Lava Worm Paper a la (B)e(LO)n(G) OT
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Karen over at (B)e(LO)n(G) OT has been drawing Lava paper and using it to practice writing, so I made some for her in photoshop, and have been using it as well. Karen has a couple of posts about using her paper, and I use it in the same way.
When writing, all the letters have to touch the dirt, and the baby/small letters need to go up to the bottom of the lava line. The tail letters can go below the dirt safely, and the tall letters can go above the lava safely. Then if the letters that aren’t supposed to go below the dirt go down there, they get attacked by the worms. If the letters that aren’t supposed to be tall go above the lava line, they get burned by the lava. No letters are supposed to go in the sky, so they will get attacked by the bees. You have to erase the letters that get attacked and do them again and keep them safe.
There are three sizes to the paper, a kindergarten size, medium ruled, and skinny ruled.
The Lava paper makes it fun to try to get the letters perfect so that they don’t get burned, eaten, or stung. You have to be careful that it is not too fun because then the kids start making mistakes on purpose just so the worms will eat them.
Materials:
- Lava Paper
- Pencil
Skills:
- Fine Motor
- handwriting
Hi Tonya, Thanks for sharing this!! The first few times the kids work with this kind of paper, I do let them draw in the burn marks/attacks, because it’s new and exciting, but eventually we taper it off. I encourage the kids to either be “doctors” and save their letters, or “superheros” and save their letters, using their eraser medicine or eraser superpowers….if the child tends to have a dark side, and continue to hurt their letters (so to speak), then they can do so, but then have to erase and make “zombie” letters in their place, so they don’t just get away with not doing it right. :) Thanks again for sharing this. PS: I just had an IEP meeting today with a kid who has been using the Lava paper, and the progress is incredible!
I use red light green light papers (just lines drawn over the other lines to show where most letters begin and most stop), but I like this even better. Thank you for sharing.