For teachers · lesson card
Sky Grass Dirt
Where a letter sits on the line — up in the sky, down in the dirt · ages 4-8
1. Warm-up, 5 minutes
Stand up tall for a tall letter (sky), crouch for a small one (grass) and touch the floor for one that dangles (dirt). Call out b, a, g, t, o, y and let the class move.
2. The game, on the projector
The class makes the sky, grass or dirt shape with their bodies before a helper drags the letter into its band.
Projector mode is the game with ?projector on the end of its address. It's big and landscape, a win waits for you to press Next, and nothing is saved on the computer: no progress, no animal cards, no login.
3. Away from the screen
On three-band paper (blue, green, brown), each child writes their own name and checks which letters reach the sky or dig into the dirt.
Questions to ask
- Does this letter reach up to the sky?
- Which letters have a tail that goes down into the dirt?
- Can you think of a word that starts with a tall letter?
Curriculum
- AC9E1LY08: write words using unjoined lower-case and upper-case letters
- AC9EFLY08: form most lower-case and upper-case letters using learnt letter formations
- AC9EFLY11: recognise and name all upper- and lower-case letters (graphs) and know the most common sound that each letter represents
- EYLF 5.4: Children begin to understand how symbols and pattern systems work
More detail, and every word it says: the page for grown-ups.