Activities for Developing Prewriting Skills

The following activities will help children develop and practice prewriting skills:

Dressing Frames or Books  Provide dressing frames or "dress myself" books that give children practice in pulling up zippers, doing up snaps, lacing, and buttoning.

Sewing Cards  Make sets of sewing cards by cutting up old greeting cards into interesting shapes and punching holes around the outside edges of each card. Use yarn for threading, making sure to put tape around the ends of each piece of yarn to make it easier for the children to thread.

Lockboxes  Create lockboxes with different kinds of latches and bolts.

Screw and Bolt Activity  Place nuts and bolts in a box, and let the children practice putting them together.

Tweezers  Have the children use a large pair of tweezers to transfer items such as cotton balls and rice from one container to another.

Practical Life Activities  Children develop strength and coordination by sponging off tables, drying dishes, washing vegetables, and slicing fruit such as bananas.

Spinning  Provide the children with spinning toys, like small tops and dreidels.

Bead Stringing  Provide the children with opportunities to string increasingly smaller beads.

Clay  Encourage the children to mold clay or dough into different forms using rolling pins, cookie cutters, and plastic knives.

Put-Together Toys  Provide the children with a variety of small building toys, like pegboards, Tinkertoys, Lock Blocks, Bristle Blocks, and so on.

Puzzles  Provide the children with alphabet inset puzzles.

Sand Letters  Encourage the children to trace letters with their fingers in sand that has been spread in shallow trays.

Template Activities Provide opportunities for the children to create designs using templates of different shapes.

Tracing  Let the children trace their own names by placing see-through paper over their names on a small clipboard.

Creating Initials The children can create the letters of their names using clay or cookie dough.

Sponge Play  Let the children use a sponge or an eyedropper to move colored water from one container to another. They can have fun mixing colors to make colors that they like.

Play Writing  Encourage children to engage in activities that are related to writing, including making greeting cards, mailing pretend letters, writing birthday invitations, and making signs for the classroom.