Rainbow “S”

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Rainbow “S” is another one of my favorite games. It helps develop Grasp and Letter Recognition. 

Large paper
Any large, wall surface like an ease or wall chalkboard.

Make a large “S” on the paper.  The “S” should start above the head over the right shoulder.  It should end right under their breast bone.
The child takes a marker, removes the lid, and traces over your “S”
The child then replaces the marker cap, gets a different marker and
Repeat step 2..

Tip-The tugging off the marker cap is a great resistive activity.  Hand grasp develops as a child gets stronger. A good marker grasp is dependent on the thumb side of the hand developing strength.  Thumb strength develops during tugging and pulling.  Most kids can remove the lid of a marker somewhere between three and four.

Tip-Three and your year olds need to be making large letters.  They should be tracing over, having fun, exploring the feel of a letter shape.  Three and four year olds do not need to be making letters on paper i.e. practicing writing.

Tip-Stay away from any diagonal letter.  Their eyes and hands are just not ready for diagonal letter like X,K,V,Y,W,M.

Tip-Start with straight line letters like T, L, H, and I.  These letters are easier to make. These letters require positional knowledge like – Top (Short stick on top) and Bottom (short stick on bottom).  Practicing T before a child understands top vs bottom is like ‘putting a horse before the cart’


One thought on “Rainbow “S”

  1. Great idea! And when you want to start focusing on crossing the midline you can turn it into a game of drawing rainbows 🙂

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