My was born with a congenital orthopedic condition called clubfoot, although most people would never guess just by looking at him. His condition was corrected when he was younger, but he still has some mild gross motor delays for which he receives regular physical therapy services to strengthen his legs and core. In addition to his work with the physical therapist, our family has developed a routine that includes daily strengthening exercises for both kids.
I’m always looking for playful ways to get him to do his exercises. I am also always looking for ways to support his early academic knowledge. Thus, the focus of this next installment of my 101 Ways to Teach the Alphabet Series is a gross motor letter hunt activity we did on our driveway. I was excited to find an activity that would help both kids work on learning their letters while also giving them additional physical exercise. Plus, we did this activity outside on a beautiful spring day, so it was a win-win-win all around!
I set up the activity on our wonderfully long driveway.
My daughter is working on the letters S, M, A, and T, so I grabbed several of each of those letters from our Montessori small movable alphabet
My son, on the other hand, knows virtually all of the letters, so I set out a smattering of different letters from our Montessori small movable alphabet on the other side of the driveway.
Once the letters were set up, the fun – and exercise – began! I told the kids that they would need to find a particular letter, and that I was going to assign them different ways to go down the driveway to find them.
I pulled out the scooter board my son’s physical therapist lent us. (Learn more about scooter boards here
I also had them go down the driveway “crocodile style” by balancing on their bellies and using their hands to move the scooter board along.
Of course, we did a lot of old fashioned running, hopping, and skipping down the driveway as well.
I also had the kids walk on tippy toes – another one of my son’s physical therapy exercises.
Anyway, each time I sent them down the driveway doing various exercises I had them look for a specific letter.
And we all celebrated when the correct letter was found.
And that is how we did our gross motor letter hunt to work on physical strength and letter learning at the same time!
More ways to teach to the alphabet
More alphabet posts from Gift of Curiosity:
- Letter hunt sensory bin
- Making letters with straws and play dough
- Spaghetti letters
- Letter puzzles
- Montessori sandpaper letters
- Smash the puffy letters
- Mini letter hunt with a magnifying glass
- Kinetic sand letters
- Crystallized letters
- Letter hop
- Yarn wrapped letters
- Letter tic-tac-toe
- Rainbow letters
You can find more ways to teach the alphabet on my Literacy Activities for Kids page and my Letter Learning Pinterest board.
This is simply perfect! I love it… more than you know. This is simply a MUST for me to do in my classroom. I have a set of 6 and three little boys that are new to letters, and 3 that are missing a few (and some that are just like Q and are olde hat)
Thank you for giving me a great idea that will really build upon our efforts in motor lab. THANK YOU! You are amazing.
What a fun way to combine mind and body!
I love how they are scooting on the scooter to look for letters low to the ground!
This sounds like a great way to get the brain and body busy.
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This is fabulous. I’m featuring it on Tuesday Tots this week. Thanks for linking up.