Readiness & Writing
Build early literacy with our Pre-K Readiness & Writing program. Develop emergent writing skills through play-based, hands-on activities that promote fine motor development and Kindergarten readiness.
Pre-K is a crucial time for growth and development. With Readiness & Writing, students build academic readiness, fine motor, and social-emotional skills that prepare them for kindergarten and school. This engaging curriculum takes students from colors and coloring to tracing and writing letters, setting them on a path to literacy success.
In your classroom, you will:
- Use music, hands-on materials, and technology to develop writing skills for kindergarten readiness.
- Teach grip, alphabet knowledge, and strategies to prepare students to write letters, numbers, and names.
- Provide lessons that support skill progression from holding a crayon to writing letters and numbers with a pencil, to independent writing.
Help children build essential skills with purposeful manipulatives designed to make learning fun and effective. Our tools engage students through play-based techniques like music and movement while fostering fine motor and cognitive development.
Key Features:
- Progressive Skill Building: Children move from naming Wood Pieces to building Mat Man™ to forming letters.
- Play-Based Learning: Music, movement, and hands-on activities enhance engagement.
- Hybrid Learning Support: Digital tools help teachers guide lessons and work on an interactive whiteboard.
- Bilingual Resources: Materials available in both English and Spanish.
Meet Mat Man: A Hands-on Learning Creation
Supporting a smooth transition to readiness starts with essential skills, and Mat Man makes it engaging and fun for young learners. Mat Man can help! This buildable classroom friend embodies Learning Without Tears’ unique approach to hands-on learning. By building Mat Man, young learners practice crucial readiness skills, such as sharing, drawing, ​sequencing, counting, and social-emotional skills.
Mat Man teaches:
- Body awareness
- Sequence skill
- Drawing and prewriting
- Socializing and sharing
- Size recognition
- Building
- Placement
Roll-A-Dough Letters
Rolling “snakes” with dough and forming capitals on the letter card develops a multitude of skills including fine and gross motor, letter recognition and letter formation skills.
The intertwined connections to real world, real life, and all the learning modalities facilitate learner success.
Vanessa Brown, B.A., M.Ed., Retired Assistant Principal and ELA Coordinator
Learning Without Tears has improved our students’ test scores and improved their communication skills. The proof is in the numbers.
Patricia T., Administrator
The Learning Without Tears materials cut down on my prep time and are easy to implement. Plus, my students love them.
Darren R., Teacher
The reason Learning Without Tears works well for us is that it is an integrated program that takes into consideration a child’s developmental needs and looks to meet the required state standards.
Holly Harrison Martinez, Director of Elementary Literacy
The Readiness & Writing program follows a research-based developmental sequence designed to enhance fine motor skills and early writing readiness. Students begin by strengthening foundational motor skills through vertical and horizontal strokes, progress to curved formations, and eventually integrate more advanced movements, ensuring a smooth and effective progression.
- Clear, Step-by-Step Design: Each page supports fine motor development with intentional activities that build skills progressively.
- Friendly, Simple Language: Engaging text and illustrations make lessons easy to follow and support motor skill growth.
- ​Pre-writing then writing: Children need to learn grip and motor control before they can start writing letters. We teach it all in sequence.
Our Teacher Guides are designed to simplify lesson preparation, helping educators deliver effective skill-building instruction with ease. Each guide offers practical tools to support every learner, fostering fine motor and developmental writing skills to ensure early learning success.
- Minimized Prep Time: Everything needed is available on each physical or digital lesson page.
- Scripted Lessons: Suggested scripts make explicit skill-building instruction accessible for all teachers.
- Multimodal Strategies: Includes differentiation, multilingual learner support, and progress monitoring.
- Integrated Literacy Connections: Extend lessons with reading, early writing, and knowledge-building activities.
Open doors to literacy with our Spanish editions. Perfect for Pre-K to 6th-grade students, these resources help kids build strong foundational skills—from letter shapes to fluent reading—right from the start.
Designed to make learning smooth, fun, and accessible, these editions empower students to thrive in both their language and literacy journeys.
Start your early literacy journey today! We have classroom kits and materials perfect for early reading.
Readiness & Writing supplements and enhances any other Pre-K program being used in the classroom. The activities are both unique and cross-curricular, building the skills needed for K success.
- Simplified Planning: Pre-K pacing guidelines provide easy-to-follow, flexible plans that fit seamlessly into your daily routine.
- Multisensory Learning: Activities engage fine and gross motor skills while building social skills, language development, and body awareness.
- Developmental Progression: Transition from readiness activities to pre-writing skills with scaffolded lessons designed for Pre-K learners.
- Hands-On Engagement: Use manipulatives and tools to support interactive learning, from grip and coloring to alphabet knowledge and letter play.
- Comprehensive Skill Building: Lessons strengthen foundational skills needed for kindergarten readiness and early writing success.
Coming April 2025!
New Interactive Developmental Teaching Tools (IDTT) for Pre-K
Use the digital teaching tool to help guide your lessons. It is easy to launch a lesson with no prep time on an interactive whiteboard.
Build social-emotional and readiness skills through engaging, play-based activities. Students actively participate in lessons with music from The Get Set for School Sing Along music, fostering skill development through fun, interactive methods.
- Aligned with ELA Standards: Multisensory lessons and activities complement grade-level ELA instruction.
- Teacher’s Guides Support Differentiation: Includes strategies for multilingual learners, progress monitoring, and hands-on activities to enrich teaching.
- Flexible Resources: Use tools like the Magnetic Lowercase and Blackboard Set to ​teach alphabet knowledge and phonemic awareness your ELA curriculum.
We know that teacher demonstration and student imitation are essential to Pre-K learning. Throughout the curriculum, children learn on their own as well as with adult demonstration. Activities are structured in whole class, small group, and individually to maximize teaching and learning.
Start your early literacy journey today! We have classroom kits and materials perfect for early reading.
With Readiness & Writing, students become active participants in their Pre-K education through multisensory activities that encourage discovery and play. Teachers love the versatility of each tool, which supports the development of critical early skills.
These tools foster engaging, hands-on learning by introducing diverse skills through play, music, and movement.
Readiness & Writing addresses physical, social, emotional, and cognitive skills, which are crucial for school readiness and will meet children where they are. The curriculum uses play-based, interactive, and multimodal lessons to teach developmentally appropriate social skills throughout the curriculum.
Build Mat Man™ with Wood Pieces and Mat
Use the Wood Pieces and Mat to build Mat Man and teach important readiness skills to young learners. This multisensory approach builds body awareness, counting, drawing, and social skills.
Demonstrate Using Interactive Digital Teaching Tool
A digital teaching platform for managing and teaching lessons from our activity books and teacher’s guides with multimedia assets, including digital letter and number formations, instructional videos, music, and more.
Teach Phonics with the Letters to Words Blackboard Set
Bring phonics to life with the Magnetic Lowercase & Blackboard Set! Children learn letter size and placement with magnetic hands and letters, boosting their alphabet knowledge and phonemic awareness. Perfect for hands-on practice at home or in the classroom.
Practice Wet-Dry-Try on the Slate
The Wet-Dry-Try activity supports skill-building through multisensory practice, fostering foundational readiness and writing skills.
Start your early literacy journey today! We have classroom kits and materials perfect for early reading.
Our digital components offer engaging readiness lessons and activities that prepare students for the demands of school in a fun, interactive way.
- Digital Student and Teacher Editions: Access content anywhere, anytime.
- Animations, Music, and Videos: Connect letters to real-world experiences through multimedia.
- Flexible Teaching Order: Use the HWT developmental sequence or customize it to your needs.
- Microlearning Content: Deliver focused lessons aligned with key skills.
- Teacher-friendly: Easily teach each lesson with little prep time needed.
Engage your students with our Interactive Digital Teaching Tool to minimize lesson prep and deliver dynamic lessons.
New Interactive Digital Teaching Tools (IDTT) for Pre-K
Bring Pre-K instruction to life with this all-in-one digital platform. From lessons to interactive apps, IDTT reinforces readiness and strengthens learning at home.
Wet-Dry-Try
Use animated models like Wet-Dry-Try, Wood Pieces, and Letter Formations. Available in English and Spanish, students trace steps for print and cursive mastery.
Benchmark Assessments
The Readiness & Writing Benchmark Assessments make it easy to check student progress and tailor your teaching. Available through Assessments to Guide Instruction, these tools are included with your online license.
A+ Worksheet Maker
Create tailored worksheets with ease using grade-appropriate lines and spacing for Pre-K–5+, supporting handwriting, spelling, vocabulary, and more in both print and cursive.
Start your early literacy journey today! We have classroom kits and materials perfect for early reading.
Maximize Student Success in Pre-K
Maximize Student Success in Pre-K: The Effect of Mat Man and Mat Man Activities
Pre-K Research Review
A Proven Success in Preparing Pre-K Children for Kindergarten
GSS Readiness Success
Get Set for School: A Complete Pre-Program for Kindergarten Readiness Success
Before and After: Real Student Results
Made from Wood Pieces and the blue Mat, Mat Man is also a great way to teach children how to draw a person. Check out one before and after example that is only ten days apart.
Explore a range of research-backed resources that go beyond Handwriting Without Tears. These materials offer localized insights and specific studies on the benefits of using evidence-based programs in education. From visual aids to instructional tools, each resource supports effective teaching practices and helps students adapt to various classroom styles with confidence.
Wiley International Literacy Association
Emergent Writing in Preschoolers: Preliminary Evidence for a Theoretical Framework
The Ohio State University
How Many Letters Should Preschooler in Public Programs Know? The Diagnostic Efficiency of Various Preschool Letter-Naming Benchmarks for Predicting First-Grade Literacy Achievement
American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
Modeling Alphabet Skills as Instructive Feedback Within a Phonological Awareness Intervention
Language, Speech, and Healing Service in Schools
Accelerating Preschoolers’ Early Literacy Development Through Classroom-Based Teacher-Child Storybook Reading and Explicit Print Referencing
Routledge - Taylor & Francis Group
Associations Between Low-Income Children's Fine Motor Skills in Preschool and Academic Performance In Second Grade
The Open Social Science Journal, 2009
Using Tracing and Modeling with a Handwriting Without Tears Worksheet to Increase Handwriting Legibility for a Preschool Student with Autism
HHS Public Access
Early Writing Deficits in Preschoolers with Oral Language Difficulties
Every child’s literacy journey starts with the right tools and strategies. At Learning Without Tears, our programs are developed through rigorous research to provide proven, practical solutions that support educators in building strong foundational skills. From early readiness to advanced literacy, our resources empower students to thrive.