I know that many families are at home with young ones during this time of quarantine and are looking for activities to keep their kids entertained.
I’m a teacher and love integrating art projects into lessons where they are appropriate. When I was in a kindergarten and first grade setting, I worked with all different levels of learners. Some of the kiddos had great fine motor skills while others were still in the developmental stages of learning to hold and use pencils, crayons, and scissors correctly.
I hope that this family friendly lesson helps to add a little fun back to learning. I was inspired by a post this post at Art is Basic and she was inspired by the book “Dynamic Art Projects for Children” written by, Denise M. Logan. You can purchase a copy of the book on Amazon.
By writing the letters of the alphabet randomly across a sheet of drawing paper a child is able to practice developmental skills for letter recognition, letter naming, and letter writing, as well as functional motor skills such as holding a pencil or crayon correctly while printing and coloring.
There’s no set way to complete this activity so modify it as you see fit. Encourage your child to turn the paper as he/she writes each letter in random spots and to repeat the letter name aloud. Squeezing small letters into larger letters is fun and almost like a game of hide and seek. For those who aren’t quite ready to write independently, tracing over a letter with a pencil, after a family member has written it first with a highlighter, is also a great way to practice.
This activity could be stretched out and completed over a few days. Or modified by using only the letters of the child’s first name. Just remember to have fun with learning.
Use a marker to write the letters of the alphabet in upper case, lower case or a combination of both. Color the individual shapes made from writing the letters randomly using whichever medium you have at home. The materials used in the example are white drawing paper, markers, crayons, and colored pencils.
