Looking for ways to help your young child excel in spelling, reading and writing skills? Look no further than the Lego you already have!
Lego is not just great for creativity and fine motor skill development, but can be used to enhance reading, writing and spelling skills. Placement of letters on the line can be a tricky concept for young kids and it requires quite a bit of practice until this skill is mastered. Here are two simple strategies to help children understand this concept and make it fun:
1. Use simple language with visual imagery to help children understand the concept
Sky letters– letters that bump the top line, or body and head (if using the cat analogy)
Ground letters– letters that sit on the bottom line and only touch the dashed or middle line. AKA body letters again for the cat analogy.
Dirt letters or tail letters– letters that have a body and also go “underground” or “have a tail”
Having a cue card or laminated cheat sheet of the lower case letters can help when initially learning letter placement on the line. You can also make your own letter mats with words or find some pintables online. One that I use is from www.thisreadingmama.com (seen below).
2.Use Lego to help practice this skill! Start by taking a permanent marker and writing all the letters of the alphabet on the side of the various blocks as shown below. You will need square blocks (4 dots) for the ground or body letters- ‘a,c,e,I,m,n,o,r,s,u,v,w,x,y,z’. You will need rectangular pieces for all the other letters (sky/head and dirt/tail letters). I color coded my vowels all red to separate them (for other learning goals) – “vowels are the glue that sticks the letters together to form a word”.
3. Depending on your child’s fine motor skills- you could start with large blocks and then proceed to Duplo size blocks and progress to smaller Lego pieces. Grading the activity in this way helps to build in success and minimize frustration. My personal favorite is to use Duplo blocks because they come apart easier than Lego.
4. Using lined paper that reinforces letter placement on the line such as “the Clever Cat” from https://stayclassyclassrooms.com/ is a great way to help reinforce and build success!
