Movement for Letters
Last week, we covered the role of nutrition in supporting immunity. As mentioned, there are many factors underpinning immunity (see Figure 1), movement being one of them. This week, our series will be on incorporating movement into learning.
Figure 1: Supporting Immunity with Movement
Movement not only helps to support immunity but also supports the development of physical attributes that underpin learning success.
One of our favourite ways to help a child learn letter recognition is through the use of kinaesthetic mediums such as clay or Wikki Stix, using the methods outlined in the Ron Davis’ The Gift of Dyslexia. The basic premise here is to slow the child down to pay attention to the details of each letter:
The number of parts to each letter: “a” has 2 parts, “c” has one part, “k” has 3 parts, etc.
The size of each letter: “b” is taller than “a”, “c” is the same size as “a”, “g” is longer than “a”, etc.
Once the child has the base knowledge of the letters, you can then start to incorporate movement games to reinforce this skill.
Basic game
Place letters in one part of the house.
Have the starting point at least 5 metres away from where the letters have been placed.
Between you and your child, decide who will be the first to call out a letter.
Race to bring the correct letter back to the starting point. The winner gets 5 points, the person who came in second gets 3 points. (Having points allows you to expand this activity to reinforce addition at the end of the game. You can also remove the point system altogether.)
Variations
Each player needs to dribble a ball to the letters and back to the starting point while holding the relevant letter in their hand.
Crawl instead of run. This is great for building core and upper body strength and makes the activity far more challenging and tiring. It helps children with a lot of energy get rid of excess energy and enables them to focus better.
If you make it a single player game, the objective may be to progressively reduce the amount of time they take to bring back each letter. You can use a stop watch and write each of their times down to track progress.
In addition to bringing back the correct letter, add another layer of movement by allowing the player that brings the correct letter back to throw a ball into a basket. This ball can represent their points. If they miss, they can try again until they succeed. This activity also hones visual-spatial skills and hand-eye coordination.