Huge Letter Write

The set up: I grabbed the giant roll of paper and some paint and quickly painted large letters.              Activity: Once the letters have dried – I waited until the next day – tape or blu tac the paper to the wall. It is really important to do this as the benefits of working vertically are vast. Provide crayons for the child and get them to draw the letter, in crayon, on top of the large painted letters. It is beneficial to stay with your child for this activity to ensure that they are starting in the correct Place and forming the large letters correctly. Once they have done the letters in one colour repeat with another colour of crayon. I painted the letters on the paper in letter groups so that all the curly letters like c, o, a, g, d were together and the long tall letters like I, t, j, u, y were together because they are formed in a similar way so the child gets used to forming that shape.

Notes: I am not a massive fan of tracing. As well as being pretty boring I find that the children often don’t form the letters correctly (as they often do it unsupervised) however I love this giant letter write which is in many ways glorified tracing. However, how it differs is that the letters are huge, so the children develop their gross motor skills and the paper is taped to the wall to the child has to complete the activity vertically. By doing it this way the child develops their core muscles as the upright posture engages abdominal and back muscles. Writing vertically also extends the wrists which encourages proper pen grip as well as developing the shoulder and elbow strength.