Our six-year-old son is doing a great job learning to read. His writing, though, well ... that's another story. He frequently writes letters backwards, which his teacher assures me is pretty common at his age. To give him lots of practice writing letters the RIGHT way, I wanted a game that was vastly more fun than handwriting worksheets.
Alphabet Trace Race was born.
The game is simple. To make it, simply download my free PDF from Google Drive here.
Print all the pages on heavyweight cardstock. You'll need to print multiple copies of the Alphabet Trace Race game card, one for each player. We printed two sets of the letter cards as well.
To reuse the game again and again, either laminate the game cards or slip them into a plastic sheet protector. Dry-erase markers work wonderfully with either of these options.
Once the cards are cut and shuffled well, place them face down between players. Each player takes turns drawing a card.
They then say the letter on the card and trace it on their game card. The opponent(s) does the same. Because some letters have more cards, it's a race to see which player will complete the race by tracing EVERY letter on their card first.
If a player draws a card with a letter already traced, their turn is over.
You may need to reshuffle the game cards throughout play. Print more than one set to reduce the number of times you will shuffle.
There are lots of things your son can do to assist with writing letters and numbers correctly. Using the fingers while concentrating on something else creates a strong physical memory. Does he play a musical instrument? Keyboard? This really helps. Does he set the table? Washing and drying small things like cutlery helps more than you expect. Is he using a manual toothbrush or an electric one? With a manual toothbrush he has to think hard as his hand moves. (Be sensible though.) Does he play marbles? Flip coins? Colour in? Trace photos? Make clay figures? Stitch? Use lego or mechano? Does he swim? Swimming is really good for young children because the movements alternate from side to side and from hand to foot.
ReplyDeleteYour games and activities are really good. But sometimes I think about who is doing the most work, you or your child. To balance the effort and result you might consider publishing a book, an ebook, or marketing some of your games. It would be a great resource for nannies and private tutors.