Before young children will find success in what is typically considered “real writing,” they need time to explore the writing process through fun experiences like salt box writing and other playful activities. Young children are still developing their fine motor skills so the strength and motor control isn’t aways on par with what it may seem like a child is ready to do. Let me encourage you to keep the writing process stress free so and be patient. As your child’s physical and cognitive development matures, so will your child’s writing skills and abilities.
Here are some examples of how we explore the writing process...
Feather tip salt tray writing
Exploring the salt tray writing experience with our turkey feathers!
Six unique ways to use scrap wood in preschool
There are so many wonderful ways preschoolers can explore scrap wood. Stop by and see some of the unique ways we are exploring in our classroom!
Ants in the salt tray plus more
Exploring ants in circletime then working on prewriting skills as we explore ants in the salt tray!
Tools for play inspire the desire to write
Inspiring young children to write by partnering tools for play in preschool…
Sticky paper shape tracing in preschool
A simple way to keep the stencils in place while tracing around them in preschool!
Writing with light and shadows
Exploring light and shadows with an overhead projector in the preschool classroom.
Reading with young children: a picture walk
Going on a picture walk with young children to promote prereading skills!
Writing in salt
Building up prewriting skills through the use of salt trays in preschool!
The 4 R’s: reading, writing, arithmetic, and rainbows
Exploring the “4 R’s” in our preschool classroom as we had fun with rainbow reading, rainbow writing, and rainbow arithmetic!
Mini-plexiglass easels for the preschool classroom
Mini-Plexiglass Easels are a terrific tool for inviting young children to color and write!
Writing the letter of the week
Each week, when a new letter is introduced, the teacher invites each child to come up and try to print the letter on the dry
Parent involvement in early literacy is the key to academic success
Parent involvement in early literacy is the key to academic success by Dr. Erika Burton of Stepping Stones Together Early childhood education sets the stage for
Messing around with the color brown in preschool
As part of our color review week, the children tried out a little brown finger painting but instead of using brown paint, they used chocolate
Weekly Reader in preschool
For as far back as I can remember, we have been subscribing to the Weekly Reader. This is a simple four page newspaper for kids
Rainbow tracing in preschool
Tracing in preschool helps children build pre-writing skills Rainbow tracing is a simple technique for helping children work on their fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination,
Learning to recognize our names all day long
Young children can learn to master their names with a “name-rich” environment.