In our oldest Krasnoludki group, the Mędrki (six- and seven-year-olds), the letter M appeared one Thursday afternoon in the form of a hidden recipe. Miss Justyna placed a rolled-up sheet of paper in the middle of the table and said only one thing: “Mędrki, I have a challenge for you today. You need to read it and execute it”. The Mędrki, with eyebrows drawn together in concentration, leaned over the rolled-up sheet.
The first thing they noticed on their own was that the heading of the recipe contained their new letter. “Miss, there’s an M here! M like masa (mass)!” — Hania shouted with pride. “M like mąka (flour)!” — Antek added, having already learned this letter yesterday on words from home. So began our adventure with the letter M — starting from baked velvet mass, ending with tracing letters in the fragrant, warm, soft texture. In this article we want to tell you what learning letters in the Mędrki group looks like, why we do it precisely this way and not another, and how you can introduce similar methods at home.
Who the Mędrki are and what their “letter adventure” is
The Mędrki are our oldest preschool group — children aged six and seven, who in a year’s time start school education. The “zerówka” pre-school year proper, although in our internal tradition we always call this group the mędrki (“the little wise ones”), because for the child this is something more than just “the school-leaving cohort” — this is a category they have earned through work and learning.
In the Mędrki programme, preparation for learning to read and write holds a special place. The point is not for a Mędrek to enter first grade already reading fluently. The point is for them to enter with a brain, a hand, concentration and a joyful, non-anxious relationship with letters that is well prepared for that work. A letter is not supposed to be a stress for the child. A letter is supposed to be a friend.
Each letter in our Mędrki group has its own day (and in the case of more difficult ones — several days). For example, in October we got to know: O, M, A, T, U. Each letter is introduced through a series of different sensory, motor, art, and kitchen activities. Each ends with the Mędrek being able to recognize it, trace it, find it in a word, draw it from memory.
Learning letters this way has a clear advantage over the classical “we show the letter on a card and ask them to draw it in a notebook” — it works much more deeply. Because it engages many parts of the brain at once. Because it uses sensory memory, which in children is much stronger than abstract memory. Because it associates the letter not only with a sign, but with a whole pleasant and interesting situation that the child will remember forever. “M? Oh, that’s the letter from when we made velvet mass”.
What actually happened with the letter M
The day began with a hidden recipe on the table. The Mędrki quickly figured out that this was a task. The teacher said: “read it and do it”. The recipe was simple, written in big letters, with pictograms next to each step (for those Mędrki who do not yet read fluently). It went: “2 cups of cornflour + 1 cup of body lotion = velvet mass”.
First task — finding the ingredients. The teacher had earlier hidden the cornflour and the lotion around the room — in different places, accessible but not obvious. The Mędrki had to spread out into the corners and find them. “Here it is, under the table!” — Igor shouts. “The flour is on the shelf!” — Marysia replies. So begins active, motor, curious engagement.
Second task — measuring. Here we put particular emphasis. A Mędrek who is about to go to school must understand what “a cup”, “two cups”, “a half” means. On the kitchen scale and on cups with markings, this is the first, embodied mathematics. Each Mędrek receives their portion of lotion and flour — and independently pours it into their own bowl.
Third task — mixing. This is the sensory apotheosis. Velvet mass, when you start mixing it, first looks like something strange — a powder that lumps together. After adding the lotion it becomes smooth, soft, slightly slippery, extraordinarily pleasant to the touch. The Mędrki gasp with delight: “Miss, how it smells!”. “How I’ll touch it now…!”.
Fourth task — and here we return to the letter M. Each Mędrek receives their lump of mass. The teacher shows how to draw the letter M with a finger on the surface of the mass. Three strokes: vertical down, diagonal down, diagonal up, vertical down. “It is important from which side we begin” — the teacher says. “Always from the top, downwards”. The Mędrki try. The first letter comes out crooked. The second better. After ten attempts most Mędrki draw the letter M as if they had known it for years.
Fifth task — finding the letter M in words. The teacher writes a few words on the board: MASA, MEDOK, MARCIN, MAKARON, TATA, PIES. The Mędrki must mark the words containing M. Some quickly notice that MEDOK and MARCIN start with the same sound. Others manage more slowly. This is the exercise of so-called phonological awareness — the key skill in learning to read.
Sixth and final task — the Mędrki return again to their masses. Each shapes the letter M out of the mass. Some make it from rolls and stick them together. Others cut it from a flat mass with a small knife. Yet others form it from sprinkled grains, arranged in the shape of the letter. Each technique trains the hand and the eye in a different way. And all together inscribe in the child’s head one strong image: M is that letter.
What is built in a Mędrek’s brain during such a lesson
Phonological awareness. This is the most important skill the child must master in order to later, in first grade, learn to read. Phonological awareness is the ability to recognize that words are made of sounds, that each sound has its own sign (a letter), that these sounds can be divided, joined, changed. A child who, before going to school, has well-developed phonological awareness, learns to read much faster than a peer without that foundation.
Multisensory memory. The letter M recorded in a Mędrek’s head after our lesson is not an abstract sign. It is linked to the touch of velvet mass, to the smell of lotion, to the sound of grinding powder, to the emotions of play. This recording is incomparably deeper and more lasting than a recording from a worksheet. The Mędrek a year from now, in first grade, when they see the letter M, will automatically recall this whole situation. This is the so-called episodic memory, which in children is the strongest form of memory.
Fine motor preparation for writing. All the finger movements with which the Mędrek shaped the letter from the mass are direct exercise of the muscles they will soon use to hold a pencil. Writing does not begin in first grade. Writing begins in preschool — at the moment the child first shapes a letter with a finger in sensory mass.
Awareness of writing direction. This is extraordinarily important and often underestimated. Letters in the Polish alphabet are written from the top, from the left, in a specific order of strokes. A child who, by habit, starts the letter M from the bottom or from the right side will have much more difficulty later when learning calligraphy. Introducing writing direction from the first contact with the letter — in sand, in mass, in the air, in the notebook — builds correct habits that then last a lifetime.
Reading with comprehension. A Mędrek who has read a recipe with pictograms and letters, and then carried it out — learns that writing is not art for art’s sake. Writing is a tool for action in the world. “If I read this well, velvet mass comes out. If I read it badly, nothing happens”. This is the most powerful possible motivation for learning to read — the kind that appears spontaneously, without any “pressing” from our side.
Why we do not teach letters “the classical way”
Many parents ask us: “and when will there be notebooks? when will there be the traditional learning of letters with rulers?”. We answer calmly: notebooks will come in first grade. In preschool we are doing something that, for learning to read in first grade, is much more important — we are preparing the brain, the hand, the ear and the concentration so that this learning can happen joyfully and effectively.
The classical method of letter learning — “here is the letter M, draw it ten times in your notebook” — works, but it works more slowly and leaves the child with less inner joy in letters. Our method — through many senses, in real-life situations, with an element of play and mystery — builds the same thing, but more deeply, more strongly and with joy.
What is important: we also do not reject the notebook. The Mędrki in the second half of the year start trying to write some letters on paper (first on small cards with big lines, then in real notebooks). But this paper is not the only or main tool. It is one of many ways in which the Mędrek gets to know the letter.
What a parent can do at home
If your child is at the Mędrek age (six or seven) and is starting to be interested in letters, a few ideas for home, playful learning:
— Write letters everywhere. On a steamed-up windowpane. In sand in a sandpit. In groats sprinkled on a plate. In dough during baking. In shaving cream spread on the bathroom mirror. The more different surfaces, the better for the brain.
— Read labels. “What does it say here?”. “And what letter is this?”. Everyday life is full of text that, for a five-year-old, is a riddle to be solved. Don’t avoid that riddle.
— Play at inventing words. “Tell me a word starting with M”. “And with A?”. “And with T?”. This simple exercise builds phonological awareness — and you can do it anywhere, in the car, in a queue, in bed before sleep.
— Read aloud together. Every day, even for fifteen minutes. The point is not for the child to read — the parent reads. The child sits next to you and listens. Sometimes notices known letters, sometimes asks. The best books are the ones you yourselves like — because the child will sense the enthusiasm.
— Introduce a favourite letter. Some children at preschool age spontaneously “adopt” some letter as their own (usually the first letter of their name). Use this. Look for that letter in newspapers, in the shop, on the street, on the menu. Let it be your shared game.
— Don’t rush. There is no reason for a child to be reading already at five. There is no reason for them to compare to peers. What matters is that they enter school with joy and curiosity — not with pressure and discouragement.
What stayed after our velvet mass
At the end of the day the Mędrki took home their pieces of velvet mass in plastic bowls (porcelain mass keeps fresh for a week if kept in the fridge). In the evening parents told us that the Mędrki at the table were showing siblings how to draw the letter M in the mass. Some of them discovered the next day that their own name also has the letter M (in their surname, in their middle name). For them this was a revelation. “Miss, I have an M too!”.
This is how real love for letters is built. Not through a command “you have to learn”. Through the joy of discovering that the letter you got to know in velvet mass also lives in your own name, in words that until now were a mystery to you. The letter becomes a friend. Reading becomes an adventure. First grade becomes something to look forward to — not something to fear.
That is why for the Mędrki every week is a new letter. And each is an opportunity for a new sensory, kitchen, motor, mysterious adventure. Because we believe that the alphabet is one of the most beautiful gifts a person receives from humanity. And we want the Mędrki to receive it the way one receives a good gift — with joy and curiosity about what is inside.