Okay, last week I blogged about sticky letters. This week it’s letters made from sticks. I blame one child. I passed him in the corridor whilst I was carrying a pile of sticks. His face lit up and he asked if they were for his class. So I told him that the next time I was there, the sticks would be with me too.

We began with the story of Stick Man. This set the scene for choosing our own stick from the pile I’d brought along. Each person (including Fred the Ted) had to find the letter that matched their name and attach this to their stick. Each one has a hole drilled in it at the top.

To get across the message about holding sticks carefully, we came up with the chant “Sticks are down. Down with sticks.” This seemed to make a difference as the children enjoyed tapping out the rhythm as we walked along. Again, this suggestion came from one of the children.

When we came to a stopping point identified by one child, it was time to try and make each letter using sticks. I did have a stash in my bag owing to time pressures, but gathering sticks would work better as the activity would have more relevance to each child and give them an opportunity to explore their environment. However, this is a bigger challenge for another day.

This was a challenging activity for all the children. The idea of making letters from sticks was novel and new. With support they managed.

Back inside, we followed up this activity by making the same letters but using lolly sticks instead. Again, this was the children’s preference and I’m not sure why they were so keen on the lolly sticks. The twigs we did gather were used as decoration and the display left on the table. This was to allow children to make crayon rubbings later on that day if they wanted to.

This class was a group of Y2/P3 children with additional support needs. They were all very much engaged in the lesson. This is something I am finding – that outside levels of engagement are better especially when we are responsive to children’s needs and interests, so there’s a lot of on-the-spot adapting of the lesson to ensure it fits each child rather than the other way round. 

This blog post was first published in November 2011 and updated in October 2024. 

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