Teach Me Tuesday: Playdoh Letters

The few learning activities that I've shared have been so well received that I decided to make sharing them a regular feature. I'll try my best to stick to this schedule: Tuesdays will be for literacy activities and Thursday will be for math skills.

I know all of you are doing activities at home with your children too and I would love for this to become an opportunity for us all to share learning experiences, regardless of the age of the child. Starting next week I'm going to put up Mr. Linky so we can all share. I thought if I let you know today then maybe by next week some of you will be ready to go☺

I think this will be a lot of fun, I hope to learn some new tricks and tips, and I'd love for you to all participate! My friend Katie over at A Listmaker's Life is also posting and is even helping me out with a cool graphic, isn't she the nicest! She's got an a letter activity posted today too, so visit her for another great learning idea.

Prewriting Practice: Playdoh Letters

Learning Objective: Child will form letters out of playdoh, engaging fine motor skills, practice beginning letter printing, and early letter awareness.

Materials: Playdoh, cardstock with large letters printed on them (laminate for durability)

Procedure:

Sing the alphabet with child, holding up the corresponding letter card as each letter is being sung or read an alphabet book to get the child engaged in the concept of the alphabet.

Explain that you are going to be working on building letters together.

Show child how to make ropes out of playdoh, I still have to assist my daughter with this step.

Build each letter out of play doh ropes, saying each letter and words that begin with that letter as you work. Assist or discuss with your child as needed.

Child can complete as many letter cards as their age and attention span allows for. In kindergarten students could easily do all the letters, in toddler land maybe three or four get done at a time. As you can see from the picture, she's also into smushing the play doh lines down.

Extension Activities: Try to vary the ways in which your child practices learning letters.

For writing practice have your child: write them with their finger in a salt tray, use a dry erase board, small chalkboard, magna doodle, or lite bright. Alternate making the letters out of play doh with making them with bingo daubers. To use daubers, write the letter on a sheet of paper and have your child use the daubers to make circles along the lines. You could also form the letters out of dough, bake, and then literally eat the alphabet. These variations will make the activity fresh and new and help keep their interest in practicing a skill that can be quite challenging.