Pre-Writing

Pre-writing, or writing warm-ups, are activities that strengthen the eye-hand coordination and fine muscle control needed for writing. They are a great way to get your preschooler ready for writing! 

Here is a list of pre-writing ideas that we have used:

• Dressing: Have them zip, button, lace, and snap their own clothing.
• Sewing: Have them sew with a large plastic needle and yarn. Button sewing is one of my favorites.

• Drawing: Encourage lots of this and supply them with pencils, markers, crayons, chalk and more!
• Tracing: We use sandpaper letters, Quilted Rag Letters and print.

• Transferring: Transfer beans, popcorn, cotton balls, pom poms from one container to the next usung tongs or water using an eye dropper or turkey baster.
• Cutting: Have them cut freely and also along lines and shapes they have drawn.
• Folding: "Fold, press, flip" repeated over and over to make an accordian fan.
• Stringing: String beads, buttons, Cheerios, macaroni or cut up straws.
• Writing Devices: Keyboard, Typewriter, label makers, rubber stamp alphabets, magnetic letters...

Be adventurous and let your little ones create letters with pudding, rice, colored sand, cornmeal, whipped cream, finger-paint, clay, play dough, cookie dough, on a foggy window, in the dirt with a stick, or sky-writing (large letters in the air)  ~ the possibilities are endless!

I keep a box filled with different writing supplies to write on - stationary, card stock, printer paper, lined paper, sticky notes, pads of paper, mini- notebooks, index cards, scrap paper, construction paper, graph paper and more.  I like to keep a portable "Writing Center" for on the go. A zippered pencil case holds a small pad, index cards, pencils, colored pencils, scissors, and a glue stick. That way they can write anytime, anywhere!

We also have a large chalkboard, mini chalk boards and white boards for writing.

A few concepts from Ruth Beechicks book, The Three R's, that I will be implementing more with my preschooler include:

1. Copying - I will continue to write models for her to copy.
2. Dictation - I will dictate models for her to write.
3. Creative writing - I will let her make up her own writings.

Most importantly, treat all those first writing attempts as real writing!

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