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This resource offers a song to guide children the basic of beginning writing that includes capital letter, punctuations and spaces between words.

When children learn about writing, they use not only the general-purpose learning skills but also their knowledge of language. Writing is important because it allows children to learn things that they have not experience.

This relates to writing concept, which is supported by Treiman & Kessler, 2014.

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Writing is Cool!!!!!!! song for kids about the basics of beginning writing 360p

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For my Dear Students, to follow the basis of writing, from T. Skeisha!

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This resource offers several fun ways to work with fine motor skills and gross motor skills.

Fine motor development is a significant part of children's well-being. They constantly obtain, refine and consolidate their motor functions and skills and incorporate their skills across domains during their early years.

This relates to fine motor skills development concept, which is supported by VEYLDF, 2016.

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Improving your child's fine motor and gross motor skills

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This resource offers tips and strategies to help parents and educators; to help children to learn letter formations, before actual writing.

It is important to teach the correct way of forming letters from the beginning. According to Dr Carol's research, which relates to the letter formation concept of writing by learning how to form letters first, was "a strong relationship has shown to exist between orthographic-motor integration and students' ability to produce creative and well-structured written text" (Christensen, 2010).

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I use small photos to illustrate the information and activities that I share, and you will have a much better experience on this website if you can view the images.

Is your child struggling to form letters correctly? These letter formation tips and strategies may help!

Why Teach Correct Letter Formations?

Children should not be expected to "catch" writing skills (Graham, 1999, in Christensen, 2004) just from being given opportunities to play with pencil and paper activities - rather, they need to learn to master handwriting with very specific lessons!

Learning to form letters correctly forms a big part of efficient handwriting.

Kids who have not learned to form letters consistently correctly may be putting so much effort into remembering and writing the letters that they don't have the mental energy left for creative writing or correctly answering questions.

This is why I feel it is important to teach correct letter formations from the very beginning. Once your child can write letters correctly, automatically, without thinking about them, he/she will be able to focus more on actually learning!

Letter Formation Tips

1) Shapes and patterns before letters and numbers! If your child has not yet mastered drawing shapes and patterns, then work on these first before attempting numbers and letters.

Tracing and drawing shapes and patterns will help your child master the diagonals and curves necessary for letter formations.

2) The order of mastery is to first trace the letters, then to copy them, then to write them with a starting point cue, then to write them completely independently without cues.

If your child can not yet copy a letter with the correct formation, then write the letter and have your child trace it. You may even find it helpful to guide your child's hand as they trace the letter as in the picture above).

3) Start with the letters of your child's name. So often, preschoolers learn to write their name by copying it any old how - and poor letter formation habits become deeply entrenched. Help your preschooler master the letters of their name correctly, and you will have laid a good foundation for learning the other letters.

4) Teach letters in families. Similarly formed letters can be taught together - for example c, d, o. Make use of a good handwriting program such as Handwriting Heroes or Handwriting Without Tears.

5) Make sure your child starts the letter or number in the correct place, and that he/she forms it correctly. Some kids are very good at getting their letter to LOOK correct, but their strokes were perhaps bottom to top, or right to left - so pay careful attention to HOW your child forms the letter, not just what it looks like at the end!

6) Use a multisensory approach. As well as the fun ideas on my letter formation activities page, try stories about each letter, rhymes or songs that will help your child remember where to start and stop each letter.

I used a program similar to Handwriting Heroes to help my kids remember the correct formations. South Africans may want to check out The Happy Handwriter for locally supplied resources.

7) Do letter formations as part of a gross motor activity. For example, have your child crawl, hop or jump to each letter and trace it, whether on a floor, a table or a wall.

Why Do Some Kids Struggle?

Learning to form letters and numbers involves a number of different foundation skills.

Schickedanz (1999, in Dinehart, 2014) believes that children not only have to see the letter correctly reproduced in front of them, but they also need to recognize the line segments that form the letter and then have the ability to reproduce the sequence and direction of the segments that make up the letter.

Good visual perception skills will enable your child be able to perceive the parts of the letter correctly (straight line, curves, diagonals).

Good fine motor skills will enable your child to hold and control a pencil or crayon in order to replicate the letter efficiently.

Good visual-motor integration skills will enable your child's visual system to guide the motor system in correctly forming and spacing the letter.

So if your child struggles with any or all of these foundational areas, then he/she may struggle to form letters correctly.

Letter Formation Tips For Kids Who Struggle

If your child is struggling to form recognizable numbers and letters, I really recommend you take a break from working on these, and work on some of the underlying foundational skills.

This is particularly true if your child is still in preschool!

There are lots of free activities on my site to help promote your child's normal development.

If, however, you are concerned about your child's development, please consult an occupational therapist for guidance! These letter formation tips are NOT a substitute for therapy!

I hope you found these letter formation tips helpful!

Why not sign up for my occasional newsletter to stay in touch with new activities and tips on my site?

References

Dinehart, L.D. Handwriting in early childhood education: Current research and future implications. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy. March 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1468798414522825

Christensen, C.A. Relationship between orthographic-motor integration and computer use of the production of creative and well-structured written text. British Journal of Educational Psychology 74(Pt 4):551-64. December 2004. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/0007099042376373

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Viewing this page on your device? Please adjust your settings to enable images! I use small photos to illustrate the information and activities that I share, and you will have a much better experience on this website if you can view the images. Is your child struggling to form letters correctly?

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This resource offers tips of teaching the children to use the tools of the writing conventions such as punctuation, capitalisation, grammar and spelling.

Writing conventions deliver as representations for readers which provide recognisable ground for understanding what the writing says. As such, reading and writing are the foundations for learning about the effective use of writing conventions.

This relates to writing conventions concept, which is supported by Peterson, 2008.

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This resource offers five fun and easy ways to practice spelling words, such as wrapping paper spelling, pyramid spelling, crisscross spelling and many more. This is to engage children in learning how to spell words, which the "proficiency in spelling actually supports reading" (Reed, 2012).

This relates to the spelling concept, which is supported by Deborah K. Reed's research.

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Angelillo, J., & Calkins, L. (2002). A Fresh Approach to Teaching Punctuation: Helping Young Writers Use Conventions with Precision and Purpose. New York: Scholastic Inc.

Byington, T. A., & Kim, Y. (2017, November). Promoting Preschoolers’ Emergent Writing. Retrieved from https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/nov2017/emergent-writing

Bodrova, E., & Leong, D. J. (1998). Scaffolding Emergent W riting Scaffolding Emergent W ... Retrieved from https://readingrecovery.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/LTL_3.2-Bodrova-Leong.pdf

Christensen, C. A. (2010, December 16). Relationship between orthographic‐motor integration and computer use for the production of creative and well‐structured written text - Christensen - 2004 - British Journal of Educational Psychology - Wiley Online Library. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1348/0007099042376373

Clay, M. (1995). Reading Recovery: A Guidebook for Teachers in Training. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Concannon-Gibney, T. (2018). Teaching Essential Literacy Skills in the Early Years Classroom: A Guide for Students and Teachers. Routledge.

Deiner, P. (2009). Inclusive Early Childhood Education: Development, Resources, and Practice (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Diller, D. (2003). Literacy Work Stations: Making Centers Work. Stenhouse Publishers.

Freeman, C. (2019, June 01). 5 Spelling strategies for dyslexia (M. Cicerchia, Ed.). Retrieved from https://www.readandspell.com/spelling-strategies-for-dyslexia

Isaacson, S. (2015, June 19). Simple Ways to Assess the Writing Skills of Students with Learning Disabilities. Retrieved from https://www.readingrockets.org/article/simple-ways-assess-writing-skills-students-learning-disabilities

Kennedy, A & Stonehouse, A 2012, Victorian Early Years Learning and
Development Framework Practice Principle Guide, Early Childhood
Strategy Division, Department of Education and Early Childhood
Development, East Melbourne.

Machado, J. (2015). Early Childhood Experiences in Language Arts: Early Literacy(11th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Mackenzie, N. M., & Scull, J. (n.d.). Using a writing analysis tool to monitor student progress and focus teaching decisions. Retrieved from https://monash.rl.talis.com/items/DB3A59B2-5049-93C3-7A42-62D6068D0777.html

Medwell, J., Strand, S., & Wray, D. (2009). The links between handwriting and composing for Y6 children. Cambridge Journal of Education, 39(3), 329-344. doi:10.1080/03057640903103728

Meier, D. (2015). Teaching Children to Write: Constructing Meaning and Mastering Mechanics. New York: Teachers College Press.

Ministry of Education. (2013). Nurturing Early Learners: Language and Literacy (1st ed., p. 11). Singapore.

Peterson, S. (2008). Writing Across the Curriculum: All Teachers Teach Writing. Portage & Main Press.

Reed, D. K. (2012). Why teach spelling? Portsmouth, NH:
RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction. Retrieved 10 August 2019, from https://keystoliteracy.com/wp-content/pdfs/orc-genlit/Why%20Teach%20Spelling.pdf

Roux., T. L. (2009). Letter Formation Activities. Retrieved 2019, from https://www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com/letter-formation-activities.html

Smith, J. (2003). Activities for fine motor skills development. Westminster, Calif.: Teacher Created Resources.

Treiman, R., & Kessler, B. (2014). How Children Learn to Write Words. Oxford University Press.

Whitehead, M (2010) Language and Literacy in the Early Years 0-7, 4th Edition. London: SAGE.

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This resource offers a technique to help dyslexic, by adding a visual aid image to the word, for the person with dyslexia to relate.

This relates to the spelling concept and according to Chris & Meredith, "dyslexia can impact on spelling when students are not able to hear the small units of sound that represent meaning. They therefore have difficulty in encoding and decoding sounds, skills which are necessary in order to manipulate them" (Freeman & Cicerchia, 2019).

Therefore, with this visual aid spelling technique, it would help dyslexic people to relate the words and make meaning to their reading.

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This resource offers ideas for hands-on learning activities such as worksheets and templates which helps children to learn, practice and refine their fine motor skills. It also includes developmental checklists as a guideline to anticipate stages of child development from 18 months to 5 years old.

This relates to fine motor skills development concept, which is supported by Smith, 2003.

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This resource offers a variety of letter formation activities that does not encourage the use of common writing tools like paper and pencil; and whereby children can also hone the skill for good fine motor skills.

Letter formation is the "art of forming numbers and letters and drawing patterns", and when children starts "forming numbers and letters correctly from the very beginning can help reduce letter reversals, messy handwriting and errors in later years"  (Roux., 2009).

This relates to letter formation concept, which is supported by Medwell, Strand, & Wray's research that "handwriting is not just about training the hand; it is about training the memory and hand to work together to generate the correct mental images and patterns of letters and translate these into motor patterns of letters - automatically and without effort"  (Medwell, Strand, & Wray, 2009).

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Letter Formation Activities for Kids With Poor Fine Motor Skills

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These letter formation activities may help your child to learn number and letter formations even if your child has not yet mastered pencil control and fine motor skills. Poor fine motor skills can seriously hamper your child's handwriting efforts. And it is easy to get frustrated with your child when it is a battle to practice numbers and letters.

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Tips for Children with Motor Disabilities

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Tips for Children with Motor Disabilities

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Art and crafts for children with motor disabilities help them express themselves creatively, build confidence, and aid in strengthening fine and gross motor skills.

Creative arts also allow children to develop and practice necessary skills and movements in a safe way. In addition, creative arts provide children with the opportunity to explore their world.

This relates to fine motor skills development concept, which is supported by Deiner, 2009.

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Inclusion practices in arts and crafts benefit kids with motor disabilities AND their same-aged peers. Crafts for kids with motor disabilities can help them express themselves creatively, build confidence, and aid in strengthening fine and gross motor skills. Children who grow up interacting with individuals with disabilities and chronic illness come to view these differences as a normal part of life.

While art is beneficial for all children, choosing crafts for kids with motor disabilities may pose an extra challenge, but adapting to the needs of children with physical disabilities will make art accessible and fun, and promote self-esteem and confidence.

Our mission at CoachArt is to create a transformative arts and athletics community for kids impacted by childhood chronic illness. For parents, guardians, and caregivers who want to provide enriching crafts for children with physical conditions, we've compiled a list of resources along with these 10 Easy Crafts for Kids with Motor Disabilities.

Honey and Lime put together 32 Of The Best Pool Noodle Hacks, Crafts, and Games. From obstacle courses to DIY game sets, large foam pool noodles are a good material for crafts for children with motor disabilities. This can be a great experience for a child who has difficulty grasping or controlling smaller objects, and the child will be able to use their creativity in versatile ways.

Large pastel chalk can be a great free-form art tool for kids with limited hand mobility because the chalk sticks can go in between fingers as well as a clenched fist if a child prefers. This is particularly helpful to create sections of color. The sides of a child's hand or blending tools can be used to blend multiple colors. This can be a fun art tool for children of varying abilities, as well as those with gross and fine motor limitations.

Gripping a paintbrush may be challenging for children with motor disabilities. Utilizing familiar tools like cut fruits, such as apples, or textured materials, like egg cartons, is a fun way to create stamp crafts for kids with motor disabilities that can be easily grasped. Stamp painting is easy with these adaptive tools.

This cooperative art project by KinderART is a great way to facilitate a large group project that can be accomplished by children of all abilities, including kids with limited vision or motor skills. In this project, kids create a tree together using different leaf cutouts, which challenges kids to explore overlapping techniques and mixing colors, and encourages working together as a group.

Bonus Tip: Try using mixed media like leaves to add extra sensory materials and variation. CoachArt created similar projects in our mixed media art club, where kids impacted by chronic illness used various materials including leaves and paint.

Featured in 45+ Crafts for Kids with Special Needs, this video from All Free Kids Crafts gives a recipe for do-it-yourself Play-Doh! Slime, Play-Doh, and Foam can be wonderful crafts for kids with motor disabilities, as molding these soft materials can be easy and fun for a child with limited muscle control, and also engages multiple senses, particularly when scented Play-Doh is used.

Video by All Free Kids Crafts

Free-form molding materials like clay are typically excellent for use in crafts for children with motor disabilities. Clay and molding art projects can enhance creativity for children with differing abilities while allowing those with fine motor challenges to work with ease without need for small art tools that may require a more precise grip.

Video by Red Ted Art

Do-it-yourself rainbow crayon crafts for kids with motor disabilities provide children with fine motor practice with a larger-grip art tool. It's also fun to create, fun to use, and allows for creative self-expression!

Large-grip rainbow crayons are easy to prepare from recycled or broken crayons, and only require old crayons, a silicone mold, a microwave, a bowl, and water.

Tearing paper is an amazing fine motor activity for kids! According to The OT Toolbox, "Tearing paper requires strength and endurance of the small muscles in the hand. These intrinsic muscles are important in so many fine motor skills, including handwriting and coloring, managing buttons and zippers, manipulating pegs, and more. When paper is torn, the hands assume a great 'tripod' grasp, a mature grasp for writing and coloring. The non-dominant hand assists in the tearing and encourages appropriate assistance for tasks like holding paper while writing and managing paper while cutting with scissors." Paper-tearing art activities can be a great way for kids to get creative, especially if they aren't comfortable with scissors.

Creating a vision board, or dream board, is a fantastic activity for kids of all abilities and ages! It helps children to create goals, engage in self-discovery, and express their creativity. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways to suit a child's comfort level and can be done as a dream book, or with a large poster board that can be positioned in a way that suits the child's specific needs. A variety of materials can be used to aid children with motor disabilities.
Common Materials That Children Can Choose From:

photos

images

magazine cutouts/tearouts

phrases/words

stickers

glue/glue sticks/adhesives

markers/crayons

poster boards

paints

scissors

For a creative and tasty treat that every child will enjoy, baking and decorating their own cookies or cupcakes is a win-win! It can be a fantastic way to unleash a child's creativity and engage multiple senses. Tools of different sizes and shapes can be used to create these edible crafts for kids with motor disabilities. Some ideas to customize a project include adding food coloring, sprinkles, or a child's favorite toppings. From shaping and molding to detailed decorating, the possibilities are endless and sure to be a hit.

Additional Resources: Crafts for Kids with Motor Disabilities

Art Lessons for Children with Disabilities: Physical Disabilities In this resource from Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art and VSA (a program of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts), examples of adaptive art for children with physical disabilities are suggested.

Adaptive Art Tools Art teacher Catherine Petrino gives excellent ideas and examples for adaptive art tools for individuals with special needs.

CoachArt Special Needs Inclusion offers tips for communicating with special needs children and inclusion tips for kids with motor disabilities and other forms of chronic illness.

Adapting Art Experiences for Children with Physical Disabilities Bright Hub Education give excellent suggestions for adapting arts and crafts for kids with motor disabilities, including tips for positioning, mediums, and utensils.

Creative Art Activities for Children with Special Needs eXtension Alliance explains how to modify or adapt art activities in child care settings so that all children can participate.

Tips for Art Inclusion for Children With Limited Use of Hands or Arms:

Modeling clay as a gripper for pens, pencils, crayons, and paintbrushes.

Provide the option of table easels.

Stabilize materials using tape, velcro, or non-skid backing.

Fishing weights or drapery weights placed on the ends of the tools.

Paintbrushes, chalk, and crayons with rounded ends for children who are most comfortable with a fist grip.

When it is difficult for students to use squeeze tubes, try sticky boards.

Tips for Assisting in Arts and Crafts for Kids with Motor Disabilities

1. Allow the child to express their preferences and needs.

2. Don't assume a child requires help. Assist a child in creating art in a way that makes them feel comfortable.

3. Use adaptive art tools as necessary or as preferred.

4. Encourage a child's efforts to be creative.

5. Modify projects as needed as a child expresses their comfort level with the activity.

6. Have fun! Art is about having fun and if you are having fun, the child you're working with will be open to exploring their creativity.

Making a Difference for Families Impacted by Childhood Chronic Illness
If a child has a motor disability that makes art challenging, these 10 adaptive crafts and resources can help build their confidence and foster their creativity. What are some of your favorite adaptive crafts for kids? We'd love to hear from you. Please share your experience with us in the comments.
CoachArt creates a transformative arts and athletics community for families impacted by childhood chronic illness. CoachArt was founded in 2001 by Zander Lurie and Leah Bernthal in memory of Zander's father, Dr. Arthur Lurie, a cardiac surgeon who recognized the need for long-term support and enrichment among the pediatric patient population.

Today, CoachArt provides high-quality, no-cost lessons and activities in arts and athletics to children in Los Angeles, San Diego, and the San Francisco Bay Area with the support of volunteers, community partners, and generous donors. To get involved please visit CoachArt.org/get-involved or call 213-736-2850.

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10 Easy Crafts for Kids with Motor Disabilities

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Inclusion practices in arts and crafts benefit kids with motor disabilities AND their same-aged peers. Crafts for kids with motor disabilities can help them express themselves creatively, build confidence, and aid in strengthening fine and gross motor skills. Children who grow up interacting with individuals with disabilities and chronic illness come to view these differences as a normal part of life.

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This resource offers an educational journey with the most engaging and entertaining handwriting app for children. They can learn to associate with words, tracing and formation of words with various exciting animations, graphics and sound effects.

According to Whitehead, 2010, both reading and writing are a way to interact and need to be emphasized in the early years as children will learn to communicate by reading and writing (phonics, pencil grip, letter formation).

This relates to letter formation and handwriting concept, which is supported by Whitehead, 2010.

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Which school font suits you best?

Picking relevant digital learning materials can be a hard job. The App Stores are full of 'educational' apps but only a few of them truly fit the curriculum taught at schools. Luckily, LetterSchool is one of them!

In LetterSchool you can find the school font styles that are practiced in schools in the US:

1. Zaner-Bloser style

2. Handwriting Without Tears style

3. D'Nealian style

You can change the font style in the settings menu to make sure the pupils learn the right font!

Are you using a different language version of LetterSchool? We support other local fonts as well.

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Which school font suits you best? Picking relevant digital learning materials can be a hard job. The App Stores are full of 'educational' apps but only a few of them truly fit the curriculum taught at schools. Luckily, LetterSchool is one of them!

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This resource offers a rhyme to help children to hold a pencil in a tripod grip the correct way. It enables the children to control the pencil more efficient with finger movements.

Fine motor skills are needed for writing, and without them the capacity of children to form letters fluently and legibly will be significantly impacted.

This relates to fine motor skills development concept, which is supported by Concannon-Gibney, 2018.

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This resource offers activities that helps to build eye-hand coordination as children need to develop their fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination, so as to hold and use writing tools before they learn to write conventionally.

This relates to fine motor skills development and eye-hand coordination concept, which is supported by NEL framework, 2013.

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Come discover fourteen activities to strengthen hand eye coordination for toddlers and preschoolers. All of these hands-on hand eye coordination activities feature play-based learning!

It's important for young kids to develop hand-eye coordination. These skills help us write, lace, pour, throw/catch, and so much more.

Each of the eye hand coordination activities featured below will help your preschoolers strengthen this skill through play.

Hand Eye Coordination Activities

Flower Eye-Hand Coordination Activity | Preschoolers will strengthen their motor skills and hand-eye coordination as they scoop beads into shaped ice cube trays. The OT Toolbox

Fine Motor Activities for Vision and Hand-Eye Coordination | I love each one of these hands-on activities, and I think your preschoolers will, too! The Educators' Spin On It

Safe, Kid-Made Archery Target | Target practice is perfect for building hand-eye coordination. In addition, while working with a plastic bow and hour, little ones will work on building gross motor skills, as well. No Time for Flashcards

Ideas for Helping Kids Learn to Open Food Packages | Each of these activities will not only build hand strength, but they are perfect precursors for learning to open a bag of chips or a carton of milk. The Inspired Tree House

DIY Zipping Frame | Build a "zipping frame" so little ones can practice zipping a zipper. This will come in handy as winter approaches. Carrots Are Orange

Button Play | You won't believe how easy it is to teach kids to button a shirt with this DIY project. The OT Toolbox

Fruit Loop Towers | I first saw this idea on Facebook, and it's a great way to work on hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills at the same time. Mess for Less

Colander Sculpture | Your little builders will have so much fun building pipe cleaner sculptures with this project. Tinkerlab

Button Sorting Cups | If you've got a lot of old buttons lying around, use them to create these fun button sorting cups. About Family Crafts

Building with Straw and Pipe Cleaners | Here's another fun project for builders. What kinds of structures can your kids build with straws and pipe cleaners? Meaningful Mama

Pom-Pom Drop | I love this pom pom drop activity. Kids will work on hand-eye coordination, fine and gross motor skills, and color matching. Princesses, Pies, and Preschool Pizazz

Q-Tip Dot Painting | Kids will become familiar with the letters in their name as they paint with q-tips in this activity. Learning 4 Kids

DIY Geoboard | My kids loved geoboards when they were younger. They're so fun for learning shapes, making designs, and working on coordination and motor skills. Crayon Box Chronicles

Pasta Threading | This is similar to the froot loop threading activity above, but with pasta and straws it's ideal for younger kiddos. Laughing Kids Learn

Which of these coordination activities will you try first with your preschoolers?

Related Posts

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14 Amazing Hand Eye Coordination Activities

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Come discover fourteen activities to strengthen hand eye coordination for toddlers and preschoolers. All of these hands-on hand eye coordination activities feature play-based learning! It's important for young kids to develop hand-eye coordination. These skills help us write, lace, pour, throw/catch, and so much more.

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This resource offers worksheets, games and hands-on activities to help children to learn spelling in a more fun and interactive way.

Spelling serves as a significant stage in the process of deciphering the sound-symbol system of written language.

This relates to spelling concept, which is supported by Machado, 2015.

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Resources to Soar Over Spelling Speed Bumps

It's not uncommon for students to hit a few snags when it comes to spelling. The Learning Library's spelling tools can help learners over the tricky hurdle with straightforward lessons and activities.

Fumbling over February or stumbling over September will not be necessary with teacher-created worksheets dedicated to learning specific words. Fifth-graders can tackle the advanced and confusing world of homophones with valuable guided lessons. An enjoyable cave adventure game can help kids learn long-form words quickly.

Numerous inventive lesson plans such as Onomatopoeia Zoo introduces second-graders to the alliterative word with the famous tune of "Old McDonald." The "Diphthong Song" primes kids on those rebellious multi-vowel sounds. In addition to creative lessons, hands-on challenges make the often tedious topic of spelling a delight. Creating a vocabulary flip book is a tried-and-true method of committing spelling words to memory, but other tasks such as the jumping bean phonics game utilizes children's playful nature.

The curated library of resources will not only help kids learn the essential skill of spelling, but they will also instill a love of letters.

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It's not uncommon for students to hit a few snags when it comes to spelling. The Learning Library's spelling tools can help learners over the tricky hurdle with straightforward lessons and activities. Fumbling over February or stumbling over September will not be necessary with teacher-created worksheets dedicated to learning specific words.

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This resource offers various ways of assessing students on their writing skills. Assessments are done to "monitor students progress and focus teaching decisions" (Mackenzie & Scull), and "to give a complete picture of a student's writing performance across different text structures and genres" (Isaacson, 2015).

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Simple Ways to Assess the Writing Skills of Students with Learning Disabilities

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Student writing can be evaluated on five product factors: fluency, content, conventions, syntax, and vocabulary. Writing samples also should be assessed across a variety of purposes for writing to give a complete picture of a student’s writing performance across different text structures and genres.…

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This resource offers the overview of the different stages of emergent writing, that showcases the different kinds of writing that is evident in a preschool class.

This relates to writing skills concept that is supported through an innovative method, called 'scaffolded writing'; which is based on Vygotsky's theory of learning and development  (Bodrova & Leong, 1998) .

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This resource offers a hands-on activity by using straws and pipe cleaners to help children create letters, sort them and compare letter characteristics. The straws are used as straight lines and the pipe cleaners are used as curves. It is not just enjoyable and playful to create the alphabet, it allows children to organise into categories what they understand about letters and words.

Clay (1995) believed that seeing letters in print is an important part of letter learning, but she prefers instruction that incorporates Three Ways of Remembering unknown letters.

This relates to forming letters concept, which is supported by Clay, 1995.

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Welcome back for another Hands On Play Party. This week I thought it would be fun to share one of our quick and playful learning activities from our homeschooling day. My boys are both past the "letter learning" phase, but that does not mean that they understand letter formation. In fact, both boys struggle with their fine motor skills and their handwriting. I needed a hands-on way to study letter formation and what better way than to use fun straws and pipe cleaners.
{This post may contain affiliate links to materials I recommend. Anything you purchase through these links helps support Lemon Lime Adventures. Thank you in advance for choosing to support us.}
When I was in the classroom I had these handy letter formation kits that I just loved. They were perfect for helping kids build letters, sort them, and compare the letter atrributes. Unfortunately, now I am home and I don't have access to all the cool materials I had collected over course of 12 years I was in the classroom.

So I made our own and you can, too!
What You Need: Before You Begin with Your Letter Formation
Cut your straws and pipe cleaners into smaller pieces. We made some long and some short pieces to make the different parts of each letter.

We collected the straights (straws) and curves (pipe cleaners) in wooden dishes to create an inviting and organized environment for learning and play.

You can do this step ahead of time to save time, but I let Bones (6) do the cutting to give him even more fine motor practice.

Finally, we curled each pipe cleaner to resemble the curved aspect of some letters.

Now You're Ready for Some Playful Learning

Using the straws as straight lines and the pipe cleaners as curves, Bones set to work to build his alphabet. He had so much fun creating and even asked if we would be able to hang up the work when we were done. (we did not do that this time, but we just might next time around!)

Creating the alphabet is not just fun and playful, it enables children to organize what they know about letters and words into categories (a filing system, if you will). Using two different colors provides a very distinct visual for the children to SEE the different shapes and attributes that make up a letter.

The more letters Bones made, the more connection he made...

Hey! The F is like E.

Wait, The V is just the inside of the M.

Oh, if I can make B, I can make P.

Instant confidence booster!

Once Bones finished with making all of his letters he used a sorting mat to move the letters into categories based on their attributes (straight lines, curved lines, and both).

Lastly, he wrote down all of the letters he made and stepped back and was so proud at what he had done.

And you know what? So was I! His handwriting had improved tremendously!

Be sure to download your free Letter Sorting Mat by clicking on the picture below!

Now it's time for the Hands On Play party!

Visit Our Co-Hosts

Art Inspired by The Carrot Seed from Stir the Wonder

Loose Parts and Mirror Play from P is for Preschooler

Homemade Coffee Scented Play Dough from Little Bins for Little Hands

Follow Lemon Lime Adventures's board Learning: FIne Motor/ Handwriting on Pinterest.

Follow Little Bins For Little Hands's board Hands On Play Activities for Kids on Pinterest.

Its your turn to show us your Hands-on Play ideas.

Do you have a favorite Hands On Play Idea? How do you encourage hands on learning? I can't wait to see!

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Welcome back for another Hands On Play Party. This week I thought it would be fun to share one of our quick and playful learning activities from our homeschooling day. My boys are both past the "letter learning" phase, but that does not mean that they understand letter formation.

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This resource offers a literacy teaching toolkit on how educators can build authentic experiences and engage in writing with children while embedding significant learning foci for emerging literacy growth.

Primary school years are a key time to instill lifelong writing practices and arrangements, and children learn sophisticated methods to produce strong, engaging, and masterful writing. Learning how to write with skills, precision, style, and originality is a key period in their writing life.

This relates to writing concept, which is supported by Meier, 2015.

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​Explore how educators can create authentic, and engaging writing experiences with children, while embedding important learning foci for development of emergent literacy.

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This resource offers a video of alphabet workout which strengthens alphabet recognition, letter formation skills and fitness. The workout teaches writing of the upper case letters to develop the exercise movements and verbal letter formation directions. This song incorporates visual, auditory and kinesthetics learning that will be a great help for children to practice forming the letters and making body and brain connections.

Teaching the right letter formation to children is essential as they learn to write letters and words by emphasizing that strokes should go from top to bottom and from left to right.

This relates to forming letters concept, which is supported by Diller, 2003.

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Letters of the Alphabet | Capital Letters | Uppercase Letters | Alphabet Workout | Jack Hartmann

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This resource offers punctuation activities which includes sorting, displays, posters and PowerPoints to help in the scaffolding of the children knowledge of punctuation.

Punctuation is component of a successful writing ability as it is used to communicate significance, tension to pull the reader along, thoughtful organization, word selection, a satisfactory end, and a host of others. Punctuation is what connects ideas together that enables children with clarity and grace to envelop and communicate layered thoughts.

This relates to punctuation concept, which is supported by Angelillo & Calkins, 2002.

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28 Punctuation Resources and Activities | Teach Starter

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Written by Holly (Teach Starter) Sentence Sorting Activity Make your classroom buzz! Create a free Teach Starter account and download hundreds of time-saving resources. Find out more I used our dinosaur tray labels in studio to type dinosaur inspired sentences. I created a mix of statement and question sentences.

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This resource offers ideas in creating an environment for writing, which includes the opportunity for young children to explore writing tools, that strengthens the hands and fingers, while also exposing children to the alphabet.

This relates to the stages of writing concept, which is supported by Teresa and Yaebin; that there is "a framework to explain on the emergent writing practices, which comprises of the three domains: conceptual knowledge, procedural knowledge and generative knowledge. Conceptual knowledge includes learning the function of writing, while procedural knowledge is the mechanics of letter and word writing; and lastly, generative knowledge describes children's abilities to write phrases and sentences to convey meaning"  (Byington & Kim, 2017).

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Inside: The preschool writing center is an important area of the classroom for exploring writing tools while also working on fine motor and literacy skills. Here are some of our favorite tips and activities!
Providing a writing center in the preschool classroom is a fun way to encourage young children to use writing tools.

This area can have a variety of materials that strengthen the hands and fingers, while also exposing children to the alphabet.

While some might be able to write some letters, or their names, others might be working on circles and lines.

Having an open-ended center allows children of different learning levels to explore in their own way.
Make sure to scroll down to find all the free printables, including our list of favorite writing center materials!
How to Set Up the Preschool Writing Center
Watch the video:
The writing center is considered one of the quieter areas of the classroom.

I like to make sure there is a small table with at least 2 chairs, so that a couple of children can work at the same time.

(Sometimes our children will find another chair to make room for a 3rd child.)

This is also a good spot to keep journals, either on a shelf or in a basket.

Related: How to Introduce Journals to 3 Year Olds

There are a lot of fun materials that can be used in the writing center.

When choosing these materials, keep your pre-writers and your writers in mind.

Sometimes pre-writers are reluctant to sit and hold a writing utensil, especially if they are working on building those fine motor skills.

For this reason, I make sure to always have materials in this area that pre-writers will feel comfortable using. Some of the materials mentioned below are for those who have developed stronger fine motor skills. After observing your children, you can determine which will work best.

Also please note that this collection does include some materials with small pieces. If you are working with children who are still putting items in their mouths, do not include them.

Crayons and Markers
The free circle printables, shown above, can be found in our circle packet located in this post.
Stamps, Stickers and Stencils

Magnetic, Dry Erase and Chalk Boards

Paper and Tape

Other Items

Free Printable List

Download and print this pdf to save as a reference when purchasing supplies!

Centers Time Resources
Our Favorite Toddler Learning Centers How to Set Up Your Preschool Learning Center How to Set Up Your Preschool Science Center The Best Activities for the Bock Center 25+ Ideas for the Dramatic Play Area
New Teacher?

Check out the Preschool Teacher Survival Guide!

Free Printables to Put in Your Writing Center

Click on each photo below for the pdf download:

More Ways to Strengthen Fine Motor Skills
25 Easy Toddler Fine Motor Activities 10 Fun Ways to Strengthen Scissor Skills 17+ of the Best Preschool Fine Motor Activities

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How to Set Up the Preschool Writing Center

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Inside: The preschool writing center is an important area of the classroom for exploring writing tools while also working on fine motor and literacy skills. Here are some of our favorite tips and activities! Providing a writing center in the preschool classroom is a fun way to encourage young children to use writing tools.

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EDF3034 AT1 Tay Shu Hui 30873584 & Yuen Yin Qi 30669928 Lollypops & Bubblegum Group