Hello! I am Triana from Rocky Mountain Mama. I am a stay at home mother of two and a former elementary school teacher. Now that school has started, it’s time for your little ones to work on their letters. I cannot tell you how great it was when kids came into kindergarten knowing their letters! Here are 5 activities you can do with your little one to work on letter recognition and letter formation.
1. Salt Board
Get a cookie sheet and fill it with salt. Using their index finger, have your child form a letter in the salt. Make sure they start at the top! If your child isn’t quite ready for this, make the letter in the salt for them and then have them trace over what you made. This activity is also great for practicing numbers and shapes. Kiddos love the feeling of the salt on their fingers.
You can get a cookie sheet at the dollar store if you don’t want to use your own. This also works great with shaving cream, yogurt, flour, etc.
2. Play Dough Letters
Help your child to make a snake out of play dough. Then have them form a letter out of the play dough. This may be a little tricky at first, but it’s great practice in motor planning. And what kid doesn’t enjoying working with play dough?
3. Wiki Sticks
If you don’t know what Wiki Sticks are, you need to get some into your life. They are so much fun! Using flash cards or card stock with letters written on them, have your child use the Wiki Sticks to form the letters. This is another great one for motor planning and the sticks are so fun to play with.
You can find these at educational stores. I got mine at Lakeshore Learning. They are sticky so they will stick to the paper and they last quite a while.
4. Hair Gel
This is one of my all time favorite activities. And the kids love it too! Fill a clear, gallon size bag with hair gel. Place a flash card or written letter underneath the bag. Starting at the top, have your child trace the letters with their index finger. They love the feeling of the cool gel on their fingers. And even better, less mess!
5. Letter Treasure Hunt
At the top of a sheet of paper, write down the letter you want your child to find. Under that, write several different letters including the letter they should be looking for. Have your child go for a treasure hunt and circle the letters when they find them.
You can put the paper in a plastic sheet protector and use a dry erase marker. That way you can have them practice it over and over again.
Thank you so much to Vanessa for giving me the opportunity to guest blog for her! I hope that you will come check out some of my other tutorials as well as rants about being a mother of two.
Recent tutorials:
Tot School Tuesday Co-host: Kara of Mine for the Making (visit her blog for preschool aged activities)
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6 Responses
The salt board makes me very nervouse.. I think I would be vacuming up alot 😀
I LOVE the idea of a treause board..! Im going to make that one up soon!! thanks
You could always have your kids play with it outside 🙂
Thanks so much for hosting!
Thanks so much for stopping by!
I love all of these ideas Vanessa! You’ve had some fabulous guests on your blog recently.
Thanks Sara! I agree, I have the BEST bloggy friends 🙂