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Visual Contrast Sensory Letter Writing

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We practiced writing letters in coffee grounds one morning after Mom cleaned out a cupboard.  Why did I buy Instant Decaf? YUCK! So, before we tossed them, we had to play with them.  Of course 😉

Visual Contrast Letter Writing

I poured the coffee grounds onto a white cutting board for maximum contrast and had Big Sister practice some lower case letters.  She loved this!  The black on white let the letters really show.  She felt so special doing this activity because she could play with coffee!

Sensory Letter Writing

We practiced the letters that are easy to reverse (b, d, p, g, d) and a few words that she knows how to spell.  She stood at the kitchen counter for a while making letters. 

Little Guy had to get in on the action and make some shapes, too. 

A great multi-sensory input way to practice letters!

Sensory Handwriting Practice Letter Formation

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Practicing handwriting doesn’t have to involve paper!   This sensory handwriting practice activity works on letter formation and line awareness with proper tool grasp and typical writing motor movements (unlike many sensory writing activities that use a writing tray or over-sized letters–while those sensory writing activities DO add to the tactile sense, they prevent the child from becoming accustomed to holding the pencil and the small motor advancements made by a writing utensil.  The child IS working on letter formation but they are not doing so in a typical motor pattern, and this can actually be quite confusing for some children.) 


This creative handwriting task, however DOES use a writing utensil-one that is appropriately sized to what the child typically grasps when writing on paper–and adds a bit of proprioceptive input.  We do love creative handwriting activities around here, and this one is one of our all time favorites!


Practicing Handwriting with shaving cream

Practice Handwriting with Sensory Input

 
This post contains affiliate links.
 

We practiced writing letters one day last week and this was a super fun way to do it!  I filled a couple of bags with shaving cream (not much, just a little worked great).  I used a permanent black marker to write a few letters that sometimes confuse Big Sister…common reversals: ‘b, d, p, q, and g’. 


Letter Formation with Sensory

 We also practiced ‘a’ and ‘c’ to begin.  When you make a “little curve” to make a ‘c’, you can continue with simple verbal cues to make the ‘c’ into other letters like a ‘d’…”little curve, big line down” makes a ‘d’.

sensory handwriting with shaving cream
Big Sister used a dry erase board marker to trace the lower case letters.  She could wipe the dry erase board marks off over and over again.  You can use a smaller sized dry erase marker or a fine tip marker to make this more similar to the  motor movements needed for writing with a pencil. 
We also practiced writing our address on the sensory bags.  This activity was a fun way to practice letter formation with verbal and visual cues with an added sensory input.  Plus, Big Sister just really loves writing with the dry erase board makers 🙂
This would be a fun way to practice shapes, numbers, and even beginning pencil stokes for the younger kids.
Looking for more creative handwriting activities?  My friend Erica has some great ideas on this post.  You’ll love to dive into some of our all-time favorite creative handwriting ideas:
http://www.sugaraunts.com/2015/10/visual-tracking-tips-and-tools-for.html 

Share it Saturday #29

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Fun Ways to Practice Writing and Learning Letters

Another week has gone by and now we are already over halfway through July.  Before we know it the end of summer will be here and the beginning of the school year (gulp).


My little girl will be heading to kindergarten in the fall and this mommy is already tearing up thinking about it.  Just the thought of sending her off on the big school bus is putting me into an arrhythmia.  I know I am not the only one thinking this…how did this happen?  how did my baby get so big already??
With kindergarten on my mind lately, we have been getting some writing and letter activities into our daily schedule.  She can write her first and last name and the entire alphabet with some help with that darn letter “Q”.
This week we are featuring some of the posts that were linked up relating to letters and writing…
Writing and Letter Activities
Schooltime Snippets- this adorable activity is great for the toddlers and preschoolers.  I love how she cut out strips of paper for her daughter to match up the letters.  This post is full of great ideas.

Domesticated Breakdown shared a lovely framed artwork she made for her sons room.  I have been wanting to try something like this, it looks like such great craft that the kids can help with.
Highhill Education- shared a wonderful activity to encourage writing- postcard exchange!  This is such a great idea, I love that it involves interacting with others.

And Next Comes L shared an alphabet hands obstacle course and scavenger hunt.  This activity is something kids of all ages would enjoy and I could see these hands being used over and over again in other activities. 

document.write(‘

Driveway Sensory Drawing: Wet Chalk!

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wet chalk

Drawing with wet chalk on a driveway is such a fun sensory experience for outdoor play and one that develops so many areas of gross motor skills, fine motor skills, and visual motor skills through sensory play. Drawing milestones like coloring with chalk is part of childhood but this driveway chalk activity builds many skills!

Wet chalk

Wet Chalk

We played outside one cool morning and discovered something really fun…We had left a couple of pieces of chalk outside during an overnight rainstorm. 

The texture of wet chalk is so cool! It smears on the driveway so easily and is the neatest texture. For children struggling with tactile defensiveness wet chalk is a great sensory experience because you can grade the dryness or the wetness of the chalk texture.

There was only red and blue that were soaked through, but they combined to make a pretty nice rainbow!

How to make wet chalk

There are several ways to make wet chalk to use on a driveway.

  1. Soak driveway chalk in a bucket of water overight or for a few hours.
  2. Draw with chalk on a wet driveway. After a rain works or spray the driveway with water from the hose.
  3. Crush chalk into a powder and mix water into the chalk dust to create a messy, thick chalk paint. This liquid chalk paint recipe explains more on this strategy.

You can select the wet chalk method that works best for you!

Once you have your wet chalk created, you can get started with the chalk art.

Wet Chalk Activities

We’ve created a list of chalk activities here on the website before so any of those ideas would work. But if you want to explore development of other skills, try these wet chalk activities:

  • Make a chalk rainbow
  • Make a driveway obstacle course
  • Create letters and use a wet-dry-try method of writing the letters
  • Mix colors
  • Use the wet chalk for body painting
  • Paint rocks
  • Write names or words
 
 

 

 
 
 
Wet chalk
 
We played with this for a while…the chalk drawing even started to dry on the driveway.
I LOVE this picture!
 
Use wet chalk on the driveway
 
Baby Girl loved this messy play.  She got her hands right in there and covered them with the chalky mess.


Outdoor Sensory Play

What a great sensory experience!  Check out how Baby Girl is on her hands and knees…She’s putting weight through her upper body and down to the hands, and strengthening her shoulder girdle which is so important for fine motor dexterity.  All this while exploring the texture of the chalk, manipulating little pieces of chalk, and having fun with her sister!
 
 
Wet chalk activity for kids
 
We kept tracing over the rainbow lines until the chalk became so small…great for working on that tripod grasp! 
 
Big Sister was really aware of the lines of the rainbow when she was tracing.  This is fun for a new hand writer who is learning to place letters on the lines of paper ((line awareness)).
 
Tracing the big arch of the rainbow allowed her to cross midline on a fun activity.   Why do kids need to cross midline?? One reason is so that hand writers efficiently allow the dominant hand to do the work during handwriting while moving left to right across the page in a smooth manner.
 
Play with wet chalk to make a driveway rainbow
 
And of course, you MUST add raindrops to the rainbow 😉
 
 
Colors Handwriting Kit

Rainbow Handwriting Kit– This resource pack includes handwriting sheets, write the room cards, color worksheets, visual motor activities, and so much more. The handwriting kit includes:

  • Write the Room, Color Names: Lowercase Letters
  • Write the Room, Color Names: Uppercase Letters
  • Write the Room, Color Names: Cursive Writing
  • Copy/Draw/Color/Cut Color Worksheets
  • Colors Roll & Write Page
  • Color Names Letter Size Puzzle Pages
  • Flip and Fill A-Z Letter Pages
  • Colors Pre-Writing Lines Pencil Control Mazes
  • This handwriting kit now includes a bonus pack of pencil control worksheets, 1-10 fine motor clip cards, visual discrimination maze for directionality, handwriting sheets, and working memory/direction following sheet! Valued at $5, this bonus kit triples the goal areas you can work on in each therapy session or home program.

Click here to get your copy of the Colors Handwriting Kit.

Fine Motor Table-top Play

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This table top activity is a fine moor skill activity to develop pincer grasp. We loved using this activity to target pincer grasp, hand strength, eye- hand coordination, wrist extension, and more.

Tabletop activity

Tabletop activities refer to any kind of activity or game that can be played on a flat surface such as a table or desk. These activities often involve physical components such as cards, dice, game pieces, or puzzles. Examples of tabletop activities include board games, card games, puzzles, dominoes, chess, checkers, and tabletop RPGs (role-playing games), or the tape peeling activity we showed below.

This fine motor activity is a great way to build many small motor skills.  From neat pincer grasp to hand strength and arch development, this indoor play activity is one that builds many skills in a fun way!
 


 
 
 
So, one morning, we had four kids in the house (Big Sister, Little Guy, Baby Girl, and my Niece and Nephew).  They play well together. Most times.  And then other times.. they argue, fight, agitate, and do all of the normal brother/sister/cousin-who-is-around-often-enough-to-be-like-a-sibling…things! This morning, they were in a mood.  A we. need. to. get. outside. and. RUN. mood. 
 
and since half of the kids were still in pajamas and there were still breakfast remnants all over the dining room table…we played a little game.
 
We have a couple of rolls of masking tape hanging around and this mama/aunt thought they would love to do a little picking on the tape.
 
instead of picking on each other!
 
 
They loved it! Picking at the edges of the tape is perfect for little hand’s fine motor dexterity.  They are working the neat pincer grasp (tip-to-tip pinch of the thumb and index finger…think of the way you would pick up a very small bead or pin from a table-top)
 
 

table top activities for toddlers

 
It was sort-of like a puzzle, figuring out which piece of tape needed to pull up first.  And then, when they pulled up an intersecting piece of tape, again working the fine motor skills to pull that piece up.
 
 
When all of the pieces of tape were pulled up, Big Sister played a word spelling game.  She tore the tape into bits  (…tripod grasp, working on small motor strength of the hand arches, and separating the two sides of the hand in a small motor task…)
 
I told her how to spell the word ‘CAT’ and then gave her words that rhyme with ‘CAT’.  She wrote the letter and put it in place of the ‘C’.
 
 
 
Agitating/arguing/sibling crisis averted.  We put on play clothes and went outside!

Magnetic Letters on the Garage Door

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We have a bin of magnetic letters that we’ve been playing with for years.  Packs of these magnetic alphabets are everywhere; You can find them at the dollar store and so many other stores.  I have pulled this bin out so many times for play.  Each child has loved to sort, dump the bin out, place all over the fridge, and more.  The big kids are spelling their name and words.  We’ve used these letters in all kinds of sensory bins…even molded into Jello for messy sensory play!
Last week, we took the bin of letters outside and found the BIGGEST magnetic board EVER!

Big Sister is learning to spell and read some words and found the letters for a few words she knows.  Little Guy is a big fan of spelling “stop” at every stop sign we come to on the road.  So, he found the letters to that word.
((He also has the recent …funny…habit of spelling “YES” or “NO” instead of saying the actual word when you ask him a yes/no question.))  SO funny, and SO him!

Movement and Learning in Letter Identification and Spelling

There is a lot of research out there showing that incorporating movement into learning helps with so many aspects of cognition.  Kathryn at Movement and Learning shares a great collection of research.
We played a little game to sort out the letters to a word that both of them knew really well.  I wanted to encourage self-confidence by starting with a word they know.  I put one of each of the letters of “stop” in different areas of the garage.  Little Guy (who is learning letter identification) looked in the pile of letters on the ground and found an “S” and put it with the rest of the “S’s”.  Then he found a “T” and put it with the rest of the “T’s”.  He found each of the letters in order and went through the word “stop” three times.
Big Sister is learning to read beginner words.  I wrote some “-ar” words on the driveway in chalk (car, jar, far, star) and she would walk from the word to copy the words in magnets on the garage.

Cross Lateral Movement and Learning

I had them try another game to put the letters back into the bin.  I asked them to put the letters away one by one, using alternating hands to reach across their midline to grab the letter.
What is the midline?? Imagine a line going down the middle of your body from the middle of your forehead, and strait down, dividing your body into two symmetrical halves.  Your right and left sides are divided by your midline.
The right side of the brain controls the left side of the body and the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body.  Crossing midline forces the two halves of the brain to work together.
It was a little difficult to get them to reach for letters with their non-dominant hand.  It required more verbal cues, physical prompts, and visual cues.  Why was this so tricky?  Because the brain was being asked to do something novel.  Both Big Sister and Little Guy needed the extra prompts and cues to reach across their midline, all the while recalling the letter in order to spell the word.
Pretty Cool!
So, is crossing midline difficult for your child?  Try these play activities:
Crawling in a tunnel, finger painting with both hands, digging in sand to find objects, Pat-a-Cake hand and rhythm games, Simon Says games, playing with ribbon wands or scarves.

Multi-age Letter Learning Bin

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This was an easy little activity that worked for all of the ages. 
My Pre-K kiddo copied the words,
My Pre-Schooler liked telling me all of the things that started with “D” and exploring the bin,
and my Toddler loved checking out all of the fun things in the bin.
(Especially the ducks…Baby Girl looooooves ducks!)

I’ve seen the letter sensory bin idea over at Life With Moore Babies.  
She’s linked up at our Share It Saturday link up party and I knew my kids would love to do something like that!

We went on a scavenger hunt to search for toys that started with D and everyone had so much fun!
We found Dog puppets, ducks, a doll, and a Dad (ok, this was another doll and a small stretch to get a “D” word, but they got it :).   We also had dinosaurs, a D magnet, a few foam letter “D”‘s, a plastic “Diamond” bracelet, a plastic dime, and Dora.
I wrote all of the words on the writing sheet for Big Sister.  She’s so into copying words right now.  And learning lower case letters.  She loved pulling the object out of the box, asking me which word matched up, and then copying.

 My silly Baby Girl. I have 6 shots of this.  She was hil-arious.
 And she knew it!
Colleen

Textured Shaving Cream Sensory Play

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 There is something about kids and a pile of shaving cream…They Looooove to play in it!
We added some old sprinkles from last Easter to give this Indoor Play Idea a different twist.  They loved feeling the texture of the sprinkles on their hands while they played.  It probably has a great exfoliating factor too 🙂
This sensory bin base material is shaving cream with an added texture.
Get both hands involved for crossing midline and engaging both sides of the brain while using the large muscles of the arms and shoulder girdle…
Draw letters and stars in it…
See what happens when you draw with a plastic ball…
Take a break for a dance party…
 And draw a little more!
Such a fun time!!

Definitely try adding textures to shaving cream for fun sensory play.

Colleen
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