Travis traced the letter R today and then we found three materials beginning with R to make our 3-D models.

First up was upper case R, using a ruler and rope (ok, ours was more string, but perhaps you could call it a thin rope).

He placed the ruler straight, and then had to ponder how the rope could twist in such a way that he ended up with R. He remembered that first you make a loop so it looks like a P…

…then just needed to angle the final bit of rope out.

For lower case r, we headed outside to the driveway and found a few small rocks.

“I can do this!” Travis said with confidence, since r is in his name. In no time, our rocks were in an r.

Travis is back to tracing a latter of the day after a brief hiatus, and today he tackled Q.

After tracing, I dumped out a big pile of quarters. I was impressed with how readily he could see how to form both the upper and lower case versions of the letter.

A big circle for Q got an extra line at the bottom.

A little circle for q had a line that arched down, and then he correctly identified which direction it needed to hook at the bottom – a key skill to avoid mixing up q and g!

Quite well done!

O is usually one of the first letters that children feel comfortable tracing, since it’s just drawing a circle. After confidently doing his tracing for the day, I sent Travis on a hunt: He needed to locate three things in the apartment that looked like an O.

At first he spotted the underside of his marker, but I knew he could look harder than that.

After some searching, he soon had an assembly: a paper plate, mommy’s bracelet, and a toy from his baby sister.

For lower case o, I simply asked him to form one with his hand. This was an easy day!

Travis traced the letter N today and enjoyed the two challenges I presented him with after to make 3-D models.

For the first, I gave him three new pencils. Could he figure out how to position the three to form upper case N?

He had to work closely from a picture to see how it was done, but soon had the first two pencils positioned correctly.

Hmm, should that final pencil be straight up and down, or at an angle? Tada!

Our lower case n made him giggle. Ahead of time, I had cooked a few pieces of spaghetti. I gave him a cooked piece and an uncooked piece. The hard noodle became the straight line of n.

He wiggled around the cooked noodle to form the rest of the letter. Then impishly gobbled it up!

Travis has a hard time tracing M, so I wanted to make today’s lesson a little silly for him. After tracing, I challenged him to make an upper case M – with two pairs of paints!

He really struggled with how to form the letter off of paper.

I suggested he position the pants in front of himself like a person was facing him and wearing them, but even this was tricky.

We discussed the motion he makes on paper when tracing M: up, down, up down. Could he see that pattern in the pant legs? Aha!

Moving on to little m, I made things simpler; I piped glue along an outline of m on construction paper and he only had to make the m by gluing down beads.

We’ll be back for N soon!

L is an easy letter of the day for Travis to trace and we used some equally easy ways to form it today.

After tracing upper case L, I asked Travis to show me L with his left hand. He paused a moment to remember which is his left, but then flashed me an L.

Next he traced lower case l. We lined up all his crayons and I asked him to show me the longest crayon. It was a close call between pink and white, but white one.

Using this long crayon, I asked him to make me lower case l – just a long line!

Today’s letter of the day for tracing had an edible treat at the end – jellybeans!

Travis easily traced both upper case J and lower case j, and then I told him he was going to love our 3-D model today because it involved a favorite treat.

Place jellybeans on a sheet of parchment paper, and challenge your child to recreate the letter with the candies.

Travis didn’t even need to look at an example. I helped him make his dot a bit more precise…

…but then it was impishly gobbled up.

For the big J, I pulled out a few old winter scarves (how jolly!), and I asked him to make them into the upper case letter. This wasn’t as easy as the candy. He looked at me in amused confusion.

I helped him form one scarf into the hook. He still couldn’t quite see where the second should align…

Aha, now he saw how to cross it at the top.

As with the other letters we’ve tackled this summer, these hands-on models are fantastic for reinforcing the two-dimensional lesson of tracing on paper.