Pre Writing Activities for Your Preschoolers

[Why:] Pre writing activity refers to an informal writing activity carried out by preschool children. It is a preparatory activity before successfully entering the formal writing activity.

[Our goal:] Use books, paintings and other ways to arouse children’s interest in books, reading and writing, and cultivate pre reading and pre writing skills.

[How:]

1. Pen Holding Practice Game - Graffiti

• Children around the age of 2 begin to enter the critical period of graffiti sensitivity. They like to draw with a pen. At this time, let them go and graffiti at will. Of course, it doesn’t mean letting children graffiti on the wall at will, but on the designated drawing paper or drawing board.

• At the beginning, there is no need to correct the child’s pen holding, as long as the child can grasp the pen. In the process of continuous graffiti, the child’s finger, hand eye coordination ability can get natural exercises.

• [When children reach the age of three or four, their muscle control ability will become stronger and stronger. At this time, they can move from unrestricted graffiti to red tracing and coloring that need more control.]

• [Parents should consciously regulate their children’s pen holding posture and guide them to develop the correct pen holding posture at the beginning, which is much easier than correcting after forming bad habits.]

2. _ Exercise the fine action game of hands - pick up beans_

• Prepare a handful of beans, a tray and a small bowl, pour soybeans on the tray, parents and children play the bean picking game together.

• Parents can guide their children to pick up beans in the tray with their thumb and index finger and then put them into a small bowl.

• This game is repeated to achieve the purpose of training children’s fine hand movements and hand eye coordination.

3. Color the Alphabet

• [Free alphabet printable encourages your child to learn the alphabet. He can begin tracing the letters and then fill them in with color.]

• [Use the letter for more than a few minutes of coloring. Encourage your kids to talk about words that start with that letter and which letter comes next in the alphabet.]

4. _Play Connect the Dots  _

• Use dots to draw letter shapes on a piece of paper. Let your child connect these points to form letters. These adjacent points will help him learn how to write the letter with shorter movements.

• We can also play the game of “writing in the air” with children. The method is very simple: Adults hold the child’s index finger and “write” letters in the air.

• Or you can do the Montessori method: write on a sandtray, rice tray, salt tray etc. to connect sensory and letter recognition.

5. Print Words as an Outline

• Learning how to write short words teaches spelling and writing simultaneously.^1^ This is also a great way to teach how to write their name.

• Write or type out words you want him to learn to write as an outline. He will be tracing within the outline so leave plenty of space within the letters for his pencil.

• [Begin with two- or three-letter words to keep it simple. He’ll learn how to spell some of his favorite words and write them too.]