Writing Readiness
Learn Writing Readiness through play.
Writing sits on top of a lot of physical skill: gripping, squeezing, pinching, controlling a line, crossing the middle of the body with one hand. None of that is built by writing, and asking a child to form letters before it exists produces a tired, frustrated child and a bad grip.
So these are threading, tearing, squeezing pegs, drawing in trays of salt, painting with water on a wall, tracing shapes with a finger, and tearing paper into a bowl. They look nothing like handwriting and they are the groundwork for it.
Big before small, and standing up before sitting down. Chalk on a wall and a paintbrush in a bucket of water do more at three than a pencil and a workbook.
Activities
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Draw Round Their Hand and Keep It
One sheet, once a year: their hand, their height, and three things they can do now that they could not last year.
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Handprint Turkeys for the Table
Draw round their hand, turn it into a turkey, write a name on it. Everyone gets one at their place.
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A Post Box for Kind Notes
A cereal box with a slot cut in it. Everyone posts a note about somebody else, and you read them out at dinner.
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Building Your Name Out of Sticks
Straight lines make most capital letters. Lolly sticks, twigs or straws turn letter shapes into something you build rather than draw.
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A Thankful Tree
A branch in a jar and a paper leaf each day. Small, slow, and it ends up being the thing everyone reads at the table.
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Painting With Water
A bucket of water and a big brush. They paint the wall, the fence and the path, it dries, and they do it again. No mess at all.