Letter B Light Table Activities

This post contains some affiliate links. A purchase from them, gives me a small commission and helps this blog keep running.

Some of you may not know, I am an educator. My degree is in birth through five education. I always had a love for babies and young children, even as a little girl myself. After working with multiple children with autism I decided I wanted to be a teacher. Early intervention and early education are so important. I no longer teach, I am now a #WAHM, working at home mom. I do still value my education and how much of a gift this knowledge has been for my little busy Izzy. My hope has been to share this knowledge with you all. I hope you enjoy this letter b post and all of our other educational activities.

Each activity is broken down just like a recipe. I give you the name of the activity and then list the activity ingredients. After that I explain the steps of the activity and explain extra things you can do and say to encourage further learning and exploration.

Why Light Tables? Light tables are amazing for enhancing educational and sensory experiences. The gentle glow naturally draws adults and children & they then end up staying for longer periods of time. This helps a lot with engagement and focus. Perfect for littles with growing attention spans and people like me with ADHD. Our light table is from Wonder One and we love it! It also came with 2 other tops, along with the plexiglass shown in these activities.

Activity #1

Create Letter B b

Activity Ingredients

Letter Construction Set & Light Table

Izzy and I looked through our set to find the letter B card. Once we found it, we looked at the top part of the card. This area tells you which pieces will be needed. When breaking down letters for children this simple method of big line, little line & big curve, little curve work best. Izzy found the lines and curves we needed and together we discussed each step to creating capital letter B. As Izzy picked up the big line and laid it down I then traced with her finger, staring at the top and said, “Big line down.” After this we added each curve. Then I hand over hand, traced with her again. Which means I held my hand around hers and guided her. As we traced the B I said, “Big line down, little curve, little curve.” Then we moved to the lowercase b and did the same thing. As you trace lowercase B you say, “Big line down, little curve.”

Activity #2

Letter B Stenciling

Activity Ingredients

Paper, Washable Paint, Brushes, Elastic bands, Stencils, Light Table

Izzy and I went through our stencils and said the name of each image on them. We listened for the letter B sound. Once gathering all of our stencils that started with letter B (i.e. Bike, Boat, Bird), we picked out which one we wanted to paint first. While Izzy painted I would talk about what she was doing and what she was painting. i.e “You are painting a bird, bird starts with letter b. You are making that brush go blot blot on the bird.”

Activity #3

Letter B b Tracing

Activity Ingredients

Paint Sticks, Magnet Kit, & Light Table

Izzy and I have been working on her letters and practiced with the first activity a lot. Izzy knows what makes an upper case B and lower case b. If Izzy wasn’t as secure in what she needed to write the letter B, then I’d hand over hand write it with her. And say to her the steps as we go, i.e. “Big line down, little curve, little curve.” Izzy does know how to write B, so I had her practice writing first writing upper case B and then lower case be with the paint sticks on the plexiglass. If Izzy needs to be redirected, I don’t say, “no”. I just remind her what step is next and hand over hand guide her. Then I allow her to trace letter B with her finger, in the same way she would write the word. As in for B, “Big line down, little curve on the top, little curve on the bottom.” The paint sticks dry pretty immediately and are washable if they get on finger or clothing. Trust me, I know because she held the paint stick near her shirt while jumping up and down..and got it on her. It washed right out. Next I had Izzy trace the upper and lower case Bs with her magnetic chips. Again in the same steps as if writing them. So start at the top and work on the big line down first. When it comes to cleaning up the letter B and b, have your child use the magnet to trace the letter and again reinforce the correct way to write the letters. It’s fun for them to see the chips get picked up by the magnetic wand, plus they are continuing to practice writing B.

More activities to come! I hope you had a blast with these!

XO Eryka