Letter band

As mentioned in the previous post on 03/08/15, letter reversals are not uncommon to see among children up to the age of 7 years old.  As children's little brain becomes mature, they will improve the sense of their body. They will learn left and right side of their body and their surroundings. As they develop the sense of directions, they will be able to differentiate those mirror image letters (i.e. letter b and d, p and q). 

This is my kindergarten student. Although it is not uncommon to see the letter reversals at this age, you surely want to encourage your child to learn the directions of the letters.

He is holding a thick rubber band around his hands.  I ask him to stretch it out as much as he can, which will provide him sensory input and enhance attention span.  I put those letters with velcro, so I can simply detach the letters and change letters.

Then I call out a letter, either b or d at a time. He will touch the letter with his thumb (letter b with his left thumb and letter d with his right thumb).  When you call out the letter, do not make patterns such as calling out b, d, b, d, b, d and so on.  Make it unpredictable.

If you want to make it as an eye-exercise activity, you will simply ask your child not to move his/her head while looking at the letter. If your child keeps moving his/her head, then you gently place your finger on his/her chin to provide tactile cues.

This activity can be used not only for the letter reversals but also for letter recognition.  Is there any letters that your child get confused? Put those letters on the rubber band and practice, practice, practice.  Your child can get kinetic and sensory input by stretching the rubber band, eye exercises (visual shifting & tracking), and enjoy time with you!

Enjoy learning~! Enjoy teaching~!
    

Obstacle Course and MORE

A simple obstacle course is a commonly used gross motor activity, which reinforces gross motor skills such as jumping and hopping and challenges kids to sustain focus on the main task.  These are my kindergarten students who try to spell sight words.

First, students pick one word that they will spell out.

Then one student will find the first letter of the chosen word and jump over the hurdles to the other side. He puts the letter down.

Another student will pick up the next letter of the same word and jump over the hurdles to the other side.  He puts the second letter down.

They take turns until they complete the word.

In order to complete spelling the word, each student has to remember the letter that his partner brings to the other side.

At the end, they complete a word together.

They practice spelling more than one word and have fun.

This entire activity may look so simple but it requires so many skills. I will list a few of the skills.
 
(1) Letter Recognition - kids need to know how each letter looks like.
(2) Visual discrimination and Visual spacial skills - I put so many letters on the table and challenge them to look for the letter that they need. Although they know their alphabet letters, if all the letters are upside down, downside up, and facing up all different directions, obviously they need more time to look for the letter.  If child struggles finding letters, you may want to limit the numbers of the letters on the table.
(3) Visual sequential skills - Each student has to look at the word and figure out what comes next. Since we play in a small group, they need to give their full attention to follow through and not to misspell the word.
(4) Short term memory - As mentioned above, the main activity is spelling words.  However, they are side-tracked by performing the exercise, which they enjoy doing it during the session.  Despite of this distraction, they need to complete the words.  How fun it is~!
 
What is your (parent's) job? Let's wait and see. Be patient! Let's encourage our children to problem solve independently. If your child asks for your help too soon, what are you going to do? Are you going to help your child immediately?  If your child does not ask for help and gets frustrated, what are you going to do? It's all matter of when and how to help your child when he/she faces problem.  

Alphabet Plate

This is the alphabet plate which my OT friend introduced to me. And I like it as much as my kids do.

You can simply write down letters randomly on a paper plate and need a penny.

 

These are my kindergarten kids and they're trying to maneuver the dish, side to side and up and down, to move the penny from A to Z.  Find alphabet letters in order.






Then they spell sight words on the plate.  They put their index finger on the penny and move around on the plate.

Remember. This activity looks simple but kids may show some difficulty. I would like to suggest parents to try it first and feel how it is easy or difficult.

Enjoy playing~!

Play-doh time!

Kids love to play with play-doh. I do like to play with play-doh but not as much as they do. :) We can do so many different activities with play-doh.  And you don't need to buy it from a store.  You can simply make the dough with flour, water, and some food coloring (optional). Have your child make some dough today! WARNING: It can be messy!  

 

This is one of my kindergarden kids.  Here I would like to share two play-doh activities.
Before we move on, I would like to point out that her pencil grasp is improving. One more thing! She doesn't enjoy writing much but will enjoy making letters with the play-doh.

Activity 1: Letter Dots

Play with the play-doh. You can smoosh it, stretch it, squash it, knead it, and make it flat on the table with your hands and fingers. (FYI, if you give your child the big piece of the play-doh, his/her hands and fingers work more than working on the small piece.)

If it is flat enough, let's make a letter.  Use the eraser-top side and make the letter, ___.

Reinforce the proper letter formation and to start from the top as if writing on a piece of the paper.  

Let's do it again. Smoosh it. Make it flat. Then make another letter.

Let's twist it! You can write a letter and ask your child what letter it is.

Activity 2: Make a letter.

Simply knead the play-doh and make it like a snake. Then make letters.  

Kids sometimes have difficulty with pressing down on the dough and kneading.  You may want to teach how to knead the dough by pressing down his/her hand gently and moving your hands together (hand-over-hand guidance).  Or on the other hand, you can ask her/him to press on your hand while you're kneading the dough.    

Show how to make the letter. After making the letter, you can ask your child to trace the letter with the index finger on her/his writing hand to encourage appropriate handwriting skills.

More importantly! Have fun with playing the play-doh!!

Check this out!!  How to Make Playdough


Fun Learning~Fun Teaching~!

Enjoy Learning: Sand Writing

Sand writing is one of the popular therapy activities to improve handwriting skills. It also helps with remembering letters and words by giving different feelings on the fingertips.  And it is fun!

1. Parent writes first.

Have your index cards ready and draw lines to help with writing alignment. Then you (parent) write a letter or word with a pencil lightly for your child to trace the letter or the word. 

2. Child traces the letter/word with different writing tools.

Child will trace the letter or the word a few times with different writing tools such as a pencil, color pencils, crayons, and different color markers. Please encourage your child to start writing at the top line and to trace it neatly.

3. Trace the letter/word with liquid glue.

If your child is done with tracing the word, use the liquid glue tracing it one last time. This step is not too easy and you can give some help here.  If your child wants to do this part, let him or her try it.  If it gets too messy, you can always start from the beginning. 

4. Sprinkle sands over the glue.

Before the glue gets dried, sprinkle sands over the glued letters.  This is fun part and it can get messy.  Children love playing with sands and love to get messy too. 

5. Let it dry.

Let it dry for a few minutes.  Depending on how much glue you used, it can take longer than a few minutes. 

6. Practice tracing

After it is dried completely, have your child trace the letter or the word multiple times with his/her fingertip on the writing hand. Spell it out loud while tracing each letter.  It will help your child with remembering the letter or the word.

 Let's get ready to be messy and have fun with your child.  Enjoy learning!