Yesterday, the kids were waiting for dinner and didn’t want to play, so I filled two trays with some rice and got them to draw/practice letter writing.
As my 3 year old has been experimenting with writing and forming letters it was a great activity to keep him busy. I would either show him how to make a letter (if he didn’t know how to write it) on one side of the tray and he would them mimic the actions on the other side or I would give him a letter sound and he would make the letter. I was amazed at how quickly he became confident in forming many of the letters. Of course in between letter making his hands HAD to become a bulldozer to erase the letter before he shook the tray.
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- bulldozer!
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- I showed him then he mimicked
My 1.5 YO was also given the activity in smaller scale and there was quite a mess involved but he had lots of fun just watching the gaps form on the tray. He would drag his fingers along the tray and enjoyed shaking the tray to erase what he had made. I feel like for him it was more of a sensory activity and exploration which was completely fine with me :).
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- drawing
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- shake shake!
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- textures
Extensions:
- using coloured rice to keep them engaged longer
- giving them toothpicks or straws to write with to encourage pincer grip for the little ones and proper pencil grip for the preschoolers
- a toy in the rice to extend play
- confetti letters/numbers throughout to find and encourage discussion and letter recognition (they could also be used as prompts for which letter to write next)
Eat. Sleep. Play. Blog 