AWARDS AND CERTIFICATES

2015 – STF Induction; Academic Silver Prize; Regina Sunshine Preschool Society Prize; Dean’s Honour List

2014 – Amber MacLeod Scholarship in Special Education; Dean’s Honour List; UR Guaranteed Program Student of the Year

2013 – Centennial 2011 Legacy Award

2012 – UR Guaranteed Program Faculty of Education Student of the Year; City of Regina Henry Baker Scholarship; University of Regina Alumni Association Scott Irving Spirit Award

2011 – Rural Student Entrance Scholarship; Harold and Florence Mosley Entrance Scholarship; Centennial Merit Plus Scholarship; Prairie Valley Student Leadership Award; Conexus Community Leadership Award; Southey Lions Award; RSS English Excellence Award; Henry J. Werner Award; Prairie Valley Teachers’ Association Scholarship; Valuable Service Award for SRC, Grad Decorating, and Yearbook; Senior Girls’ Basketball 2A Provincial Finalists and MVP award; Robert Southey School Student of the Semester

2010 – Valuable Service Award for Student Leadership Council and Yearbook; Senior Girls’ Basketball 1A Provincial Bronze Medalists

2009 – Drivers’ Licence

Multisensory Approach to Letter Formation

Posted on October 23, 2018 by kgorhamblog

As per our school’s Learning Improvement Plan (LIP) focusing on student writing growth, I am embedding different modalities of letter formation into our phonics lessons. The students are enjoying a multi-sensory approach to writing: play-dough, chalkboards, whiteboard tables, wiki sticks, letter magnets, wooden pieces, etc. A new favorite is writing our letters with paint brushes in shaving cream. It is a really simple lesson that warrants student engagement.

A typical phonics lesson activity: Lakeshore letter-sound buckets for sorting initial sounds.

Shaving Cream Letters Lesson:

Hold up letter cards and get students to state the letter name, sound, and action.
Students copy the letter, starting at the top, with paint brushes in shaving cream. They form the lowercase and the uppercase for each letter.
Students “erase” their letter with their brushes and repeat the process for the rest of the target letters.

Writing letter ‘v’ in shaving cream.

But What About the Mess?

I find that it is not as messy as it may seem. Each student needs to roll up their sleeves and be reminded not to eat, fling, or touch the shaving cream with their hands. We talk about how it smells good but would not taste good (you may want to note that it is NOT whipped cream). I get students to wipe off any excess shaving cream on the side of their tin (get baking pan tins with higher edges rather than baking sheet tins with lower edges) and then at the end of the lesson we use paper towel to clean the brushes before putting them in water.

Ready for the next letter!

The Benefits

The best part of shaving cream letters is that students do not feel pressure to form their letters perfectly. If they make a mistake, they simply can “erase” and try again! The teacher can observe the letter formation and remind students to hold brushes appropriately and start from the top during the lesson so the practice is meaningful. All students, especially those who dislike pencil-to-paper work, seem to buy-in to the novelty of shaving cream letters. No tears, busy minds at work, and smiling faces… seems like a win to me!

Ms. Gorham's ABCs of Teaching

"If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." – Albert Einstein

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Multisensory Approach to Letter Formation

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