On a whim yesterday, I came up with this great idea that not only occupied both Dews for a good 10 minutes solid (!) but was such a good mix of things: sensory input, OT involving big muscles and work, alphabet identification, OT work using the magnet board standing up, and team work. You can bet we'll be doing this again.
Materials:
1. Alphabet Letters - from the Dollar Spot at Target, currently one of our Activity Packs.
2. The Sensory Table - currently filled with Rice. From Lakeshore Learning.
3. The Magnet Board - a DIY from a blog suggestion. I can't find the link now, but will post it as soon as I do.
4. The Alphabet Strip - I made it from a word document - it matched a foam magnetic letter set that a friend passed down to us, and Dew1 loves to match the letters. I should say Loved because many of them have, sadly, been chewed to a lettery death.
The Game:
1. Hide the letters in the Rice table.
2. Encourage the Dews to dig and hunt for the letters.
3. When they find one, they have to say which letter it is, and then run it across the room to the Magnet Board and match it on the Alphabet Strip.
At this point, I asked Dew1 what sound the letter makes, because he knows them. Dew2 doesn't know the name of his letters yet, so I told him which letter he had found, but he's getting really good at matching them so we cheered him on big time for that.
4. Continue until all letters have been found.
This activity is excellent as an OT Sensory activity because they really have to dig for them, and then run across the room. Then add the letter recognition, and letter sounds!
Next time, maybe I'll make them drag themselves on the scooter board! I also intent to share this with Dew1's OT because he really liked it and it might be a good one for them to do together. He enjoys his letters and he needs to do some good OT activities at the beginning of his session to chill him out.
What a great activity. My son is just starting to learn his letters. I will be using this idea. Thank you.
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