Learning to Write

Learning to write is such a fascinating (and occasionally frustrating) process.  Children begin by scribbling, and then start to make letter-like symbols.  Often they will "pretend" to write words just like they see adults doing.  As they enter Pre-K (the year before kindergarten), their letters begin to take a more conventional form.  By the end of Pre-K, most students are writing their names.  It takes lots and lots or practice, though, to get them to that goal.  

Here are a couple of ways that we work on letter writing in my preschool classroom.:

These are simply trays of flour.  We always have the students' names written out as a model.  During centers, they can choose their name card and then practice making the letters in the flour.  My younger students are working on the upper case letters of their first names.

These 2 examples are from my older students.  For the most part, they have mastered their first names in upper case.  So we are moving on to last names and lower case letters.  I love these flour trays for a couple of reasons.  They satisfy the students' need for a sensory experience, and the flour is relatively easy to clean up.  I can always pick out the students who have been working at this center because they look like that mom in the old Rice Crispies treat commercial!  (Does anyone else remember that?)

After they develop an understanding of the shape of the letter, we need to work on their pincer grasp.  This fine motor skill begins in infancy when babies learn to pick up Cheerios using just their thumb and index finger!  Children must improve their hand strength, dexterity and hand-eye coordination before they are ready for more formal writing tasks.

One of the ways that we work on this in preschool is through the use of giant thumb tacks.

I put out index cards with shapes or letters written on them.  The students place their card on a carpet square (that I got for free from the local carpet store!) and use their giant thumb tack to poke holes along the lines. 

Look at all this pincer grasp practice!

When they are ready, we add these terrific Pre-Printing practice cards to our writing center.  This set of cards breaks down writing into simple steps-- long horizontal lines, short horizontal lines, long vertical lines, slanted lines, curves, circles, etc. 

My students love this center because they get to use dry erase markers.  (It's the little things, right?!)  These pictures are actually from my younger class.  They did so well on them!

What are some ways that you encourage pre-writing fine motor skill practice with your children?