need to practice writing the letters on their own.
There are also mats for numbers 1-12.
Children can practice number recognition and counting with numbers 1-6 or they can use two dice and add the numbers together for the numbers 7-12.
Not only is this a fun way to develop these very important math and literacy skills, but is also hands-on and engaging for young kids who often lose interest quickly.
Setting up the Sunshine Roll and Cover Mats
I created these sun roll and cover mats in a way that requires very few supplies and limits the amount of prep you need to do ahead of time.
Supplies Needed:
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- Sun Roll and Cover Mats (button to download at the bottom of this post)
- Dice (I like these)
- Foam blocks (to make alphabet dice)
- Mini erasers or some other small manpulative – like pom poms or snap cubes.
- Dry-erase markers or wet erase markers
- Laminator and laminating pouches or Write and Wipe Pockets
Bonus: You can use most of them over and over again for all of the roll and cover mats I make in the future.
Instructions:
- Make alphabet dice by writing one letter on each side of a foam block.
- Laminate the mats or slip them into write and wipe pockets. I have found that 5 mil laminating sheets work best if you want to use dry-erase markers on them. Otherwise, it doesn’t come off. If all you have is 3 mil, then I would use wet erase markers instead. Overall, I prefer write and wipe pockets most.
Using the Sun Roll and Cover Mats this Summer
Children will roll either the number dice or alphabet dice, depending on which mat they are using.
They can also use two number dice and add the numbers together when using the mats that include numbers 7-12. They will do this by keeping one dice at a 6 then rolling the other and adding it to the 6.
Then they will cover the corresponding number or beginning sound picture on the mat with some type of manipulative.
In this case, we used colorful star mini erasers that I got at Target.
Finally, they will write the number or letter or trace it, depending on which mats you are using.
This continues until all of the numbers or pictures have been covered on the mat.
The kids enjoy these summer roll and cover mats because they engage them in an activity that is a lot like a game. I love them because they cover such a wide variety of skills.
I hope your kids enjoy them and learn a lot too!
Here are some more summer activities to check out!
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Counting Mats
Pirate Treasure Beginning Sounds Match Up