Here is an easy, long term activity you can do with your child to practice identifying letters and the sounds they make all while strengthening fine motor skills. My own son is very tactile and this has proven to be the best method for him to learn his letters. He enjoys working on this project a little bit at a time and seeing his work displayed when he is finished.
Write the letters of the alphabet, one per page, in both uppercase and lowercase forms. Try to choose a nice, wide marker, and do your best to write using a style that is easy to learn, such as Zaner-Bloser style. (D’Nealian is also listed at this link.)
You can go in alphabetical order or begin with familiar letters, such as those in your child’s name. Select one letter and locate objects that can be glued to the letter. The objects should begin with the letter on which they will be glued. For example, if you having your child complete the letter “O”, you may give him oatmeal to glue to the letter. (For letters that are particularly difficult to find items to match the beginning letter, try using stickers. We used “apple” stickers for “A” and heart stickers for “H”.)
Ask your child to tell you the letter name several times throughout the activity. Help your child make a list of words that begin with the letter on which he is working. When he is finished and the glue has dried, display the letters along a string attached to the wall using clothespins to attach them.
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Written by Laura on December 9, 2011
My younger son has a writing workbook that I purchased for him with the intention that it would help him learn his letters. However, he has recently taken an interest in drawing and thinks that the workbook is the cat’s meow. Although he still has no idea what letters he is writing, he loves to trace the dotted lines that are perfectly printed on the elementary-style lines.
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Written by Laura on September 19, 2011
I love to eat all types of pudding; vanilla, chocolate, butterscotch… But it isn’t the healthiest food in the world to eat on a regular basis. However, it is good for preschoolers, but not in the way you are thinking. Pudding can be a wonderful manipulative to use when practicing printing formation.
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Written by Laura on August 13, 2011
When I think of a “dot-to-dot” puzzle, I usually visualize a piece of paper with a large group of dots with sequenced numbers next to them. When connected in order, these dots and the lines drawn, form a picture. However, I recently came across a different version of a dot-to-dot that can be used to help children learn to correctly form their letters.
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Written by Laura on June 29, 2011
When we think about teaching children to write their letters, we generally jump to visualizations of a youngster sitting at a desk or table with a pencil and a piece of three-lined paper. The child is sitting with feet flat on the floor and, of course, perfect posture. However, this picture in our minds is often not how a child would prefer to practice letter formation.
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Written by Laura on April 25, 2011
Often, it can be difficult to get a child to sit down and practice writing their letters. And it is no wonder why this is the case. What three- or four-year-old can you think of who would love to complete a mind-numbing activity where no creativity is involved and given instructions must be followed to a “T”? (Pun intended.)
The following activity is one way to help your child practi
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Written by BRWI Staff on February 28, 2011
When I was young, my handwriting was atrocious. (I actually earned a ‘D’ in the subject in third grade!) I like many other children, did not like to sit down and practice writing letters on confining lined paper.
I have a good friend who is struggling with this issue with your daughter right now. Her daughter is four, and she feels her youngster should be able to write her name ac
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Written by Laura on February 9, 2011
My older son is REALLY into Christmas. He has always loved Christmas music and will listen to Bing Crosby year round. My three-year-old also gets excited about the thought of Santa and the singing of Jingle Bells, but Brennen has a passion for the holiday that have not seen in other children. So I, being the teacher I am, tried to think of ways to convert this passion into something educational
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Written by Laura on November 29, 2010
When I was student-teaching in a kindergarten classroom, there was an activity my classroom teacher suggested that the students really enjoyed that also helped them learn how to form their letters.
It was fall, so we used pumpkin seeds as our main material. We began by giving each child a piece of card stock which had the letter “P” on it. The letter was about six inches tall and wri
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Written by Laura on October 18, 2010
I can remember sitting at the table as a little girl, diligently working in my very special coloring books. These books were special because they were just a bit different than regular coloring books where you simply colored in the manufactured pictures. My favorite books were those that had tracing paper in between each page. Before you colored in a picture, you would first use your pencil to
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Written by Laura on September 3, 2010
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