When kids are moving its a great opportunity for them to learn. A lot of times we do it naturally by having them count as they jump, or ask them to jump or stand on a colored circle so they are having to process cognitive information while moving. Another thing we’ve been doing recently is using letter, number and shape outlines made of tape on the floor and having kids move through them. For instance, we have a kiddo who we are trying to get to visually attend while walking and we decided to work on letters at the same time. Since his name starts with an N we made a big tape N on the floor and had him walk it as if he was writing the letter. You could expand on this depending on their gross motor level by having them hop or skip or do forward rolls along the tape. Its a great activity for practicing how to form letters/numbers/shapes as well as incorporating a gross motor skill that you are working on. Also depending on the level of the kiddo you can have different objects that begin with the letter or pictures that you have placed along the lines and they have to name them. Or they can come up with words that begin with the number. The possibilities are endless! We’ve been having fun experimenting with it. Best of all the kids find it fun because the activities and tasks can change depending on the letter or number or shape you are using. This is just a larger scale version of all the tactile ways to work on writing (i.e. shaving cream, sand paper, etc).
What have you done that is fun with this kind of idea?
