As I shared on my Facebook page, we are in the midst of a renovation project at our house converting our small, barely used office into a mudroom. I have been doing a lot of reorganizing over the last several days and ordered a new fire safe where we can keep all our important documents in one place (will, life insurance, birth certificates, social security cards, etc). The safe arrived yesterday (thank you, Amazon Prime) along with two pieces of styrofoam which ended up producing at least an hour of fun and learning for the boys. We used one side of the foam for this Sight Word and Letter Pounding activity and the other side for another project I’ll share tomorrow!
I love being able to adapt one activity for both boys. Little Brother is in the midst of learning letter names and Big Brother is working on learning several sight words…so this activity was perfectly adaptable for each child!
Here’s what you’ll need: a piece of styrofoam, golf tees, a permanent marker, and a toy hammer (we used our mallets from this and this).
1. Begin writing letters or sight words (or even numbers & shapes) on your piece of styrofoam. I chose to do capital and lowercase letters for Little Brother. He didn’t recognize many of them but it was an opportunity for me to work with him at identifying these letters.
2. Gather your mallet/hammer and golf tees. Set the styrofoam in front of your child. Please note: If your styrofoam isn’t very thick, I would recommend putting a foam placemat (or some type of protection) underneath. Our poor kitchen table has a few more indentions in it after today. :)
3. Give your child the mallet/hammer and ask him/her to say each word (or letter) as they place the tee into the foam.
Psst…this is great for fine motor control as well!
Little Brother eventually just wanted to put them in with his hands rather than pounding.
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I am loving this! My son has seemed to resistant to anything that even partly feels like reading. Pounding with a mallet might just be what changes the attitude! Can’t wait to try it! Off to Amazon to buy something packed in styrofoam!
Darci the STEM Mom
You are a total “out of the box” gal! I love it! I see styrofoam sheets, you see a learning activity! Thank you for sharing!!
What a fantastic idea! My boys would love this. Will definitely be trying this out. Thanks for sharing!
I love how simple this idea is. It’s made with stuff we have laying around the house, which is perfect! Thank you!
This idea almost seems dangerous, but its not. Sounds fun especially for those that like to bang things. http://teachyourchildtoread.blogspot.com/
This idea is fantastic! I will be giving this a try with my boys.
This is such a fun activity for boys.