Stamping for Pre-Reading and Pre-Writing

So, Little Bean is a reluctant writer, which is okay with me since he is still very young. One of the main reasons he is so reluctant, I think, is because his grip is so poor. He can never remember how to hold a pencil correctly, and will hold it in the strangest ways, not just the fisted grip, but very strange and unnatural ways. He is a reluctant writer, but he cannot express what he knows without letters and words in some cases. So I created this little game to help him out.

I purchased a set of lower case letter stamps at the teaching supply store. I also searched at Michael's for a good deal, but strangely enough, they were cheaper at the teacher supply, and of better quality. Then I went through our stickers and made a couple rows of stickers on a piece of paper. I had Little Bean search for the initial sounds for each sticker, and stamp it next to the sticker. He really enjoyed this activity, and I loved how I can have a record of what sounds he has mastered and what sounds he is still getting confused about. I also love that this activity allowed him to show me what he knows without the frustration of writing. We have used these stamps several times this week for various projects like this one. Interestingly, on a few of the stickers, he interpreted the object differently than I had, but was still able to stamp the correct beginning sound. For instance, for boat, he interpreted it as tugboat and so he stamped a t. The same for shirt, he interpreted it as jacket, and stamped a j. I was really surprised he got shoe, since it doesn't make a traditional 's' sound, given that it's a blend.