[s] is for stars

Pauline — Sun, 20 May 2012 14:00:06 +0000

My children go through phases. There may be weeks where they will be consumed with a tub of rice. Then overnight, the interest in that tub of rice wanes and they can’t get enough of using scissors. They’ll happily sit, cutting up paper, yarn, anything they can get their hands on – (I have caught them with various villain action figures between those blades). Then overnight their interests will move over to play dough and the scissors will sit in their tin tubs collecting dust until their moment of glory appears again.

When play dough is all the rage in your household, here is a good fine motor activity for introducing the letter [s]. The more fine motor skill activities we provide for our children, the better we equip them to overcome handwriting difficulties, which may stumble them as writers.

We made some playdough stars by rolling up a ball of playdough, flattening it slightly with our palm, then pinching the edges to make a star shape. Describe the pinching like a bird pecking food to reinforce the pincer grasp.

To complement our stars, we also did some rainbow writing of the letter [s].

We consolidated the introduction to the letter [s] by placing all of our stars on our piece of paper and used our finger to trace of the letter [s].

Here are some ideas to further build upon the alphabetic principle of [s]

Show children a written lower case [s]
Model the mouth movement and sound [s]
Visually connect the picture/word “stars” with the letter sound [s]
Kinaestehtically open and shut your hands, simulating twinkling stars.

N & M: 3 years, 11 months
May 2012

A version of this post was originally published as a guest post on Playdough to Plato.

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The post [s] is for stars by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

Weekly Kids’ Co-op: Work, Rest & Play

Pauline — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:06:57 +0000

What is your quick, go-to mental thought when you need a quick pick-me-up? Recently this has been playing in my head; “Soft kitty, Warm kitty, Little ball of fur; Happy kitty, Sleepy kitty, Purr purr purr.” Ah, Sheldon, how I adore you. If you’re a “Big Bang Theory” fan, you may share the same sentiments. If this makes no sense, perhaps this may help – http://bigbangtheory.wikia.com/wiki/Soft_Kitty .

Scrolling through the many wonderful ideas linked up in last weeks’ Kids Co-op made me smile too. It’s not just the creative ideas and stories that impressed me, it’s the generosity of so many people willing to share their stories of how they work, rest and play with their children.

WORK
There are some old-school ideas that have stood the test of time.
Like a Pretty Petunia reminds us of Alphabet Beads.

REST
NurtureStore shares a lovely craft for Mothers’ Day, complete with an anti-paint smudging device.

PLAY

Make Do & Friend sets up a super cool Superhero City Small World.

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Lessons Learnt Journal » Alphabet

[s] is for stars

Weekly Kids’ Co-op: Work, Rest & Play