Before a child learns to write, they need to build pre-writing foundation skills to prepare them for successful handwriting in the classroom. Pre-writing activities are designed to foster body awareness, build fine motor skills, and promote good posture. Once children have mastered these important steps, they can begin to write with automaticity—without having to stop and think about the mechanics of handwriting.
Multisensory materials help to teach the building blocks of letter and number formation. Using materials such as dough, Wood Pieces, and small writing tools, children strengthen their hand-eye coordination while developing muscle strength in their hands and fingers, too.
Here are some pre-writing tools and activities you can easily implement in your Pre-K classroom:
Wet-Dry-Try
Wet-Dry-Try teaches young children how to write their capital letters and numbers by engaging physical touch and three different textures on a chalkboard: a wet sponge cube, crumpled paper towel, and Little Chalk Bits!
Wood Pieces
Build letters in a way that children can easily understand with our hands-on Wood Pieces. Demonstrate capital letter formations, piece by piece—Big Lines, Big Curves, Little Lines, and Little Curves—for children to imitate and follow along.
Music
Introduce proper grip by singing and acting out the “Crayon Song” on our Get Set for School Sing Along Album. Children pick up and drop a crayon, pick it up, and drop it again. This activity is a favorite for children as they establish correct grip.
Coloring
Young children naturally love coloring and drawing, which is why our activity books are black, gray, and white to encourage coloring and personalization.
Don’t forget to come visit Learning Without Tears at NAEYC in November!
NAEYC's Annual Conference is the largest early childhood education gathering in the world. Learning Without Tears will be gathering our favorite Get Set for School® materials and heading to Washington, DC from November 14–17. If you're attending, we’d love for you to stop by our booth, say “hi," and talk to our experts!