My Two and Four are both learning to write the alphabet. We love to find new and interesting ways to make letters — and we always throw in some old favorites. Here are eleven ways to make the letter L!
We made an L with legos.
We put letter stickers on a giant L.
We used letter refrigerator magnets to make the shape of an L on a baking sheet.
Here’s an L made from mailing labels.
These are three-dimensional L’s made from Magna Tiles. Have you ever heard of them? I’m not one to collect expensive toys, but these are wonderful and worth it. Just don’t try to buy too close to Christmas. I put it off one year and the Amazon price nearly doubled as Christmas came closer!
I poured some colored alphabet pasta (read about our “L is for letters” sensory bin here) into a tray, and the boys wrote an “L” with their fingers.
We got out our Do-a-Dot markers and did this page from Confessions of a Homeschooler.
Then we grabbed our power magnets and did a ladybug magnet page, also from Confessions of a Homeschooler.
We got out our black office stickers and did this L is for Ladybug page. You can get a copy here.
Normally my Four completes the Letters of all Sizes handwriting sheets, but my Two asked to do it this time. As I saw him complete his first handwriting page (with no trouble), my suspicions were confirmed: it appears I have another leftie on my hands.
I had a hard time finding a basic handwriting page that my Four could do without trouble – so I made my own. You can find the printables here.
It would have been fun to make L’s a dozen ways, but I was bummed to realize we were out of lasagna noodles.
Alphabet Curriculum for Preschool
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Our curriculum includes lessons for teaching both upper and lowercase letter names and sounds. You’ll get three lessons per letter, built-in review, simple handwriting practice, rhyming, syllable counting, phonemic awareness, and a whole lot more!
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Megawatts
I had a quick question. My daughter is 4 almost 5 and we are teaching her to write this year. As we have done through several letters (not all letters) I have noticed that even with her right hand she goes down to up and when she does her circles clockwise. My mom told me this is also how my sister writes and she struggled in school going the “correct” way. What should I do? When she does it her way its clear in the lines and readable. When she does it that correct way she struggles gets frustrated, wants to give up, etc.
Anna Geiger
Hello! First of all, big apologies. I was sure I’d written back to you, but there is no reply comment here. If I DID reply to you in some other way, just disregard this one. 🙂
I asked around in my blogger network, and here are some of the comments from other bloggers and former teachers:
1. My son has/had similar issues. We started using Handwriting without Tears. It’s really big on developing good habits first. I’m already seeing a huge improvement!
2. I teach letter formation with sandpaper letters or tactile letters because it triggers the neural firings that help the child remember how to form the letter. Easy peasy, win-win for all.
3. I think it is important to gently correct it now as otherwise it will make handwriting (whether cursive/ joined up or just a bit more free-flowing) really hard later on. I think it should always be done in a really multi-sensory way at this age, with big movements first e.g. in the air, on someone else’s back, the floor etc. Then onto sensory writing trays, write in gloop/ sand/ rice etc and make it as fun and playful as possible.
4. All 3 of my big kids struggled with this – for my twins it was a sign of coordination issues and I wish we’d put in more effort on correct letter formation much earlier than we did! For my boy I was wiser and gently encouraged correct formation with lots of sensory play activities and while he doesn’t have the coordination issues it helped him go from super frustrated and hating writing to being much more confident during his first year at school.
I hope this helps!
HowtoRunaHomeDaycare
Great ideas, I pinned this post!
annageig
Thanks so much for visiting! I visited your site too – phenomenal! My sister doesn’t run a home daycare, but she loves your ideas. Her little guy loved the banana snack trick 🙂