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For children who have reached a more independent stage of writing, stimulation to allow them to continue to practice and hone their writing capabilities is vital.

Therefore, a few creative ideas to spur children’s motivation to write (e.g. creative writing prompts) will be shared in this Padlet column.

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This resource offers a way to work with children to create stories through drawing and writing and this relates to the concept of developing creative writing which is supported by the study by (Everson, J) which shared that children as writers can make meaning better when they work and interact collaboratively with  teachers and peers.

This resource is suitable for children of all ages, and besides drawing and writing, they can also record their voices to tell their stories and save it as a learning memory after. This works as a multimodal approach to build literacy skills for children in the early years.

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There are many stages of emergent writing for children in the early years, starting from drawing to scribbling, followed by creating letter-like forms.
Then it leads to the steadier stage of developing phonemic awareness of words sounds, to do spelling and writing with the correct conventions of writing.

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Pre-writing skills are the fundamentals skills that children need to develop the ability to hold and move a pencil fluently before being able to write legibly.

To strengthen these skills, fun hands-on learning activities can be provided for children to enjoy and for them to develop interest in the art of writing.

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This resource offers mark-making activities and this relates to pre-writing skills concept, which is supported by Dennis and Votteler (2013) article.

Emergent writing involves mark-making which writing takes place in a form of physical markings, drawings or scribbles to represent meaning (Dennis and Votteler, 2013).

This resource offers beneficial mark-making activities that advocates hands-on and sensorial learning. Using sensorial materials, it will encourage children to explore different ways to express their feelings that represent meanings through creating physical markings.

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Get inspired with these 8 mark making ideas

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Keeping you up-to-date with the latest on education, including great teaching ideas and current issues in education.

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This resource offers outdoor play mark making activities and this relates to pre-writing skills concept, which is supported by Jean Piaget's stages of cognitive development theory (1936).

According to Piaget (1936), children know the world through their senses and motor movements and develop their language through symbolic play.

This resource contributes outdoor ideas that enhance children's learning through play, which mark-making can be done outdoors to enrich children's pre-writing skills while having fun at the same time.

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Your outdoor fences, gates, walls and railings are the perfect place to start when it comes to outdoor art. They are not only large spaces, but adding your little ones masterpieces will instantly brighten your outdoor area.

Railings with holes in are great for weaving and developing those fine motor skills. Encourage children to use a range of materials, from ribbons to leaves and flowers.

A great way to create a multi-sensory experience is to create wind chimes to attach to your fencing. They can be made from a range of loose parts including twigs, old CDs, shells and even toothbrushes. The only limit really is your imagination.

Alternatively, why not use some outdoor chalkboards to encourage imaginations and allow children to draw again and again?

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Your outdoor fences, gates, walls and railings are the perfect place to start when it comes to outdoor art. They are not only large spaces, but adding your little ones masterpieces will instantly brighten your outdoor area. Railings with holes in are great for weaving and developing those fine motor skills.

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Pictogram - ICT writing application *FAVOURITE*

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Pictogram - ICT writing application *FAVOURITE*

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This resource offers visual learning for writing and this relates to pre-writing skills concept, which is supported by Bristor and Drake (1994).

Visual literacy requires the ability "to understand, interpret and evaluate visual messages, and in turn to use visual language to communicate with others” (Bristor and Drake, 1994).

Using ICT as a visual learning teaching resource, this allows children to understand and make meaning from their interpretation. It is also visually captivating with characters and stories that will interest children to remember and learn.

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Letterland Rainbow Writing App for iOS and Android

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This resource offers drawing prompts for children and this relates to pre-writing skills concept which is supported by Nurturing Early Learners (NEL): Language and Literacy (2013).

"Children often combine different types of writing to represent their ideas and express themselves" (NEL, 2013).

This resource offers prompts for children to draw and express themselves through their drawings and sharing. Children may also write down their thoughts such as labels, words or sentences while drawing which supports their skills to convey what they feel.

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Drawing Prompts for Kids to Inspire Creative Drawing & Thinking

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Mechanics of writing are closely tied to pre-writing skills. Mechanics of writing focus mainly on the development of fine motors skills and coordination to support children in writing.

Enhancing the coordination between the hands, eyes and brain, as well as strengthening the dexterity and control of the hands will support children's writing as they gradually develop the correct technique of tripod grasp.

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This resource offers eye-hand coordination activity and this relates to the mechanics of writing, which is supported by Noella Mackenzie (2014).

Writing requires the interaction of cognitive and physical factors involving hand, eye and brain (Mackenzie, 2014).

This activity enhances children's coordination through drawing and following of directions. It allows children to work in pairs and coordinate the interaction of cognitive and physical factors through the speed, direction and pattern of the drawing.

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Tandem Drawing Art Activity for Kids and Parents

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This resource offers dexterity and this relates to the mechanics of writing concept, which is supported by Zaner-Bloser and Mary Benbow (1999).

According to Zaner-Bloser and Benbow (1999), the wrist must stabilise the hand for mature dexterity and strength.

This activity refines wrist and finger development, whereby the wrist and fingers have to be flexed and extended in order to insert the push pins and draw the lines accordingly. This activity also provides opportunities to enhance tripod grasp while holding a crayon, hand control and eye-hand coordination.

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This resource offers penmanship activities and this relates to the mechanics of writing concept, which is supported by Marie Clay (2001).

Providing opportunities for children to read and write will allow them to pick up and use information from the resources to process and make links in language literacy (Clay, 2001).

This resource provides learning in a technological and conventional way, offering ICT and physical writing experiences for children. With the instructions given on the tablet or booklet, it simultaneously encourages children to read and write.

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ONLINE Discovery - The free app for handwriting exercises on your tablet

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This resource offers bilateral coordination activities and this relates to the mechanics of writing concept, which is supported by Berk (2013).

According to Berk (2013), when motor skills work as a system, separate abilities blend together, each cooperating with others to produce more effective ways of exploring and controlling the environment.

This activity can essentially help to develop children's fine motor skills as it requires coordination between the fingers, palms, elbows, arms and grasp. Using play dough, it also helps in developing children's strength and dexterity as they manipulate with it. Additionally, writing on play dough can stimulate children's interest in writing.

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By · This content may contain affiliate links.

During the preschool years it's helpful to provide kids with a variety of ways to practice writing. And it can be fun to think past pencil and paper and use different materials. Here we show how a play dough writing tray can be used to practice writing letters, sight words, spelling words and more.

See it in Action

Step-by-Step Tutorial

To set up this play dough writing tray we used rolled out three sections of play dough and set them out next to some tools that could be used to make marks. Grab whatever you have handy. We chose toothpicks and some assorted round dowels we were given from CraftProjectIdeas.com. If you don't have anything, grab some twigs from outside. They'll work perfectly!

Preschoolers can experiment with the different tools to write the letters of the alphabet. Here we wrote matching upper and lowercase letters. If your child is just getting started with writing letters, you could place a set of flashcards with this tray for reference.

The play dough texture gives a nice resistance as kids pull down to make different strokes. You'll want to make sure you are using a nice soft batch of play dough. Homemade play dough or brand new containers of store bought dough work best. Older, drier dough will be more difficult to work with.

Older preschoolers and grade schoolers who are learning sight words or having spelling lists can practice their words using a play dough writing tray too. It's a fun way to mix up their practice!

We flip over each section of dough and smooth it out again to continue practicing more words and letters.

Hands-on Play with ABCs and 123s

If you're looking for more hands-on ways to practice the alphabet and beginning math skills with kids, check out our co-authored book ABCs and 123s. Inside you'll find over 40 kid-tested learning activities that teach beginning literacy and math in a playful way.
Learn more about ABCs and 123s
More Play Dough Fun
Play Dough Counting Garden A to Z Guide of Play Dough Activities

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By · This content may contain affiliate links. During the preschool years it's helpful to provide kids with a variety of ways to practice writing. And it can be fun to think past pencil and paper and use different materials.

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This resource offers pincer grasp activities and this relates to the mechanics of writing concept, which is supported by Vygotsky theory (1978).

This resource provides activities that enhances children's sense of touch that is required for writing as they feel the need for adjustment when holding a pen or a pencil.

These activities are sensorial which can develop children's senses and help to scaffold them in supporting their development in writing.

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I am a blog ambassador for Lakeshore and am compensated for my work. I received product free of charge, but all thoughts and opinions are 100% mine.
If you are looking for fine motor activities for preschoolers, then look no further. These fine motor activities are fun, engaging and super effective!

I am always looking for ways to work on fine motor skills with my kids. Thankfully, there are so many great fine motor tools and games you can play to work on small hand muscles and prepare kids for writing and other life skills.

Favorite Fine Motor Activities for Preschoolers

This list is jam-packed with fun and engaging fine motor activities that your preschoolers will want to do again and again!

Our favorite alphabet beads are these Giant Alphabet Beads from Lakeshore. They are big and chunky, so they are perfect for young preschoolers to lace. I like to use alphabet beads because they make it easy for children to engage with the alphabet while also developing fine motor skills. We've used them to practice spelling names, learn letters and sounds, build sight words and more.
1. Alphabet Lacing Beads
My preschooler does this activity over and over again! Simply put a bunch of craft pom poms on the table with an ice cube tray. Then add some fine motor tools like tweezers or clothespins. Children will use the fine motor tools to pick up the pom poms and place them in the tray. This is easily one of our favorite fine motor activities for preschoolers!
2. Pom Poms and an Ice Cube Tray
One of our all-time favorite fine motor activities (and the most popular one on this website) is this spider web fine motor activity! Just grab a small basket, weave some yarn through to make a "web" and add some spider rings to the bottom. Then give children tweezers or clothespins and let them get the spiders out of the web. Use more or less yarn depending on the abilities of your students/kids. The more yarn you weave around the basket, the more challenging the activity will be. My 6-year-old son still loves doing this activity! So, if your kids are older and still need fine motor practice, I highly recommend this game.
3. Spider Web Game
My kids love practicing any skill when I turn it into a game. Getting Ready to Write Gumball Grab does just that and in a super fun way! My kids absolutely love this game and have no clue how much fine motor practice they are getting at the same time. Kids grip the tweezer tongs that come with the game like they would hold a pencil, so it is awesome for developing the fine motor skills necessary for writing. This is just one of the many wonderful tools and activities from Lakeshore that help promote fine motor skills in a fun and engaging way!
4. Getting Ready to Write Gumball Grab
I created these hole punch strips (<- click here to get them) for my kids that develop fine motor skills and math skills. Children roll a dice and punch that many holes on the strip. The first one to the finish line wins! P.S. This is our favorite hole punch (affiliate link) and so much easier for my kids to use.

Developing Fine Motor Skills in Preschool
5. Hole Punch Game
My preschooler's favorite thing to do is play with water. So, I just give her cups of colored water and pipettes and she happily plays with the water while developing fine motor skills. These eyedroppers also work really well!

This Squeeze, Scoop and Count Ice Cream Shop is such a fun way for preschoolers to develop fine motor skills while also learning to count! It's also perfect for pretend play. This is a staple in our preschool supplies!
6. Pipettes and Water Play
My kids really enjoy adding these large collage buttons to play dough. They like to hide the buttons in the play dough and then dig them back out. This process is awesome for strengthening hand muscles!
7. Scoop and Count Game
This fine motor activity for preschoolers is super simple to set up! Just draw lines on colored construction paper and have the kids trace along the lines with gems, buttons or beads.
8. Play Dough and Buttons
If you are looking for ways to help your kids with scissor skills, this activity is for you. I like to take squares of colored cardstock and make cutting mazes for the kids. Just use a marker or crayon to draw a maze and then invite your kids to use scissors to go through the maze. Another option is to have the kids make their own mazes that they can share with one another.

Q-tip dot painting is always a favorite with my kids! Learn names or letters by dot painting along the lines of the letters. This requires children to use precision and helps to develop fine motor control.
9. Tracing Lines with Gems
I hope this list of fine motor activities for preschoolers is really helpful to you and that your kids enjoy them as much as my kids do!

What would you add to this list? Please share your kids' favorite fine motor activities in the comments.

I am really excited to share this 20% off coupon, so you can get a great deal on one of these awesome fine motor games or tools for your kids too! For more activities, download Lakeshore's FREE Parent's Guide,
10. Cutting Mazes 11. Q-tip Painting

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Favorite Fine Motor Activities for Preschoolers

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I am a blog ambassador for Lakeshore and am compensated for my work. I received product free of charge, but all thoughts and opinions are 100% mine. If you are looking for fine motor activities for preschoolers, then look no further. These fine motor activities are fun, engaging and super effective!

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This resource offers a teaching strategy to learn how to demonstrate writing for children in relation to the concept of building understanding of the basic conventions of writing. The importance of writing demonstration is supported by Fellowes and Oakley (2014) who stresses the need for a competent writer to model and demonstrate writing skills as children need to observe and experiment different processes of writing through their emergent writing development.

In this video, a teacher explicitly model writing by showing the process and to encourage the children to think aloud while writing. It can be easily implemented at home with simple writing resources such as paper and pen/pencils.

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This resource offers a way for parents and educators to generate acrostic poems for writing activities which supports the concept of building children's creativity in writing which is supported by a theory that shares about how acrostic poems teaches the basic concept of vocabulary learning and sentence writing.

Parents and educators can assess this website to download printable templates with 3 up to 10 letter slots to work with children to create meaningful and fun acrostic poems.

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An acrostic poem is a poem made up of sentences, where the first letters of each sentence make up a word.

Acrostic Poem Templates for Kids

For today's post, I decided to create an acrostic poem template for kids. Once I made the first template, however, I realized that it wouldn't suffice, since people's names have different lengths. In the end, I created 8 different acrostic poem templates, each with a different number of lines and boxes, depending on the letter count in the person's name. The first acrostic poem template is from people such as me, with only 3 letters in their name. (There's no templates for 2-letter and 1-letter names, because I doubt there's many people with names of that length.) The last acrostic poem template has 10 slots. Those you you who have names that are longer than 10 characters, I guess you'll just have to make your acrostic poem from scratch. Sorry, but I had to have a cut off somewhere.

Downloading Instructions: To download an acrostic poem template, click on a template below. The corresponding PDF file will open in your browser.

Already a member? Sign in. [jetpack-related-posts]

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Printable Acrostic Poem Templates for Kids, PDF Format

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An acrostic poem is a poem made up of sentences, where the first letters of each sentence make up a word. For today's post, I decided to create an acrostic poem template for kids. Once I made the first template, however, I realized that it wouldn't suffice, since people's names have different lengths.

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This resource offers a learning resource tool during writing activities and this relates to the concept of building understanding of basic conventions of writing, which is supported by this study by Julie Wells (2004), on the importance of the need for children to have room when learning how to write. Proper finger spacing between words trains children’s visual tracking skills, attention and improvement of dexterity when writing. Writing legibly increases text readability and builds the writer’s spatial layout of writing products.

Text-Spacing Idea#1

Use Finger Spacers Tool by Sensational Kids

These writing tools provides tactile and visual cues on how much space to leave between letters and words when writing.

Text-Spacing Idea #2
Download free Writing Finger Spacers of different cliparts and pictures for children to use when they are doing independent writing tasks.

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This resource offers an activity that can be used as an organization tool to contain adult and child’s written works that are deem as helpful for future writing activities.

The contents of this “Writer’s Notebook” could contain mostly writings of the child such as key points of book review, high frequency words spotted and sighted in familiar environments, instructional materials such as simple lists or just short descriptive sentences.

Other than being used a ‘word bank’, this Writer’s Notebook can be used a an informal record keeping assessment of a child’s writing development progression too.

Reference:
https://www.learner.org/workshops/middlewriting/images/pdf/HomeBestPrac.pdf

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This is a fantastic resource for parents and educators to teach this specific focus area of learning how to write from left to right, in relation to the concept of building understanding about the conventions of writing. This is a catchy instructional song ‘Top to Bottom, Left to Right’ by Zaner-Bloser that is (sung to the tune of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes) performed by children’s artist Debbie Clement.

In a paper about the influence of music on the development of children, the writers explored the importance of music involvement to positively impact the development of memory, perception, language and other learning skills of children. It was shared that music can be a useful resource to enhance children’s cognitive development (Chau & Riforgiate, 2010).

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This resource offers digital storytelling through children's drawing and this relates to pre-writing skills concept, which is supported by Gunther Kress' Multimodality theory.

This resource contains several categories in a multimodal text such as oral language and gestural design.

Using the mode of drawing, children can collaborate to tell a story while having equal opportunities to contribute. Children as 'audiences' may also undergo meaning-making during the interaction with this multimedia.

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Digital Storytelling : Intelligence and Luck

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This resource offers a activity to let children write fun sentences which relates to the concept of building children’s creativity in writing which is supported by this study by Melissa Wood (2004), that children breed excitement and understanding in their literacy learning when provided with appropriate resources and tools.

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Grammar Rule: Capitalization of People, Places and Things

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Grammar Rule: Capitalization of People, Places and Things

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This resource offers help to teach children the grammar rule to capitalize names of people, places and things and this relates to honing children’s understanding of the conventions of writing, which is supported by Luke and Freebody’s Four Resources Model (1999). In this theory, it discusses the role of a text user as being able to comprehend the different types of text types that are used for different purposes. Punctuation helps to make sentences readable and gives context and meaning to writing, and help readers thus be read and identify the different types of texts there are.

This is a printable poster that can be used at home and school as a learning resource.

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This resource offers a book resource and post-reading activities that relates to the concept of understanding the basic conventions of writing, in specific, the usage of punctuation marks for writing. It is important for children to learn about punctuation and grammar rules as their writing are to be read and understood by others. (Hill, S. 2019)

Title of book: Semicolons, Cupcakes, and Cucumbers
Author: Steve Newberry

This is a children book that is designed to make learning punctuation easier for young minds.
There is a video link to for an audio-visual version of the book. https://youtu.be/LdCOswMeXFQ

There are printable resources available on this website for post-reading activities. https://scratchgarden.com/book/

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About the Book

Scratch Garden is happy to announce that our first book is complete, and it is available now!

This book for kids' learning is unique in all aspects. It is designed to make grammar, especially punctuation, really easy for young minds. Based on our popular Punctuation Explained video, the fully illustrated book follows four friends on their wacky adventures. Readers won't even realize they are learning about punctuation on the way!

Not only will they learn about punctuation, they will be able to retain it. All of this is guaranteed to be super fun. Punctuation marks will no longer just be a boring lesson, they will come alive as new friends of the young reader.

This visually rich and engaging educational book will strike the right chords with the kids so that they learn English while playing, laughing, and enjoying themselves.

Published by Innovation Press, Semicolons, Cupcakes, and Cucumbers is available wherever books are sold!
Click on a bookstore below to find the book online!
Resources & Printables!

Here you will find a list of printable educational resources specific to our book. Keep checking back with us frequently though, as we will keep adding new resources for our curious young readers. These resources will help kids enhance their learning experience even further.

Based on the familiar memory card game "Concentration," this literacy center activity provides buddy pairs valuable practice in the correct placement and use of punctuation.

After matching punctuation marks - period, comma, question mark, exclamation point, and semicolon - with the sentences that need them to be complete, students will write the correct sentences on a recording sheet. I've provided an answer key.

Also included are teacher instructions, player instructions, and a game folder label for easy organization.
Click here to download the free resource.

This product is a freebie created in conjunction with the Innovation Press for their book "Semicolons, Cupcakes and Cucumbers". This product includes popular word wall vocabulary cards along with full-size posters for the following language arts vocabulary words:

* Comma
* Exclamation Mark
* Period
* Semicolon
* Sentence
(K,1,2,3,4,5,6)
Click here to download the free resource.

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Kids Learning / Educational Books I Scratch Garden

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Scratch Garden is happy to announce that our first book is complete, and it is available now ! This book for kids' learning is unique in all aspects. It is designed to make grammar, especially punctuation, really easy for young minds. Based on our popular Punctuation Explained video, the fully illustrated book follows four friends on their wacky adventures.

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This resource offers finger aerobics that refines fine motor skills and this relates to the mechanics of writing concept, which is supported by Zaner-Bloser and Mary Benbow (1999).

This finger aerobics activity is beneficial in enhancing fine-motor skills in many ways. It helps in developing various parts of the hand such as fingers, wrist and arches that are essential in fine motor progressions which is needed for writing.

This activity can be accompanied with songs, rhymes or stories to make it more interesting for children to be engaged in.

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