Fwd:

Here is my worm/lava/bumblee paper. Basically The blue line is sky and the brown line is dirt which is like the sky/grass/dirt paper already out there. The middle line is lava and it burns baby letters that go too high, ie a, e, r. Worms live under the lines and attack letters that go below the line that shouldn’t (but they love tail letters like g, y, p, and get mad if the tail doesnt go below the line), bumblebees live on top of the lines and sting if you go too high. Sounds complicated but the kids grasp it quickly.
So in the following sample, “My name” is perfect. the “i” in is went too high – above the lava – and got burnt up, ouch. The “s” in is went too low and got attacked by worms (I usually say something like augh!! worm party!!). Then the “B” is too high and got stung by bumblees (should have been same color but I was working quick and forgot).

So I like to provide the paper and the kids write. With each letter, as they go (when they are first learning), I’ll be like “ooh perfect” or “AUGH ITS BURNING ITS BURNING AUGHHHH” or “ouch, a bumblee just stung him” etc etc. Its really silly and dramatic and they like to draw in the red burn lines or worms or bees….so for a while it looks kind of messy with all the additions, but they get the concept. Typically I start with working on lava or worms then add in the other components as it gets a little overwhelming otherwise. And I ask the teachers/parents to also just focus on either a few letters a week and/or one aspect a week such as spacing, or sizing, etc, so its not a huge stress battle for each letter every day.

Hope that helps…I may see if I can get a friend’s kid to work with me so I can record it.

Karen 🙂