Recommended Age: 4 years and onwards
Purpose: for the child to move their bodies, building gross motor coordination. Through this exercise the child furthers their ability to identify letters in their name by sound
Level of Parent Involvement: Low, the adult must give commands for the child to play this game
Prerequisites
- The child must know each of the letters in their name by their sound
Materials
- Paper plates (you will need enough plates for each of the letters in the child’s name)
- Masking tape
- Permanent marker
Preparation
- Write each letters of the child’s name on each of the paper plates
- Secure the paper plates to the floor with the masking tape (make sure you set this activity up in an area of the house where there is enough space for the child to safely jump and hop
Steps
- Invite the child letting them know that you have a game to play with them
- Take the child to the space where you have prepared the paper plates with the child’s name
- Ask the child what they notice about the plates, the child should recognise their name
- Now conform that the child can name each individual letter in their name by its sound
- Let the child know they will need to take their shoes/socks off and indicate where they can put them
- Begin giving the child commands for example “can you hop from the start of your name to the end”
- “Can you jump back to the start of you name”
- “Hop on ‘a’”
- Continue giving the child hop and jump commands corresponding with the different letters
- When the child has finished, they may help you take the paper plates off the floor, letting them know that they can play this game on another day
- Show the child where they can keep the plates
Variations
- You may use numbers instead of letters
