Chapter 1.3: The Lion Basket
Lion: The Lion Basket will have tracing cards, felt, and crayons in it. There should be enough tracing cards that each child at the table can have their own, as well as a couple of extras in case you have a fast student. Tracing cards are just cardstock with four or five lines on them that have been laminated so that students can trace over the lines with the crayons
The goal of this basket is to let children use a medium they are familiar with (crayons) to do something they may be less familiar with. Basically, the kids will pull out the tracing cards and try to stay on the lines as they trace. For some children this will be an easy basic skill that doesn’t need practice, but for others this will take a lot of effort and patience. It is important to include a variety of cards in varying levels in this basket so that all students will have a chance to do it.
Our Tracing Cards can be purchased here. They are available as a pdf download, and all you will have to do is print them onto card stock or you can print them on plain paper and glue them to a piece of construction paper. It is important that these cards be sturdy because the students will be erasing them with a piece of felt. The reason you want the students to erase with felt is twofold. The first is because it makes the preparation easier for you. If you laminate the cards then you can use them year after year with almost no prep time. And, let’s face it, as teachers it is very important to be able to be able to pull something out and set it up quickly! The other reason is because as the students are working to erase their cards, they are developing fine motor skills. They are learning how hard they have to press in order to erase the crayon from the cards.
If your cards are a little dirty at the end of the week, you can use a baby wipe or a simple degreaser like Orange Glo to clean them up as good as new.