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Jenga Blocks Writing Game

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At Christmas, I got my kids a generic Jenga game for really cheap, and I got myself an extra one because I knew that I would want to make a therapy game out of it. I didn’t give it much thought until I was brainstorming new game ideas and using dominos as part of a game was brought up. I remembered these Jenga blocks, and decided they would be easier to use than dominos because I could write directly onto the blocks for the game.

jenga writing: practice fine motor and handwriting

I put the alphabet on one side of the blocks, and words on the other side of the blocks. I wrote nouns, verbs, and descriptive words so that they could be used to make sentences similar to how I use my sentence dice game (the dice game in the shop). I underlined the different type of words in different colors so that it would be quick and easy for me to differentiate them.

jenga writing: practice fine motor and handwriting

To play the game, the blocks are place in a bag, and the student rolls the dice to see how many blocks they need to draw out of the bag. If you have a student working on lower skills, you can have them write a word that starts with the letter, just write the letter, or write the word that is on the block. If you have kids working on higher skills, they need to make and write a sentence using all of the words on the blocks that they picked.

jenga writing: practice fine motor and handwriting

Once the words or sentences are written, the student needs to line up their blocks in a row so that when the game is done, they can knock the blocks over like dominos. I did not really work out a winner of the game, but I think that everyone is a winner if they get their blocks to line up and knock down in a cool way.

If you don’t have jenga blocks, you could use dominos and just tape printed words onto them.

Materials:

  • Generic Jenga blocks, or dominos
  • Marker or printed words
  • Dice

Skills:

  • Fine motor
  • Handwriting
  • Motor planning
  • Visual perception

Looking For More? Try these categories

ADL

Fine Motor

Visual Perceptual

Sensory

Motor Planning

Oral Motor

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4 Comments

  1. What a good idea Tonya. I am going to think about how I could use generic Jenga blocks in my therapeutic writing groups with mental health inpatients. I could write the beginning of sentences, for example “I used to be…”, and ask them to continue writing from there. I am going to have to practice writing legibly!

    If I create some Jenga blocks of my own I will put some photos on my blog and a link to your site.

    Best wishes, Carol Ross (Cumbria, UK)

      1. Hi Tonya

        I’ve finished my Jenga blocks and have blogged about creating them here: http://trioross.wordpress.com/ … I included a link to your page too.

        I haven’t used the blocks in a group yet but I’m looking forward to taking them to my Words for Wellbeing group on Thursday.

        Best wishes, Carol.

  2. I bought a set of blocks today! Now I have to work out how I am going to use them. I think I will split the set into 2 or 3 smaller sets to use in different ways. Regards, Carol.

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