Chinese children often practise learning to write using a caligraphy brush, water and a specially treated gray mat that allows the brush strokes to appear on. While it is wet, the children can see how their brush strokes look. Some of these mats can be bought in any stationary store in a city where there is a China town. It is so fascinating for children to use a brush, water or even a finger tip dipped in water. To teach the upper and lower case ...

...one can have a simple sentence from a favorite story - perhaps a line from a Dr. Seuss book. This line can be written on a sheet of appropriately lined paper and laminated.

The gray writing mat should have lines drawn across it in white permanent marker or white out or white fabric paint (so that it is raised off the mat and the children's fingers can feel it).

The children can write the sentence using water and follow the example. They can make their own sentences remembering when to use an upper case letter or lower case letter.

The lines on the mat provide a framework. Because there isn't any need for a marker - only some water and a finger tip/brush - this is an absorbing activity that young children will especially like to repeat.