Magical Calligraphy Boards

magic boards activity tailor copy

I recently discovered an almost magical fabric designed to be used for calligraphy practice.  By dipping a brush in water, you can write across the sheet and your markings will disappear within a few minutes if creation.

magic boards fading copy

It reminds me of writing in the very damp sand on a beach. Kids think it’s really cool (‘cause it is).

So how can you use it in your room?

I’ll get you started.

Keep the sheet whole and use it with “race against time” games.  For instance, you might have an older student see how many items they can write in a category before the first item disappears.  (You will have between 2-4 minutes of time.)

magic boards copy

Or you can cut the fabric and make small, dry erase type boards. Simply use foam board cut to the size you want to use as a backing and adhere the cloth with a frame of duct tape.  (Shown above.)

These mini boards can be used for a variety of speech therapy acitivites–as a novel way to jot down answers by individuals in an entire group, for writing artic words, or quick tic-tac-toe games.

Use either size to play “Pictionary” type games or to have a student follow simple, drawing directions.

I think this would make a great lesson for social skills/pragmatics groups too.  Because spoken words aren’t visual, many of our kiddos lash out verbally (intentionally or otherwise) and don’t realize the impact that they have or, perhaps, that others have on them.  Write a negative word–stupid, dumb, loser–and allow it to fade.  Talk about the fact that even though the word is no longer there, we all know it was and what impact it continues to have. It’s a super visualization technique.

The image will be dark gray and it doesn’t lend itself to tremendous precision but it is lots of fun!

Tell us your thoughts.  How would you use this?

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The views expressed in this blog are my own and are intended to inspire other speech-language pathologists in their own practice. If you are a parent, teacher or other educator, these ideas are not intended to take the place of treatment by a certified clinician. Read full disclaimer here.