Pre school writing: Pre-K: Writing Sample 1 | Reading Rockets

Pre-Writing Activities for Preschoolers – WeAreTeachers

Pre-writing activities for preschoolers not only help our youngest learners learn the shape and structure of the letters in the alphabet, but they also serve a number of other functions as well. According to education blogger Lisette, from Where Imagination Grows, pre-writing practice teaches directionality in writing, encourages fine muscle development and coordination, and also helps students process sensory information critical to the writing process.

Here are 22 super fun, easy-to-make activities that your preschoolers will love!

1. Squishy Bags

Source: Learning4kids

All you need to make these awesome sensory bags is resealable zipper storage bags, flour, water, and food coloring. Kids can use cotton swabs or their fingers to draw shapes, lines, and letters on the bag.

2. Bubble Wrap

Source: Coffee Cups and Crayons

What a great way to recycle all that leftover bubble wrap! Simply write letters on sheets of bubble wrap with a Sharpie and let kids pop their way to letter recognition.

3. Play-Doh Snakes

Source: In My World

Kids can’t resist the sensory lure of Play-Doh! For this activity, kids can roll small balls of dough into long snakes and form letters by bending and joining the snakes together.

4. Play-Doh and Drinking Straws

Source:  KidActivitiesBlog

Flatten out a medium-size piece of Play-Doh on a flat surface. Then use a sharp object to draw a letter on the flattened area. (Make sure that the letter is large enough to be easily recognizable when filled with straws.) Cut plastic straws into one-inch segments. Let kids “trace” the letters with the colorful straw segments.

5. Dot Markers

Source: 3 Dinosaurs

Students use dot markers to practice the mechanics of writing and get used to the angles and curves of letters. Click on the link above to download 12 free pages of pre-writing dot marker worksheets.

6. Cotton Swabs and Paint

Source: Lessons Learnt Journal

This is a fun activity to help kids work on their fine motor skills and get the hang of the all-important pencil grip.

7. LEGO Blocks

Source:  Wildflower Ramblings

Blocks! Young kids can’t get enough of building and creating with them. Put their creative energy to good work with these free printable letter cards.

8. Shaving Cream

Source: Mess for Less

This classic activity is a great starting place for pre-writers. All you need is a tray and a can of shaving cream.

9. Glitter Glue

Source: Growing Hands-On Kids

Pre-writing lines are important building blocks for any preschooler to master before learning letter formations. Download this glitter glue pre-writing line practice for preschoolers activity.

10. Beads

Source: Artsy Momma

Just like the one above, this activity builds fine motor skills that your young students need to begin writing. Instead of using glitter glue, though, students use inexpensive pony beads (found at any craft store) to follow the lines.

11. Sand Tray

 Source: Our Little House in the Country

One of the simplest activities to put together for your students to practice pre-writing is a sand tray. Kids can use their fingers or an unsharpened pencil to practice writing. As an alternative to sand, you can fill your tray with salt, flour, cornmeal, or rice.

12. Squeeze Bottle

Source:: Playdough to Plato

Fill a plastic squeeze bottle with salt or sugar and let students trace letters on cards.

13. Rainbow Tray

 Source: Where Imagination Grows

This resource is so simple to make, and kids love it! Simply tape colored tissue paper in a rainbow pattern to the bottom of a clear plastic tray. Fill it with sand, and as the kids trace lines and letters, the colors below are revealed. The image above shows the tray on top of a light table, which adds another dimension of fun to the activity!

14. Masking Tape

Source: And Next Comes L

A roll of colored masking tape and a clear surface make this a fun center activity at writing time.

15. Magnet Board

Source: Days with Gray

Tape letters onto a magnet board and let your little ones trace them with magnets. In the example above, the teacher made the letters into roads, and the students drove their car magnets along them.

16. Lacing Cards

Source: Teaching Mama

Grasping a string between tiny fingers and threading the end through the holes in a lacing card is great fine motor practice for preschoolers. It also begins to build muscle memory for holding a pencil properly.

17. Buttons

Source: Learning4Kids

Preschoolers will have so much fun creating patterns, swirls, squiggles, and zig-zags with colorful buttons. And they’ll be building skills while they’re at it!

18. Sticker Line Up

Source: Busy Toddler

Preschoolers need to use a pinching motion, which builds fine motor skills, to peel sticker dots off the page. Then, they use hand-eye coordination to place each sticker on the drawn line. This activity would be perfect for a writing or free time station.

19. Fingerprint Writing

Source: Happy Toddler Playtime

Some kids may not like to get their fingers this messy, but others will adore it! For this activity, you will need poster paper and a palette of washable ink. Draw letters, shapes, and lines on a clean piece of paper. Then, show kids how to dip their pointer finger onto the ink pad, then follow the lines dot by dot.

20. Clothespin Clipping

Source: Teaching Mama

Using a clothespin takes a lot of grip strength. This image shows a student using a clothespin to choose the correct answer to a number problem, but any activity that involves clipping will help them build the fine motor skills required for writing.

21. Cutting

Source: Play of the Wild

Cutting and snipping activities with scissors are excellent ways for children to practice fine motor skills and control. Give your students lots of opportunities to practice their cutting skills with paper, string, card stock, even Play-Doh!

22. Scrunching Paper

Source: Gympanzees

Scrunching paper into a ball is great for building hand strength. Let your students use computer paper, newspaper, tissue paper, or wrapping paper. Then play a game of paper ball tag!

What are your favorite pre-writing activities for preschoolers? Share in the comments below.

Plus, check out these amazing Sensory Table Activities.

The Importance of Pre-Writing Skills for Preschoolers

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Writing is a process that begins long before a child forms letters with a pencil.

It involves building pre-writing skills during preschool, which are necessary for a child to be able to master letter formation and pencil control.

Read on to find out about the importance of pre-writing skills for preschoolers and what simple activities you can do at home or at school.

What are Pre-Writing Skills?

Pre-writing involves building a set of foundational skills that help children learn to write when they are developmentally ready.

Here are just some skills that need to be in place before children are ready to start formal writing:

• Well-developed gross motor control
• Good posture and core control
• The ability to cross the midline
• Bilateral coordination
• A good pencil grasp
• Well-developed fine motor control
• The ability to form basic patterns

To put it simply, teaching a child to write does not begin with letter formation, but rather by building all the pre-writing skills first.

The Importance of Pre-Writing Skills

Why are pre-writing skills important and how do they impact a child’s ability to write successfully? Let’s take a look at all the factors.

Gross Motor Skills

Gross motor skills start forming when a child is born and should continue to be developed well into the schooling years.

Children should be spending large amounts of time each and every day engaging in free play. This is the best way to develop gross motor skills.

In order to learn to write, children must have control of their bodies and develop their gross motor skills. Fine motor control depends on having well-developed gross motor control.

Posture, core control, midline crossing, eye-hand coordination and bilateral coordination (e.g. writing with one hand and controlling the page with the other), are also a part of a child’s gross motor development and are important for developing the ability to write.

Posture and Core Control

Writing involves having the correct posture and core control to be able to sit at a desk for a length of time without tiring.

Children should be sitting straight with their feet flat on the floor and their arms at right angles to the table.

Many children struggle with just this one factor, which impacts everything they do at school and usually means they don’t finish their tasks.

Children who slouch at a desk, get tired or struggle to sit and concentrate, could potentially benefit from seeing a physiotherapist.

Crossing the Midline

The midline is the imaginary line that intersects the body, separating the left and right sides.

Children need to learn to cross the midline so they can perform tasks like writing on the left of the page with their right hand.

It is easy to spot a midline crossing problem when you see that a child’s writing slants from the left of the page towards the right (each new line starts a little further away from the margin).

Pencil Grip

Children must be able to hold a pencil using a mature grip, such as a tripod grasp, and with the right amount of pressure. They need to control the pencil and form letters correctly, without tiring.

With an immature pencil grip, it is difficult to form letters and children get tired while writing as they are often applying too much pressure on the page or do not have a firm enough grip on their pencil.

Fine Motor Skills

Children need lots of practice developing their fine motor skills and finger strength if they are to learn to write correctly.

Preschoolers should be given daily opportunities to engage in fine motor games and activities. With sufficient fine (and gross) motor stimulation, children are able to:

• Write without getting tired
• Use the correct pencil grip
• Form letters correctly – starting at the right place, moving in the right direction
• Write neatly
• Space letters correctly and on the lines
• Make the letters an appropriate size

Forming Patterns

Before a child has enough control to form letters correctly, they need to understand patterns and shapes in letters.

This is done long before letters are introduced, through simple activities with shapes, puzzles, pegboards, drawing patterns, etc.

Writing patterns on a line is then introduced, such as making zig-zag lines, and tracing circular patterns and lines.

These mimic the formations that will be used when forming the letters (e.g. making snake patterns helps form the letter ‘s’, zig-zags are found in a capital ‘A’ and circular and spiral patterns help form the letter ‘c’).

Pre-Writing Activities for Preschoolers

Here are some ideas for pre-writing activities to do with preschoolers at home or at school.

1.

Movement Activities

Movement should be a daily staple for every child. They should be moving in various ways:

• running
• climbing
• rolling
• hopping
• pulling
• balancing
• riding
• skipping
• kicking
• catching, etc.

Try activities such as:

• playing with bean bags
• hopscotch
• singing action rhymes
• sandpit play
• hand-eye coordination games
• crossing midline activities
• and other fun games

Here are more fun movement activities for preschoolers.

2.

Fine Motor Activities

Fine motor skills can be developed in a number of easy ways, largely through play:

• Drawing and painting
• Cutting and tearing
• Building puzzles (get your own puzzles by downloading the FREE set of printables at the end of the post.)
• Playing with pegboards, blocks, shapes
• Beading and threading
• Making patterns with blocks and beads – according to shape, colour and size

This post contains affiliate links for educational products that I personally recommend. If you purchase through one of them, I earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Read the terms and conditions for more details.

3.

Playing with Letters

Letters and numbers made out of wood, foam or plastic are a great way to introduce writing. Touch the letters, trace them with your fingers and show the letter formation (where to start and how to form the letter). 

These letters are great for tracing and learning letter formation.

4.

Forming Patterns 

When your child is holding a pencil properly and not tiring, they are ready to start the patterning stage.

Using rubber pencil grips (like these fun ones) will make a huge difference as their fingers will rest in the correct position from an early age.

Pencil grip is another thing that is extremely difficult to correct once an incorrect habit has been formed.

When I taught the first grade, we would spend the first part of the year doing patterns, before we moved on to letters.

As always, start large and go smaller.

Take a large piece of paper or use chalk on the paving outside. Make patterns such as the following:

• Scribble in large circular movements, first to the left (as in the letter ‘d’), then to the right (as in the letter ‘b’).
• Scribble in zig-zag movements, first up and down, then left to right.
• Make other patterns in the sand such as waves, straight lines, etc.

It is then time to move onto writing patterns on paper. Before starting, spend 5 minutes doing some finger strengthening exercises, such as flicking, shaking or crumpling a piece of paper with one hand.

• Take an A4 page and turn it to landscape.
• Divide it into 3 or 4 strips by folding or drawing lines.
• Form a pattern on each line.

Here are some examples:

Spend some time just doing various patterns and soon, your child will be ready to start learning individual letters.

From Pre-Writing to Formal Writing

Once these patterns are mastered, and gross and fine motor skills are well developed, a child is ready to start forming letters. This follows a fairly predictable pattern:

• Letters are first introduced on a large scale – such as on big paper or written on a board.

• When the formation has been practised on a larger scale, the child is ready to begin writing on special paper with multiple lines.

• Children must learn to start at the correct point and follow the procedure for each letter (e. g. to make a letter ‘b’ start at the top, go down, up and around to the right and close the circle). They also learn to leave spaces between letters.

• The next phase is putting letters together to form words, which are then separated by spaces.

• These words then form sentences and simple punctuation can be introduced, such as using capital letters and full stops.

• Lastly, children are taught to form paragraphs, which leads to story-writing.

• When a child is ready, they will no longer need to write on multiple lines but can use single lines. By then, their letters will be well formed and their writing at an appropriate size for the lines they are writing on.

And there you have it! Your child will have gone through the necessary steps to go forth and become a good writer.

Read more about the developmental stages of learning to write.

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Department of Education of the Administration of the Russian Geographical Society – Preschool education

Documents that form the basis of the legal and software and methodological support of the system of preschool education

1. The Constitution of the Russian Federation.

2. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was approved by the UN General Assembly on November 20, 1989 and entered into force for the USSR and the Russian Federation on September 15, 1990.

3. Federal Law No. 124-FZ of July 24, 1998 “On Basic Guarantees of the Rights of the Child in the Russian Federation” (as amended on July 20, 2000).

4. Federal Law No. 71-FZ of April 28, 2009 “On Amendments to the Federal Law “On Basic Guarantees of the Rights of the Child in the Russian Federation” (adopted by the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on April 15, 2009).

5. Law of the Russian Federation of December 29, 2012 No. 273-FZ “On Education”

6. Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation of April 8, 2014 No. 239 “On Approval of the Procedure for Admission to Preschool Education Programs”

8. Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare. Decree No. 9 of July 22, 20101 (Registered in the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation on August 27, 2010 No. 18267).

9. On the approval of SanPiN 2.4.1.3049-13 “Sanitary and epidemiological requirements for the arrangement, maintenance and organization of the working regime in preschool organizations” dated 15. 05.2013 No. 26

10. On the approval of sanitary and epidemiological rules SP 3.1 / 2.43598- 20 “Sanitary and epidemiological requirements for the arrangement, maintenance and organization of the work of educational organizations and other social infrastructure facilities for children and youth in the context of the spread of a new coronavirus infection (COVID-19)

11. On approval of sanitary rules SP 2.4.3648-20 “Sanitary and epidemiological requirements for organizations of education and training, recreation and health improvement of children and youth”

12. On approval of sanitary and epidemiological rules and norms SanPiN 2.3/2.4. 3590-20 “Sanitary and epidemiological requirements for the organization of public catering of the population”

13. Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation of October 17, 2013 No. ‘1155 “On approval of the federal state standard for preschool education”

14. Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation dated March 24, 2010 No. 209 “On the procedure for attestation of teaching staff of state and municipal educational institutions”.

15. Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation of 14.08.2009 N 593 “Unified qualification reference book for the positions of managers, specialists and employees” Section “Qualification characteristics of the positions of education workers”.

16. Instructive-methodical letter of the Ministry of Education of the RSFSR dated 17.07.1980 No. 295-M “On the organization of educational work with children on a walk.”

17. Letter of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation dated May 17, 1995, No. 61 / 19-12 “On the psychological and pedagogical requirements for games and toys in modern conditions”.

18. Letter of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation No. 30-51-547/16 dated July 22, 2002 “On the organization of general education for parents in general education institutions”.

19. Letter from the Ministry of General and Vocational Education of the Russian Federation dated 26. 05.99. No. 109/23-16 “On the introduction of psychological and pedagogical expertise and criteria for evaluating children’s games and toys.”

20. Order of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation dated June 26, 2000 No. 1917 “On the examination of board, computer and other games, toys and play structures for children”.

21. The concept of preschool education.

content of the developing environment of preschool children brought up in the family.

24. Letter of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation dated 16.01.2002 No. 03-51-5in/23-03 “On the integrated upbringing and education of children with developmental disabilities in preschool educational institutions.”

25. Letter of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation of 29.06.1999 “On the organization in preschool educational institutions of short-term stay groups for children with developmental disabilities”

List of regulations that ensure the modernization of municipal systems of preschool education

1. Law of the Russian Federation “On Education”.

2. Law of the Russian Federation “On Basic Guarantees of the Rights of the Child in the Russian Federation” of 24.08.1998 No. 124-FZ.

3. The concept of long-term socio-economic development of the Russian Federation until 2020; Federal target program of education for 2011-2015

4. State program “Education and development of innovative economy: introduction of a modern model of education in 2009-2012”.

5. National doctrine of education in the Russian Federation;

6. Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation “On approval of the regulation on licensing educational activities” dated 31.03.2009 No. 277.

7. Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation “On approval of federal state requirements for the conditions for the implementation of the main general educational program of preschool education” dated 20.07. 2011 No. 2151.

8. Letter of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation “On the integrated upbringing and education of children with developmental disabilities in preschool educational institutions” 01 16. 01.2002 No. 03-51-5 in / 23-03.

9. Letter of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation “On the organization of short-stay groups for children with developmental disabilities in preschool educational institutions” dated June 29, 1999

organized forms of education” dated March 14, 2000, No. 65/23-16.

11. Letter of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation “On methodological recommendations for classifying a preschool educational institution as a certain type” dated May 31, 2007 No. 03-1213.

90,000 Preschool education – Committee on Education of the Lomonosovsky District of the Leningrad Region

Regulatory framework

Federal Law “On Education in the Russian Federation” (with Excessions) View

9000

Federal State Educational Standard for Preschool Education VIEW

“Procedure for organizing and implementing educational activities for basic general education programs – educational programs for preschool education” (approved by order of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation dated July 31, 2020 No. 373) SEE

Sanitary rules SP 2.4.3648-20 “Sanitary and epidemiological requirements for organizations of education and training, recreation and rehabilitation of children and youth” (approved by the decision of the chief state sanitary doctor of the Russian Federation of 09.28.20202) SEE

SanPiN 1.2.3685-21 “Hygienic standards and requirements for ensuring the safety and (or) harmlessness of environmental factors for humans” (approved by the Decree of the Chief State Sanitary Doctor of the Russian Federation dated January 28, 2021 No. 2) SEE

Sanitary and epidemiological rules and norms SanPiN 2.3 / 2.4.3590-20 “Sanitary and epidemiological requirements for the organization of public catering for the population” (approved by the decision of the chief state physician of October 27, 2020 N 32) SEE 80