Pudding Letters

I am a teacher and my son hates to write.  There, I said it.  Well, he loves to read and he loves books and authors and pictures, but isn't into drawing or fine motor movements much at all.  I give him crayons, markers, pens, pencils, and usually all I get are a few scribbles and then, "I'm all done, Mommy.  Let's play cars." I don't push it because then he would really hate it.  I know this is fine and he is only three and a half, but at some point he is going to need to write. 

So, today I decided we were going to make a break through.  We were going to do some writing in pudding.  No, I didn't come up with this activity.  I got it from Sarah during our word-work grade level meeting and I think she might have received it from Pam, our reading and literacy Goddess, and I am not sure where she got it, but anyhow, I pocketed the list last fall and finally pulled it out.

Do you notice the wonderful organizational skills of my bag right now?

Carlo was pretty excited about the pudding letters because his favorite character, Caillou, loves pudding in the book Caillou Tidies His Toys. Obviously, Carlo wanted to eat pudding too or play with it.  (Yes, I made him take off his shirt before we started.  Wouldn't you?)

 I wasn't sure how this activity would go because Carlo is a bit like his dad; a neat and clean kind of guy.  (He once told me he never wanted to play in the sandbox because it would get his Nike shoes dirty.)   Carlo made sure to use the spoon and only his index finger.

Eli is his own boy with his own personality as illustrated below.

 Eli was pretty thrilled that brother was learning to write letters in pudding, so he got in on the action as well.  Eli made sure to use his whole body to shovel the pudding in. Pure heaven.

Carlo was more excited to eat the pudding after the letters were done than actually writing in the pudding.  But, when everything was said and done, he wrote a few letters in the pudding and practiced the strokes of writing his name, so I am a happy mom.  Now, I have a craving for rice pudding.