Learn the Alphabet: Dough Mats and Writing Practice

Dough Mats- Cut out pages to use with dough. Place pages in page protectors, laminate, or cover with clear contact paper to use for hours of learning fun. Each letter page has a dough mat on one side and letter writing practice on the other. Writing practice pages can be written on with dry erase markers. Protected pages can be used again and again. Helping young children develop a life-long love of learning is a passion for me. Children learn through play. Having fun keeps them engaged. Each page has a purpose. Start by focusing on capital letters. Capital letters have more straight lines and fewer curves than lower case. Curved lines are more difficult for young children to write. As your child begins to write, focusing more on the capital letters will help them build confidence and see themselves as a writing. As their muscles and brains develop their writing will improve with practice. This book is designed to be taken apart. Cut along the dotted lines and place them in clear pocket protectors, laminate them with a personal laminator or use clear contact paper to protect the pages and allow for repeated use. The letter pages have a dough activity on one side and writing practice on the other. You can use a dry erase marker on the letter writing pages and use them repeatedly, if you protect them as above. Why use dough? Working with dough helps build muscles and develops fine motor control needed for handwriting. Writing requires stronger hand eye coordination and fine motor control(control over the muscles in the hands). With the use of dough, children can begin to recognize and work with letters before they are actually able to write them successfully. Keep learning fun. We want to encourage children to learn not force them to learn. Keep learning activities fun by sitting with them and having fun right along side them. Model(act it out) how to use the dough to create letters. Children love to work with their own name. Write out your child’s name in capital letter and encourage them to make their name in dough. As they begin to write, younger writers will find it more difficult to make their letters fit in the lines, focus more on the shapes of the letters than on the lines as they begin. Handwriting can be very frustrating for some children. This book was created to help introduce your child to the form and creation of letters and develop a love of learning and writing and see themselves as lifelong learners. Use the dough recipes at the end of this book to make your own dough. Add fragrances and colors to encourage engagement. Have fun!!