How many letters can you find in nature?

Can you spell your name? What do kids learn by hunting for letters? Symbolic thinking, or the ability to think about one thing representing something else, which helps build the connections in the brain that allow for reading and learning.

Supplies:

• A grown-up!

Directions:

1. Begin your adventure and explore your neighborhood.
2. As you walk around, look at your surroundings closely for shapes that make up letters.
3. Find all the letters in your name.
4. Trace each letter you find in the air when you find it.

Ways to expand it:

• Take a camera with you and capture each letter you find. If you’re able to print them, create words with the prints.

What kids learn:

• Spatial or visual thinking. Being able to imagine the positions of objects and how they interact is an important skill for learning to navigate the world and later, as well as learning math and language.
• Symbolic thinking, or the ability to think about one thing representing something else. When small children begin to connect a house on paper to the house they live in, they start building the connections in the brain that allow for reading and learning later.