I recently went to an “Arty Party” in which the teacher gave us step-by-step instructions on creating an original piece of artwork that she showed us in advance. Throughout the party, the instructor came around and guided us in our progress to ensure that we were on the right track. Before the party, there was no way I could have created the landscape of a sunset on a horizon with trees near and far, but now that I have experienced the process with the steps modeled for me, I think I could re-create it if you asked me to.
I share this story because it is the same for children when it comes to letter, number, and shape formation. They need a visual representation of what it will look like as an end result, and then they need the steps modeled for them, and guidance to walk them through it.
Today, I am going to attach a link I have made for your child to trace the ABC’s, but I don’t want you to give them a pen and walk away wishing them well. I want you to sit down with them, talk about each letter, make it first, and then allow them to trace it. I actually encourage moms and dads to write on a “my turn, your turn” basis with their children so you can model step-by-step what you are doing and they can Xerox what you have just done.
If you want you can search for letter formation poems, songs, and chants online but if you don’t want to overwhelm yourself in a cyber-search simply read the following for your own understandings and then get busy.
Each letter falls into a height scale. Some letters are tall (“touching the sky”), some letters are short (“only reaching the picket fence”), and some have roots (“going underground”).
Each letter has a different shape. Some letters have curvy lines, some letters have straight lines, and some letters have both.
Start at the top when making your letters and “pull down”.
So, to put that all together, if you make an A you would start at the top, pull down straight, go back to the top and pull down the other way, and then draw a line straight across at the picket fence.
You can explain the process however you would like, being as creative or direct as you would like, but try to incorporate some of the formation concepts listed above because it will help your little one learn the letters in their appropriate proportions.
Timing for Rhyming
I shared in my post “Why Rhyme?” that rhyming is a tier on the reading ladder because it gives children an awareness of sounds in words – words that sound the same versus words that sound different.
After you start working with them on distinguishing whether words rhyme or not (a listening activity), you will want to help your child listen to a string of rhymes and come up with a new rhyming word that would continue with the same ending sound. For example, “What is a word that would rhyme with cat, mat, and hat?” This is a great way for your little one to put into practice their rhyming skills.
But before we do that, I am including an activity that is going to introduce this concept without the “coming up with a new rhyming word” part. Today, your little one is going to practice the first level skill by identifying which word in the group of rhyming words does not belong. So your little one will determine if the which words rhymes with the other words (and which one doesn’t). For example, “Cat, Mat, Sat, shoe?” Which word doesn’t sound the same at the end of the word? ________ (shoe)
I wanted to post another activity for rhyme identification so that you can help your little student master the skill before moving on to a more challenging rhyming activity.
Number Guessing Game
I just threw a baby shower for a friend yesterday and it is always a guessing game to estimate how many cards to get for the games, how many petifors, etc. Then there are games where we estimate how many jellybeans there are in a jar, how much toilet paper it would take to wrap around the pregnant woman’s belly, etc.
There are plenty of practical ways we use our estimation skills to problem solve. And that is exactly what we want to start instilling in our kids…problem solving skills.
So in order to work with your child on the beginning concepts of estimating, it is important to understand that until the age of 7 or so children have a hard time developing spatial skills. This means that they might count out objects, place them into a jar, and then estimate a different number because the number may look greater or less than the number they just counted, depending on how it is arranged. So understand that the activity we are talking about today is more of a READINESS activity than a formal lesson.
Remember that estimation is just the very best guess we can make based on our evidence.
Here is the activity:
Draw to write
Writing and drawing can be interconnected in many ways. Most of my writing posts incorporate fine motor skill development for 3-5 year olds because their writing skills go hand-in-hand with being able to have control and coordination. The other aspect of writing includes knowledge of formation; putting letters, shapes, and numbers images into their working memory.
Writing ability for a 3-5 year old is not just learning how to write letters, it can also include learning how to draw and put shapes together to make pictures that resemble real life imagery (such as a picture of a person, animal, place, etc.)
So, today’s activity is to start with a circle bear. This teaches your little one familiarity with an everyday shape, but it also teaches them how to use one in illustrations which builds confidence for a young child who is still in the process of acquiring writing and drawing skills.
Clap it Out
In the last reading post “Chunks, syllables, and sounds…,” I talked a little about working with your kiddo on breaking down words into parts. This process helps your child start to segment words and one of your goals with your future reader is to have them segment a word into sounds.
So, for now they will “play” with words by breaking a word into syllables like jess-i-ca but later on they will be able to break it down into sounds like /j//e//ss//i//ca/.
Don’t get ahead of yourselves though; they have to master all the pre-reading skills first because there is a sequence of segmenting sounds that I will teach over time.
On that note, we are going to start with listening for syllables in words by clapping along with a word’s “parts” and your child will count on their finger each time you clap. Then you will write that word. You can even extend the activity by asking him/her which word is the longest, shortest, the same number of parts, etc.
Clapping syllables
The answers are: backpack (2), computer (3), book (1), watercolor (4), chalkboard (2)
