Toddlers writing activities

10 Sensory Pre-Writing Activities for Preschoolers

Inside: 10 fun and engaging sensory pre-writing activities for preschoolers.

Often parents try to jump into writing with a pencil with their young child, only to find the child reluctant, or even frustrated by the activity. Alternatively, working through the process of learning about letters through a sensory approach with a child of preschool or kindergarten age, is more likely to result in a fun and engaging learning experience that they child is less likely to find laborious or stressful.

Think back to the days when you were first learning to write…or if, like me, you can’t remember that far back, think of a time when you were learning to do something new. Not only can this process be overwhelming, it can also be kind of stressful – even when it is something we want to learn.

While we want our minds and bodies to do what we want, when we want it, and how we want it to, we all know that it doesn’t always work that way! Not whilst we are in the process of mastering something new.

And if you feel that way as an adult, imagine what what it feels like to be a preschooler or kindergartener trying to understand the process of writing!

These sensory pre-writing activities for preschoolers offer a fun and engaging way to help your child understand the forming of the letters, while giving their fine motor skills and finger muscles a workout, too. By engaging the senses through the selection of sensory activities, you can help your child to build connections in the brain that reinforce the relationship between the shapes of the letters they are forming and the names and sounds of the letters being created.

Which will most definitely help them once they are ready to indeed pick up that pencil to write – they already have a wonderfully familiar relationship with letters and their shapes.

Before you get started: Add a set of our Printable Alphabet Cards to your resource collection for use with the following activities.

1. Salt Tray Drawing
Salt trays are a fun way to have your child practice forming letters with their finger or a small paintbrush. The feel of the salt can be calm and relaxing for your child as they run their fingers through the salt to create letters. Add a few drops of food colouring and/or essential oil to the salt for an even more engaging learning experience.

2. Playdough Shapes
Using playdough to shape and mould letters is a great way to focus on the shapes that make up each letter. You can use playdough to roll, squish, and shape for hours of sensory fun. Try any of these three techniques;

• rolling playdough snakes and using the snakes to form letters
• press letter stamps into flattened slabs of dough
• roll out sheets of playdough and use alphabet cookie cutters to cut out letters.

RELATED: 10 ways to learn with letter stamps.

3. Cinnamon and Sugar Writing

Who doesn’t love the smell of cinnamon and sugar? And it’s good for learning as well as a topping for toast! Stimulate your child’s senses of smell and touch by creating this simple sugar writing activity. Combine white sugar with a little cinnamon  and invite your child to use their fingertip to create letter shapes.

4. Pushing Beads Into Playdough

Your child will love being able to use playdough and beads to create letters. Simply push the playdough into a flat lid, flatten it out and trace out the letter for your preschooler. They can then work their fine motor skills of picking up the small beads to outline the letter.

5. Shaving Cream Writing

Get ready for this to be a little messy! Your child will love the fact that they’re actually being asked to get their hands messy with shaving cream. This is one sensory activity that they’ll more than likely spend hours upon hours doing…and you can keep it clean by spreading the shaving cream onto your shower screen. Alternatively, use a shaving brush and paint the letters with shaving cream onto your bathroom mirror or shower screen.

6. Blackboard Paint With Water

Using water to learn to make letters is totally possible. All you will need is a blackboard, water, and their fingers to do so (although they can use a small paintbrush if preferred.)

7. Squishy Bags
Squishy bags are a lot of fun for learning about letters. Add a few big globs of kids acrylic paint to a ziplock bag. Tape the bag shut to stop messes. Lay the bag on a table top and encourage your child to use their finger to press onto the bag, moving the paint aside to form shapes and letters. They’ll love that squishy feel and it’s a great workout for the fingers too.

8. Sandpaper Letters
Make a set of sandpaper letters. Cut letter shapes from sandpaper and attach each to a square of cardboard. Your child can spend time tracing the letter with their finger, feeling the texture. Alternatively, work on letters by placing a paper over a sandpaper letter card and tracing over the bumpy letters with crayons.

Add the letter cards to your other sensory letter activities for a double dose of sensory letter fun.

9. Ice Painting
What preschooler doesn’t love painting? And when that painting can be created with a homemade recipe to do together, it’s certain to be a win. Once your ice painting sticks have set, why not take them outside and let your preschooler paint their letters on the sidewalk!

10. Chalk Rainbow Writing
Head outdoors and use a piece of white chalk to write on the pavement, lightly form the letter (or set of letters) you want your child to trace. Have them trace around each letter repeatedly with different coloured chalk to create a rainbow letter.

These simple ways to combine learning letters and sensory fun are simple and easy to do. Get creative with how you approach topics with your preschooler and you’ll be amazed at how willing they are to try out fun new ideas and activities!

Christie Burnett is a teacher, presenter, writer and the mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to access engaging, high quality learning ideas.

Pre-Writing Activities for Preschoolers - WeAreTeachers

Pre-writing activities for preschoolers not only help our youngest learners learn the shape and structure of the letters in the alphabet, but they also serve a number of other functions as well. According to education blogger Lisette, from Where Imagination Grows, pre-writing practice teaches directionality in writing, encourages fine muscle development and coordination, and also helps students process sensory information critical to the writing process.

Here are 22 super fun, easy-to-make activities that your preschoolers will love!

1. Squishy Bags

Source: Learning4kids

All you need to make these awesome sensory bags is resealable zipper storage bags, flour, water, and food coloring. Kids can use cotton swabs or their fingers to draw shapes, lines, and letters on the bag.

2. Bubble Wrap

Source: Coffee Cups and Crayons

What a great way to recycle all that leftover bubble wrap! Simply write letters on sheets of bubble wrap with a Sharpie and let kids pop their way to letter recognition.

3. Play-Doh Snakes

Source: In My World

Kids can’t resist the sensory lure of Play-Doh! For this activity, kids can roll small balls of dough into long snakes and form letters by bending and joining the snakes together.

4. Play-Doh and Drinking Straws

Source:  KidActivitiesBlog

Flatten out a medium-size piece of Play-Doh on a flat surface. Then use a sharp object to draw a letter on the flattened area. (Make sure that the letter is large enough to be easily recognizable when filled with straws.) Cut plastic straws into one-inch segments. Let kids “trace” the letters with the colorful straw segments.

5.

Source: 3 Dinosaurs

Students use dot markers to practice the mechanics of writing and get used to the angles and curves of letters. Click on the link above to download 12 free pages of pre-writing dot marker worksheets.

6. Cotton Swabs and Paint

Source: Lessons Learnt Journal

This is a fun activity to help kids work on their fine motor skills and get the hang of the all-important pencil grip.

7. LEGO Blocks

Source:  Wildflower Ramblings

Blocks! Young kids can’t get enough of building and creating with them. Put their creative energy to good work with these free printable letter cards.

8. Shaving Cream

Source: Mess for Less

This classic activity is a great starting place for pre-writers. All you need is a tray and a can of shaving cream.

9. Glitter Glue

Source: Growing Hands-On Kids

Pre-writing lines are important building blocks for any preschooler to master before learning letter formations. Download this glitter glue pre-writing line practice for preschoolers activity.

10. Beads

Source: Artsy Momma

Just like the one above, this activity builds fine motor skills that your young students need to begin writing. Instead of using glitter glue, though, students use inexpensive pony beads (found at any craft store) to follow the lines.

11. Sand Tray

 Source: Our Little House in the Country

One of the simplest activities to put together for your students to practice pre-writing is a sand tray. Kids can use their fingers or an unsharpened pencil to practice writing. As an alternative to sand, you can fill your tray with salt, flour, cornmeal, or rice.

12. Squeeze Bottle

Source:: Playdough to Plato

Fill a plastic squeeze bottle with salt or sugar and let students trace letters on cards.

13. Rainbow Tray

 Source: Where Imagination Grows

This resource is so simple to make, and kids love it! Simply tape colored tissue paper in a rainbow pattern to the bottom of a clear plastic tray. Fill it with sand, and as the kids trace lines and letters, the colors below are revealed. The image above shows the tray on top of a light table, which adds another dimension of fun to the activity!

14. Masking Tape

Source: And Next Comes L

A roll of colored masking tape and a clear surface make this a fun center activity at writing time.

15. Magnet Board

Source: Days with Gray

Tape letters onto a magnet board and let your little ones trace them with magnets. In the example above, the teacher made the letters into roads, and the students drove their car magnets along them.

16. Lacing Cards

Source: Teaching Mama

Grasping a string between tiny fingers and threading the end through the holes in a lacing card is great fine motor practice for preschoolers. It also begins to build muscle memory for holding a pencil properly.

17. Buttons

Source: Learning4Kids

Preschoolers will have so much fun creating patterns, swirls, squiggles, and zig-zags with colorful buttons. And they’ll be building skills while they’re at it!

18. Sticker Line Up

Source: Busy Toddler

Preschoolers need to use a pinching motion, which builds fine motor skills, to peel sticker dots off the page. Then, they use hand-eye coordination to place each sticker on the drawn line. This activity would be perfect for a writing or free time station.

19. Fingerprint Writing

Source: Happy Toddler Playtime

Some kids may not like to get their fingers this messy, but others will adore it! For this activity, you will need poster paper and a palette of washable ink. Draw letters, shapes, and lines on a clean piece of paper. Then, show kids how to dip their pointer finger onto the ink pad, then follow the lines dot by dot.

20. Clothespin Clipping

Source: Teaching Mama

Using a clothespin takes a lot of grip strength. This image shows a student using a clothespin to choose the correct answer to a number problem, but any activity that involves clipping will help them build the fine motor skills required for writing.

21. Cutting

Source: Play of the Wild

Cutting and snipping activities with scissors are excellent ways for children to practice fine motor skills and control. Give your students lots of opportunities to practice their cutting skills with paper, string, card stock, even Play-Doh!

22. Scrunching Paper

Source: Gympanzees

Scrunching paper into a ball is great for building hand strength. Let your students use computer paper, newspaper, tissue paper, or wrapping paper. Then play a game of paper ball tag!

What are your favorite pre-writing activities for preschoolers? Share in the comments below.

Plus, check out these amazing Sensory Table Activities.

Educational activities and games online for children 4 years old from Kids Smart

Exciting games for the development of logic, attention, memory and other skills for children 4 years old

17 698
tasks for children 4 years old

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Losses

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Choose the letter

letters in about

alphabet

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The same items

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ourselves in the order of up to 5,

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short or long

low or high

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attention and memory

Magic points

Memorize and guess

Miracle cubes

Logic

Big and small

Complete the row

Find the extra

Hot and cold

Hard and soft

Which is heavier?

Losses

Reading and a letter

Choose the letter

letters in about

alphabet

Differences and similarities

The same items

Find the shadow

Learning to be considered up to 5

ourselves in the order of up to 5,

Counting animals

Learning numbers from 1 to 5

We consider items

Comparison

Small or large

Narrow or wide

short or long

low or high

Animal

Take a photo

Picture

Figures and subjects

We study Shapes

Recognizing Colors

Sorting by Colors

Learning Colors

Colored Shapes

Learning to count up to 10

Funny account

We Consider animals

Learning numbers from 0 to 9,0003,

The composition of the number to 10

We consider items

We consider to be considered up to 20,

in order Counting objects

Learning numbers from 10 to 20

Entertaining math

Subtraction (up to 10)

Addition (up to 5)

Addition (up to 10)

Comparison of numbers (up to 10)

Subtraction (up to 5)

English

Colors

Rooms

Animals

Toys

Alphabetical order

Musical instruments

9000 Many tasks!
A 4-year-old child develops rapidly and explores the world around him. We advise your child to use our platform with educational games and online activities for children aged 4 years , aimed at training and improving memory, developing logical thinking and concentration. Our team has prepared and distributed by subject a large number of interesting and developing exercises and games for children of four years. In each subject, tasks are grouped by topic for easy navigation through the system during training. All exercises are divided into three levels of difficulty, which gradually increases.

Be proud of your success!
Every child will be able to find bright, interesting and educational tasks in our Kids Smart online service. These are various tasks for counting, logic, imagination, learning colors and shapes. A four-year-old kid will like colorful tasks in a playful way, this is the value of educational games - to develop effortlessly.

If the exercises are completed correctly, the child will receive prizes and medals. And the system will reward the most diligent students with diplomas.

Development of the necessary skills!
Educational activities and games online for children 4 years old is a whole range of cognitive and useful tasks for a child. Recall that the regularity of classes is a very important factor in the harmonious development of children. We recommend doing 10-15 minutes at a time. Get involved in the process of the game, support the baby's initiative for learning, but at the same time, let him make his own decisions when choosing an answer. If something is unclear, please explain. Thus, during the game, a child at 4 years old will develop mental activity, the ability to overcome difficulties and independence.

Fun and useful games!
We have added elements of the game to the learning process to make it easier and more understandable for the child to perform exercises, and also not to be distracted during classes, because the game is always interesting and exciting. Starting to practice educational games from early childhood is a great opportunity to prepare a four-year-old child for school and acquire skills that will be useful to him in the future. Try to start exercising with us - it's simple, easy, fun, and most importantly, very useful.

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Developmental tasks for children of different ages - Child development

Developing tasks for children

Developing tasks for children help develop imaginative thinking, color perception, fine motor skills, orientation in space.

Educational tasks for preschoolers can be purchased at a bookstore, or can be downloaded online for free at https://childdevelop. ru. To organize a home development studio for your child, it is enough to print out files, prepare stationery, and allocate some free time.

Selection of developmental tasks for children

When choosing developmental tasks for children of 3 years old, it is best to focus on the interests of the future wise guy, his level of perseverance, concentration, and activity. There is no need to force the baby to work on developmental games, it is important that he himself shows interest and initiative. For the first time, you should not load with a large number of tasks, it is more important to arouse his interest in activities in a playful way. Developing tasks for kids should be colorful, fun, exciting. Older children can choose complex and voluminous classes, use tasks for developing fine motor skills, imagination and logical thinking in one lesson.

Developmental tasks for children (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 years old) there are the following types:

• mathematical, learning the basics of oral and written counting;
• study of the concept of time, seasons, days of the week;
• familiarity with the alphabet;
• logic chains;
• acquaintance with the world of plants and animals;
• consolidation of the material covered at school, etc.

Developmental tasks for first graders to help them adapt to school

Adapting to school or kindergarten is a difficult task for a child and his parents. To reduce stress in the baby, you can use the game method. Games in the lessons of mathematics, reading or natural history will set you up for the learning process. For a more believable setting, you can invite friends of the fidget to join the game lessons. In the future, developing tasks for children can even become the basis of a small home business for organizing a club for children's play activities. You can involve older children in the teaching process as a teacher, this will strengthen the bond between brothers and sisters and allow older children to show leadership qualities, increase the level of responsibility. An easy approach to learning, a playful form and a good mood of the student and his mother will certainly bring good results in preparing for school and create a solid foundation for successful learning.

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