Enjoy Learning: Spelling Words

This is a simple activity that can help kids to remember spelling of words.  You randomly write down alphabet letters on a piece of paper.  You can also have your child to write down the letters.

Then use a color dot to stamp on the letters.  You can practice spelling sight words or everyday words with your child.

How do you give extra visual cues?  For those kids who need more help with spelling, I usually go over the spelling with them before they stamp on it.  

Adult: "So give me a word."

Kid: "say" "It's one of my everyday words."

Adult: "Spell it for me."

Kid: "s...a...y"

Adult: "Can you use the word and make a sentence for me?"

Kid: "Why did he say..."        

Adult: "Ok, now you can stamp the word on your paper." "Spell it for me."

(You can leave the writing on the board for extra visual cues or erase the word to challenge the kid.)

My child is too young for spelling words.  Can this activity be modified?  Of course.  You can have your child to find alphabet letters in order. "Let's stamp on ABC's in order!!"  It is good for recognizing alphabet letters and sequencing letters.  And it is FUN!! 

Use different colors and make it more colorful.  Kids LOVE colors.  They are usually more attentive to the task when they perform activities that involve colors.  I usually suggest kids to pick up their favorite color.  You can also think about the color theory and let them choose either warm or cold color depending on their needs.  This picture was excerpted from blog.edynco.com.

What's the purpose of this activity? My kids will improve their visual attention, visual motor skills by tracking and scanning the letters, and short term/ long term memory performance by remembering words.  Ultimate goal is to become a better speller.  In addition, they can do something fun!  

Play and Enjoy learning~!!     

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!