At Occupational Therapy, Bubs has “Water Week” where all therapy is done outside. They use a little pool, water slides, and other outside toys. Even a Memory Obstacle Course is set up outside. One of the activities that they do outside is to write with sidewalk chalk.
Once the child has mastered the uppercase letters, then they begin writing words using the uppercase letters. In the picture below, you can see the word “CAT” that I wrote, and then “CAT” with a box around it that Bubs wrote.
The next step is taking away the box. In this picture, Bubs wrote pig, cap, and net.
At home we added sounding out each letter and then putting the sounds together to form a word. He was so proud of himself when I let him know that he was reading!
Bubs really enjoys this activity. As a plus, learning is wrapped around the whole activity.
On a side note – the therapists start with the uppercase letters because they are easier to write. There are fewer “bubble” letters and more straight lines.
