Playful ideas for developing pre writing skills for the littlest learners and finger strengthening for writing stamina
Before learning to write, children develop pre writing skills - the ability to hold drawing instruments (chalk, crayons, pencils, etc), mark making, drawing, colouring, and copying. Developing these skills can help writing legibility and stamina.
There are so many playful ways to develop pre writing skills and finger strengthening in your classroom. Here are a few of my favourites.
Playdough
Working with playdough is a great work out for little fingers! Even better if you can get children involved in making the playdough. Our favourite recipe if the no cook version from The Imagination Tree. From making shapes, to stamping, rolling, and mark making, playdough can be used across almost every subject area. You can also combine other skills like scissors to cut the playdough! Playdough play can help develop hand and finger strength, upper body strength, object manipulation and bilateral integration.
Working on vertical surfaces
There are so many benefits to working on vertical surfaces. These activities can improve core stability, strengthen shoulder and elbow muscles for writing stamina, develop hand eye coordination, improve bilateral coordination by working across the midline, and more. Watch out for a future post with some playful ideas for working on vertical surfaces.
Threading
Threading is a great activity for developing fine motor skills, object manipulation, and bilateral integration. There are so many different materials that can be used for threading, from leaves, to beads, to cereal! You can read about some of my favourite threading activities for all ages in a previous post.
Scissors
Cutting with scissors is a great way to develop hand strengthening and build stamina and it’s fun - some children can keep cutting for a lot longer than they can keep writing! There are so many playful ways to include scissor skills in your classroom, from cutting playdough, string, and leaves, to more detailed cutting such as cutting out shapes and letters. Even better if you can have the children draw the shapes themselves before cutting!
There are so many ways you can encourage pre writing skills or hand and finger strengthening in the classroom. Why not also try:
Opening and closing containers, especially twist lids
Using tongs to manipulate small objects when sorting or counting
Craft activities involving cutting and tearing
Puzzles, both small puzzles for fine motor skills and large floor puzzles
Building toys, such as blocks, Lego, and other construction toys
Finger rhymes such as Here is the beehive, Incy Wincy Spider, and One Little Finger
What are your favourite playful ideas for increasing finger and hand strength? Let me know in the comments below!
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