Loose Parts, Loose Parts, READ All About It

Do you have an emergent reader in your home? Do you have a reluctant reader in your home? Maybe a bookworm or maybe all of the above and more? Check out my latest article on Fantastic Fun & Learning where the world of Loose Parts Play and Literacy collide!

We'll be back tomorrow with some great ways to play outdoors (and in!) with Incredible Edible Herbs..

Until then...

Happy Playing!

Alphabetzel Pretzels & More (Pre)-Writing Fun!

As a fully-recovered reluctant reader with a mother who was a reading specialist, I am ever grateful for my early (albeit sneaky) introduction to reading's brother from another mother, writing! One of the very best gifts my mother ever gave me was a blank journal. Back in the 1980s, before blogs and social networking, this was the quickest way to become a permanently published author. Now, I just blog like it's still cool! But back then, I grew from the doodle stage to the dictate and draw stage into the "how do you spell it?" stage (with some creative responses from my older, wiser sister--think correct spelling plus a few dozen extra letters at the end, probably just to encourage practice, no?)...and eventually into the independently writing stage. All the while, unbeknownst to me--a little girl who did not like to read--reading was indeed happening on and in between the lines.
Now that I teach an early literacy preschool enrichment class of my own, I have a strong passion for observing the beautiful metamorphosis of scribblers into wribblers into writers! There's a whole process that for each individual child happens in its own time in which "stories" go from being something they hear and see in a picture book being read aloud to the awareness that those stories are coming from somewhere. Bit by bit, piece by piece, letters go from symbols to components of words to being able to build words, spell words, create sentences and, eventually, authoring stories of their own!
I am confronted by preschoolers each year who claim they do not yet know how to read or write. I love to prove them wrong! Even at a very young age, we are already readers and writers in many ways. Whether it's reading a picture in a book or a letter on a page, recognizing your own name or the word "stop" on a sign--whether you know one letter or 26 letters, you're reading! And that incredible transition when scribbles on a page begin to take shape (and lines), when a slightly crooked circle now represents an object or a person, that's writing! When it comes to introducing young children to their own inherent skills and building upon them, I like to meet them where they are at. I am not a fan of pushing and I strongly believe that these early years are best spent learning through hands on experience and play. In my classrooms and in my own home, I sneak it in by following their lead!
There are a few things I always do in my home/parenting life:

• Read! Read aloud, read alone, read together. Studies show incredible results when it comes to the reading and writing performance of school aged children who had early access to books in the home. On the other end of that spectrum, children in lower income communities who lacked access to books in the home and in classrooms were at a significant disadvantage. More and more, book banks in cities and communities are aiming to fill this gap and are a great resource for gently loved books from your own collection if/when it's time to downsize. When parents ask kindergarten teachers what is the most important thing they must do to prepare their preschool aged children for kindergarten, the answer is almost unequivocally unanimous: read. When it comes to deciding what to read, I take a few things into account. Follow your children's interest levels--if they have a favorite book, it's OK to read it again and again (and again). It's also great to expand on that. Kids who love Pete the Cat might love some great youth non-fiction books about real cats. If you've got a little rhymer on your hands, grab some Shel Silverstein or E.E. Cummings and read poems together. Listening comprehension in the early years is usually one to two grade levels above a child's age--if you've got an avid listener, go for a chapter book to read aloud. And if you're looking for some great suggestions on what to read aloud, I highly recommend The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease as a resource.
• Make books and materials accessible to little people with little hands. As young children become more independent, we parents get schooled in the popular verse "I want to do it by myself." We grow to love and loathe the phrase and yet, it is essentially our jobs to help our children do it by themselves! It's one reason I am a bit Montessori-inspired in my home and it is an investment of time that pays off more quickly and exponentially than one would think. I have posted specifically on how I set up my home through this lens to encourage pre-writing and writing. The main idea that I like to adhere to is making writing materials and utensils available and accessible at child level. Books are also available and accessible. I do not keep all of our writing materials and books available and accessible at the same time. I do try to keep something reading/writing related available and accessible in each room of the house (even the bathroom!).
• Don't leave home without it! Reading and writing need not be stationary activities. You can take it with you wherever you go and you don't necessarily even need to pack anything extra. Sure, it's great to have some audio books in the car or a notepad and pen in your purse. It's also awesome to play some rhyming games on a long drive or talk about construction trucks in depth as you pass a construction site. One of our current favorite games to play while we're waiting on line or for an appointment to begin is to find S's "special letters" (the letters that spell his name) in signs. (Yup, that's my pre-reader finding the letter S in the National Enquirer while waiting on the express lane at Walmart; don't judge me!) 
• Go to the library! It's free. It's fun. It's got something for everyone in the family. Need I say more?

We read and write in every room--even the bathroom. Whether it's a strategically placed basket of books for a kid who is potty training or a fun bathtub game of alphabet soup, the days of sneaking away to The Throne with a newspaper in tow begin early in life. I have a set of bathtub letters I found for a few bucks at Walmart that tossed in with some dollar store bowls and a ladle make for loads of tub time fun. You don't need to invest in bathtub letters specifically. I've seen foam alphabet puzzles at our Dollar Tree consistently and those letters will work just fine in the tub! (Plus they come in lowercase as well! We often introduce young children only to uppercase letters when the majority of printed text is lowercase!)

S is now in preschool for half a day. He is exposed to plenty of early reading and pre-writing activities there. Some kids come home and want to do more of what they did in school. I lovingly recall a student whose mother thanked me for sending her daughter home with "homework" each day. I scratched my head in confusion until I realized that every day her little girl sneakily placed a few coloring sheets or alphabet activities into her school folder to take home for homework! Then I jumped on board and intentionally sent her home with activities she could enjoy! My own son does not come home necessarily itching to draw or write. He does love to be read to in the afternoons and evenings and he loves to play. He also loves some "less obvious" writing materials in our home.

Working with the letters he is being introduced to in school and letter stamps (which he loves), S can stamp away in the appropriate section for each letter. As a more introductory level activity, you might just provide a single letter at a time (perhaps a large block letter and corresponding stamp). You can also substitute in stickers, or pictures with the beginning sound to this sorting activity. More advanced writers may be ready to trace the letter or to write their own!

Tactile manipulation of letters is a big part of learning how to write them. I dream of owning a set of those pricey Montessori sand letters. I currently own this more budget friendly DIY version in which I placed a large felt sticker on a piece of cardstock. Little fingers can touch and trace and that leads to those same little fingers being able to trace in a sand tray or shaving cream or finger paint or on your back...and eventually writing!

S loves our felt wall with its basket stocked with things he is also learning in school. I've caught him over there a few times pretending about Calendar Time in his classroom! Felt boards are a great vertical surface and this is living proof that you don't need to invest in fancy materials. It's literally just a swatch of secondhand felt tacked to a small chunk of wall and some printed and laminated letters,and pictures affixed with a dot of Velcro.

Although S is not yet writing letters, he has entered the phase of knowing that they are needed to spell words and names and he is ever curious about that. He wants me to write his family's names and his teachers names and his favorite words to dictate his illustrated stories. I love introducing him to a print rich environment so he can appreciate words all around him until the day he is ready to write them independently. When he enters the "how do you spell it?" phase, we will be ready! And rather than having to run over and help with writing and spelling each time he needs access to a word, collecting important vocabulary and site words of interest in a notebook or on sentence strips or on index cards is a great way to make them easily accessible for your writer at any time.

And one thing we always love doing here is working in the kitchen together. Cooking and baking are great ways to bring together family and developmental skills in one fell swoop. Science and math and reading and social skills converge over a recipe followed, prepared and shared at the table. S loves soft pretzels. My mommy confession of the day is that his favorite breakfast food lately is a soft pretzel (those frozen store-bought ones) with melted cheese. It's practically a bagel, no? C'mon, don't judge me here! I'd heard they are super easy to make from scratch and decided we'd try our hands at it yesterday and make our own Alphabetzel Pretzels!

I prepared a visual recipe chart with pictures and text so readers
and pre-readers could unite in the kitchen to "read" the
recipe together. Using magnetic clips, I was able to affix it to the side
of our refrigerator while we worked at the kitchen counter beside
it and then transfer it to the front of our deep freezer that is next
to our little work table where we later shaped the dough.

You can find and choose your favorite soft pretzel recipe. I can't eat regular wheat flour but can eat spelt, so I (selfishly) chose this spelt recipe. It was so easy and so much fun! And all three pretzel eaters in my house enjoyed the results. Y enjoyed some mashed banana...

S helped check that our egg was kosher and
beat the egg with a fork. We set that aside for
later...

He also prepared some cinnamon sugar and another dish with kosher salt for sprinkling and set those aside for later.

First we sprinkled the yeast over warm water and mixed it until it was soft...

We added and mixed our dry ingredients....

...until it was time to mix and knead with our hands! That was a fun way to mix it! And guess what? All that muscle power it takes to knead dough is going a long way toward helping those same muscles grasp and use a pencil later on...

Shaping the dough was fun! I did some "special letter" shapes with the first letter of each family member's name. S practiced rolling the dough into a long "worm" shape (the first stage in making pretzel or letter shapes) and then made his own shapes from there. He loved sprinkling salt or cinnamon sugar on top of the egg wash coated pretzels as we got ready to pop them in the oven together! He also may or may not have consumed an undisclosed amount of cinnamon sugar...

Into the oven they go!

And just about 20 minutes later, we were enjoying the fruits of our labor!

And Y was enjoying actual fruits. Yummy banana!

Think Outside the Box Thursday: Sneaking Reading & Writing into Your Summer

If your children are of school age, you're likely entering the beginning of summer vacation. Perhaps the sweet taste of pride in your children's amazing academic accomplishments is still fresh on the tip of your tongue or perhaps you've moved into the zone of wondering how you will all survive the next two months. My husband and I often talk about the challenges that a 9 month school year presents. For one thing, working parents do not necessarily follow this particular schedule and the show goes on even while the kids are off from school. This leaves families to scramble to fill those days with camp, childcare, entertainment and other means of keeping the kids out of trouble while they're out of school. For many families, this is a significant financial burden as well. For children who spend all school year practicing skills related to literacy and writing (among many other subjects), the summer is a time they may become rusty and fall out of the routine of reading every day. Certainly there is benefit to slowing down and smelling the freshly bloomed roses. Many of my friends with older children are concerned, however, that the skills their sons and daughters worked so hard to develop during the school year will be neglected and diminish over the summer. Should we give our children "homework" over the summer and ensure that they continue to work on reading and writing? My answer is always in the form of "Yes, if..."

• Yes, if it won't be a battle.  You really don't need this to be a battle every day. The school year battles around homework are challenging enough from what I hear! At least then you get to send them off to their teachers for a decent chunk of the day. Fighting with kids about reading every day can make two months at home feel like two centuries for all parties involved and can also paint a negative image around reading and writing in general.
• Yes, if it feels like fun for you both! Some kids do like worksheets and some do not. The good news is, there are a lot of low cost or no cost options out there for worksheets and less traditional ways of practicing reading and writing.
• Yes, if you can include the whole family and each be working on something. Nothing feels like more of a drag than doing work while everyone else is playing. If you can make working on something (whether it's reading, writing, math, a hobby or a project) something everyone does either together or at the same time, individually, more power to you!

So now comes the fun part: how to sneak reading and writing into your summer without breaking the bank or the spirit of summer fun. I will include some suggestions applicable to children of all ages, for pre-readers and pre-writers (generally preschool aged) and for early readers and writers (generally Kindergarten and up through the earlier grades).

For Children of All Ages:

• Libraries are the place to be over the summer! Many have very engaging kids' programming throughout the summer months that encourage reading, writing, even math, science, computer literacy, art, drama, music and more. Our library system has story times for younger ones in a variety of separate age groups as well as programming for older children. Many libraries also have summer reading programs with kid-friendly incentives. If "getting your children to read" feels like a battle at home, take it outside of the house and let a neutral party (like your local librarian) take over!
• School supplies are not just for the school year! I've said it before and I'll say it again--there's nothing more powerful than a kid with a new notebook and set of pencils, pens, markers or crayons. If worksheets are not your children's preferred method of writing or reviewing letters and site words, a blank notebook can become their (and your) best friend. Let it be their journal and whether you choose to organize prompts or activities or just let them use it independently for drawing, doodling, writing and recording, they will be working on the skills they have developed whether they realize it or not. Many children enjoy using a journal in nature or to record memories from camp and vacations. Older children might like to keep a journal with a group of friends and pass it back and forth. Many families even keep a journal between older children and a parent/parents as a means to communicate more privately. School supplies are generally discounted at the end of the school year, so now is a great time to buy!

I introduced a journal well before my little guy was into holding pens and pencils...

He grows more and more independent with it as he gets older. It will surely make a great keepsake down the line!

• Take it outside! The weather is great and you all want to be out there anyway. Set up some lawn chairs and bring your books and journals along, set up a letter or word scavenger hunt, draw/write with chalk. Make a family scrapbook of your outdoor adventures or play some great gross motor games using letters or site words as appropriate for your children's age and reading level.

For Early Readers & Writers: 

• Maximize your screen time: If screen time is a part of your routine, there are amazing apps, videos and games that can encourage reading and writing skills. Many are available on library computers for use by patrons. 
• Coloring/Activity Books are great for children (and grown ups!) of all ages who might not love "traditional" writing and reading exercises but do love to color. Nowadays you can even find great ones on sale in the Dollar Tree. Coloring in a coloring book does promote the fine motor skills and strokes/lines associated with writing letters and penmanship. Additionally, directions in activity books and the activities themselves will surely get your children reading! Coloring books are also a great activity for quiet times of the day.
• Use rewards, incentives, or friendly competitions wisely: if it works for your reader/writer, use a reward/incentive system to trade in books read or activities completed for a prize experience, book or toy. If friendly competition inspires your kids, make it a family affair and chart minutes spent reading or (for kids who read at the same level) number of books read. Again, the library is a great resource for this type of programming and they often have summer reading contests during the summer for school aged children. 
• Speaking of the library...a child who is reluctant to read may be quite passionate about something else. Whether it's a particular animal, character, sport or activity, use it to your (and their) advantage. Give your little learner an opportunity to test out the search mode of your library's computer system (or enlist the help of a librarian) and find a collection of summer reading based on your child's interests.
• Think outside of the box: Does your child like cooking? Get to the kitchen and practice reading and recipe, measuring, pouring, mixing and more whipping up some favorite recipes. Got a little scientist? There is plenty of reading and writing involved when you run some simple experiments at home. Check out some of the science posts here for ideas. Got a little engineer? Building involves a great deal of fine motor work (related to writing) and following instruction booklets to put together a particular toy or building set is a great reading activity. A child who does not love books might love magazines. A child who does not love to write might like to type and record stories, poems or even a blog. If your child has a particular passion or interest, it is likely that reading and writing skills can be connected to it and are already inherently a part of it.
• Write it in the sand. Literally. Or shaving cream. Or salt or sugar or with clay/playdough. Or on the sidewalk with sidewalk chalk. Or in the mud with a stick. It doesn't always have to be with pen and paper--writing can happen in a lot of places with a lot of things.

For Pre-readers and Pre-Writers:

• Follow along our Story Stretcher series and find some great ways to go beyond the book through meaningful play activities. You can use ideas you find here, your own ideas, your child's ideas or find other great ones on Pinterest by searching your favorite book titles, authors or themes.
• Pre-writing doesn't always involve pencils. Building fine motor skills associated with proper use of a writing utensil sometimes involves practicing with pencils, markers, crayons, pens and such and other times includes cutting with scissors, working with playdough or clay, stringing beads, working on puzzles and building with small manipulatives. One of our favorite out of the box fine motor activities right now is cutting the grass with safety scissors. It might just take all summer to get our lawn mowed, but that's OK! Sidewalk chalk is another great medium for practicing letters and writing/drawing skills. Gross motor skills and larger muscle movement are also imperative to early writing. Including activities like tracing a large drawn or masking tape letter with a toy truck or car or on tip toe or by jumping/hopping/tight-rope walking are all great ways to get the whole body involved and active!

• Learning letters and pre-reading doesn't always involve books and flash cards! Playing with letter manipulatives like puzzles, magnets, foam/felt letters, blocks, stamps, cookies cutters, stickers and more are all great ways to encourage exposure to letters in uppercase and lowercase form. If your little one is into arts and crafts, you can put together your own alphabet book of letter themed crafts and pictures. You can print off coloring sheets, make collages, cut pictures and letters from magazines/junk mail, use stickers and stamps--the options are limitless! Go on a letter sound scavenger hunt in your house. Give your kids a basket and a letter and you'll all be amazed at what they come back with. (This can be a creative way to clean up as well.) Take foam letters, a ladle and some plastic bowls to the pool or sprinkler pad for some alphabet soup. 

• Talk and PLAY! Daily conversations and natural play build vocabulary, reading and writing skills without even trying. Don't be afraid to teach big words to your little kids! Reading together is great and so is playing together. Repeat after me: play is enough, it is enough, it is enough...

And for the grown-ups:

Don't stress! Play at all ages is how children (and many adults) learn. My mantra above really applies to any age in my opinion. If you can and want to do more, great! If you cannot or your kids aren't into it, don't stress over it. Find a balance and routine that works for you and Happy Playing!

Here are a few links that might be helpful:

• Here are some great free printable alphabet coloring pages
• One of my favorite blogs, "No Time For Flash Cards" has a post with a great collection of active literacy games to get you moving this summer
• There are some great free writing prompts and activities for early writers at Teachnology
• There are some great free printable sight word and phonics booklets as well as other literacy materials available for home use at Hubbard's Cupboard. Some of the materials on this site are religious in nature, however many are secular and great for use with readers and writers of all ages and stages.

Sneaky Reader Post: Letter "M" Activities & Name Games

Welcome to the very first in a series I call "Sneaky Reader Posts!"
I've recently begun teaching (very part time) a reading/early literacy program to a local preschool class. The program I am teaching through was developed by a former teacher turned reading specialist who now teaches other teachers how to teach reading! It uses a variety of fun and evidence based methods to develop early literacy skills in pre-kindergarten aged students. Among these early reading objectives are:

• recognizing first names in print
• recognizing that letters make sounds
• identifying rhyming words
• identifying parts of a book (front cover, title page, end pages, back cover, title, author's name, illustrator's name)
• identifying action words (verbs)
• identifying descriptive words (adjectives)
• hearing and recognizing the number of beats (syllables) in words
• developing an understanding of words and word meanings--teaching little kids BIG words, as I often say
• increasing opportunities to listen to spoken language, conversations and stories read aloud
• practicing where reading begins on a page and moving from left to right
• illustrating and dictating sentences and on a particular topic through the use of journals

The goal of programs like this one or many of the amazing programs offered at local libraries for children under the age of 5 is not to create fluent readers by kindergarten. Educators recognize that children learn to read and write at different ages and stages. The most important part of developing competence in this area is by and large developing confidence in this area! Surely through exposure, opportunity and encouragement, the rest falls into place all in due time. In the mean time, children who are positively and playfully exposed to literacy at a young age develop a lifelong love of reading that will carry them as learners throughout the years to come.

My mother also taught preschool and when I was in grade school, returned to college and completed a degree in childhood literacy. For many years she tutored children who struggled with a variety of reading difficulties and trained early childhood teachers in the area of early literacy. I have only one sibling, an older sister (also an early childhood educator!) who was an avid reader growing up. She loved to read and reading came easily to her. I, on the other hand, was a reluctant reader until I was in high school. While I enjoyed creative writing, composing songs, and had a love and fascination with language, I was not the type to take to her room and snuggle up with a good book by choice. Lucky for me, I lived in a house where fostering a love for and competency in reading was nurtured but never forced. I had plenty of opportunities to develop the important skills associated with competency in reading and writing, plenty of great teachers along the way, and eventually I learned that a great book can be a great adventure, a great escape, and a great companion. 

Schedules can be busy and family time limited when it comes to extracurricular activities, appointments, homework and more. Some children love to read; some are hesitant. For a variety of reasons, we must get sneaky with our little readers--and the time to begin this is in early childhood! Any kindergarten teacher, preschool teacher, librarian or educator will tell you that the most important thing you can do to support children in early childhood is to read to them. Read, read, read and read some more! Even when you've read this book for the 857th time, feel free to read it again (or temporarily hide it and selectively introduce a new favorite). Recognize the value in your children seeing YOU read for pleasure as well. Never feel guilty for taking some time in the morning with coffee and the newspaper or spending a quiet evening together reading books on the couch. And in between that, enjoy some tips of sneaking early literacy activities into your daily routine. You can find many ideas on Pinterest, in other blogs, via your local librarian or your children's teachers. You can also find some here in my Sneaky Reader Posts. Here are some marvelous ones related to the letter "Mm" to get you started:

Mr. Munch/Munch Monster

Mr. Munch is a Munch Monster who has a hardy appetite but a sensitive palate. You can make your own Munch Monster using a recycled baby wipes container (pictured at the top of this post) and gluing on some eyes and accessories. This makes a fabulous tool for fine motor development as children learn to recognize letter beginning sounds. You can designate your Munch Monster a lover of only one letter (like the letter "Mm" as shown here) or use him for different letters on different occasions. I used letter shaped sticky notes so I can remove the letter "M" and replace it with a different soup du jour when the fancy strikes. Younger toddlers (like my son) might use letter magnets to feed Mr. Munch his favorite letter. When we play together, he "feeds" Mr. Munch his favorite letter, "Mm" and we say a hardy "mmmmmmm" together so he can begin to recognize that letter sound. If you wanted to play with the letter "Tt," you might say "tasty!" or "terrific!" As a child advances, you might mix in some other letter magnets that are not "Mm" (or your designated letter) to challenge your child to feed Mr. Munch ONLY his letter of choice. 

Alternatively, you can use pictures on flash cards or laminate your own of things that begin with the letter "Mm." Mr. Munch likes monkeys and mops, moons and money...mmmmm! Mix it up a bit with some pictures that do not begin with the letter "Mm." Zebras? Yuck! Violins? None for me!

 You can also make a Munch Monster using a paper plate folded in half. Children can draw on a mouth, a nose, and eyes and/or use stickers. They can make their monster look scary or silly, but he'd better be hungry! Inside his "mouth" should be an uppercase and lowercase letter (Mm in this scenario). Older children can trace or write their own. Using sticky notes, have your child(ren) dictate, draw or write words beginning with Mr. Munch's favorite letter to feed him.

Name Games:

What's a word that begins with Mm that we can all relate to? ME, of course! Children love opportunities to be the star of the show when it comes to learning and playing together. One of the very first words they come to recognize, read and write is their own name. Here are some clever and sneaky ways to develop important early literacy skills using your child's name.

• First letter recognition: have child(ren)'s name(s) written on a sentence strip or piece of paper. You may also wish to have an ABC chart on hand to show all of the letters. Hold up one name for the child to recognize and sing this song to the tune of "Have You Ever Seen a Lassie?":

Have you ever seen a ___________[insert child's name] , a _________, a ___________

Have you ever seen a _____________, it starts with a _____ [insert first letter of name].

• Rhyme Time: help your child to recognize rhyming sounds by rhyming their name! Some results will be quite silly and giggles are OK! You can even sing the popular name jingle below, inserting your child's name, other family members' names or friends' names:

Jane, Jane, bo-Bane, Banana-fana-fo-Fane, Fee-fi-mo-Mane, Jane!

• Recognizing Syllables: words are comprised of a beats, or syllables and different words have different numbers of beats. Using your child's name is a great way to encourage recognition of syllables in words. Try saying your child(ren)'s name(s) and clapping the number of syllables in each. Make a chart together recording the number of syllables in each child's name or the names of everyone in your family. You can also make or use a drum or tambourine to sing this song together, tapping out the number of syllables in each name:

Rum, pum, pum! This is my drum! [tap out rhythm, children can tap their knees or clap the beat]

My name is __________, what's your name?

[First model your name, then insert child's name. Each child will get to tap the syllables of his/her name on the drum before passing it to the next participant! "Bob" would get one tap, "Mary," would get two, "Olivia" would get four, and so on...]

• Words are like a puzzle made up of individual letters. In advance, prepare two sentence strips with each child's name. Hold up a child's name to show a whole word. Cut (or have older children cut) between each letter of their names. Can they put together the puzzle of their name by placing the letters in the correct order. They may use the uncut name strip for reference. 

• Tactile Awareness of Letter Formations is vital to development of writing skills. Many early readers may be reluctant writers. Drawing, tracing and writing are not skills that come easily to all children for a variety of reasons. Sometimes there can be a contributing factor like hand weakness or upper-body weakness that make using writing utensils difficult. Sometimes visual processing difficulties can make aspects of reading and writing more challenging. In some cases, additional support may be needed, but in many cases, the developmental skills required for writing will fall into place in due time. Some reluctant writers may need alternative methods for developing tactile awareness of letters (their shape, how they are formed and eventually how they are written). In previous posts, I've touched upon the use of a variety of manipulatives and materials to introduce letters including magnets, foam letters, puzzles, stamps, stickers, cookie cutters, blocks, sand letters, stencils and more. Sensory play can be another great method to introduce pre-writing skills and tactile awareness of letters and playdough is a perfect medium for this! Using store-bought playdough or even your favorite homemade recipe, have your child(ren) form the first letter of their first name. Can they form all of the letters in their name? You can also use letter cookie cutters to cut out their special letters or rubber stamps to imprint their name in playdough. Playdough is one of my go-to mediums for letter and word practice. It can really introduce children to the shape and feeling of each letter and as an added bonus, working with playdough helps develop the small muscles in the hands and larger muscles in the upper body necessary for successful writing!