Preparing for school – letters in the air
We’re talking about literacy this week as part of getting ready for K through play series to help with preparing for school – whether this is the ABC’s, Phonics, Books or reading. In the UK there is no requirement that children will know their ABC’s before they enter school and much of the first year will be spent reviewing the basic phonemes and introducing blended sounds as well as teaching children to read through this knowledge.
However a knowledge of letters is always good and teaching them how they look and are formed is part of that, getting moving and making the letters will help those learners that work best by doing things and this is a very simple activity to do with children to review their letter knowledge and can be easily adapted as we did for my older one for words and for a younger friend for shapes (I know not technically literacy but the shapes will form part of the letters that he learns later).
Check out these other fun ways to learn the alphabet with our Fun and Simple Alphabet Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers.
What you need for letters in the air
A set of letters (either cards or even magnetic letters)
2 or more people
Making letters in the air
With 2 people 1 lays down on the floor with their legs in the air this is the letter maker, the other person stands at their head end so that they can see the letters that they make the right way round.
The laying down person picks a letter (J was able to randomly chose a letter whereas T needed the letters to help jog her memory of the ABC’s) and then with their feet they write the letter in the air.
The person standing has to then work out what letter they are writing in the air. Then they swap positions.
Getting ready for K through play
This summer we’re joining together with some amazing bloggers to help you with preparing for school in a few weeks with playful and fun ideas as part of the Getting ready for K through play series. So far we have used visual timetables to help you prepare your child emotional for school and the schedules and routines that they will meet there, played the inside out, back to front, wrong foot game to help children get dressed independently and did a number run to review number knowledge.
This weeks focus is literacy so pop over and see what other literacy ideas the bloggers in the series are introducing this week.
What do Phonics, Phoneme Awareness and Decoding Mean? – Coffee Cups and Crayons
– Mom to 2 posh lil Divas
Books your Kindergarten will love – Mama Smiles
Sight Word Hunt – Mess for less
– The Pleasantest Thing
What a fun gross motor learning game!
What a fun game! My kids are older and I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately about secondary education, so it’s interesting to hear about the curriculum in other countries at all levels. When my kids entered school, I was surprised that they learn so much more reading that I did at the same age. It sounds like Britain is on a similar schedule.