Written activities for toddlers
15 of the Best Pre-Writing Activities for Preschoolers
This can be a fun indoor or outdoor activity, using either a sand tray or a sandbox to complete. Get the sand wet and let children use their fingers or sticks to write out the alphabet. A fun twist is using food coloring to make colorful sand! An alternative to sand you might have on hand is flour.
Learn more: Scholastic
4. Pre-Writing with Playdough
If you are looking for fine motor activities to help with pre-writing, look no further. This activity helps your child practice both fine motor and pre-writing skills as they manipulate the playdough and draw letters into it.
Learn more: Heidi Marie Scarsella
5. Bubble Wrap Writing
What kid doesn't love bubble wrap? After you draw the children's names on the bubble wrap, have them practice their fine motor skills by tracing the letters with their fingers. And then when they are done with this fun activity, they can pop the bubbles!
Learn more: Coffee Cups and Crayons
6. Playdough Letter Writing
Using laminated card stock, children practice their hand-eye coordination using playdough to shape letters. This is great for building both pre-writing and fine motor skills. This lovely pre-writing activity is great because the kids feel like they are playing, but they are actually learning!
Learn more: Child Care Land
7. Beads and Pipe Cleaners
Another activity to strengthen children's hand-eye coordination is this activity that has them string beads onto pipe cleaners. They will use their pincer grip to hold the beads, which sets the foundation for them holding pencils and writing.
Learn more: Teaching Mama
8. Pre-Writing Worksheets
The Kindergarten Connection offers many free printable worksheets for pre-writing. Children will learn to grip the pencil while they practice the skill of tracing. After, they can practice their fine motor skills even more by coloring in the characters (and staying within the lines!) on the worksheets.
Learn more: The Kindergarten Connection
9. Paper Scrunching
This paper scrunching activity is great because it helps students practice multiple skills. This fun sensory activity will have them working on their hand strength (which later will aid them in writing) while also practicing fine motor skills. If you use colored tissue paper, at the end they will have completed a fun art project!
Learn more: Child Care Land
10. Chalk Writing
Decorating pavement with chalk drawings is a favorite activity of preschoolers. Little do they know, they are practicing their fine motor skills, which are the building blocks for their prewriting skills while doing so! Have them focus on shapes first, and then move on to letters and numbers!
Learn more: Occupational Therapy Fox C6
11. Learning with Song
Another thing kids love is music and dancing. Give them opportunities to get up and move their bodies to really get them engaged in the learning process. This activity has them practicing straight and curved lines while bopping to a beat!
Learn more: Jack Hartmann Kids Music Channel
12. Tweezers for Hand Strength
This activity for building strength in children's hands sets the stage for writing success later on. It also allows them to explore the world around them while using their fine motor skills. This is great to put into your open-ended activities, as you can use tweezers to have children do many things--like grab certain color beads out of containers or pick up macaroni noodles scattered on the sidewalk!
Learn more: Tinkergarten
13. Masking Tape Letters
Activities with scissors and tape always engage children, as they love to manipulate the scissors and the stickiness of the tape. Use a mirror and masking tape to practice writing children's names. The best part about this enjoyable activity? Easy clean-up!
Learn more: And Next Comes L
14. Sticker Line Up
This activity for preschoolers will have them practicing tracing shapes with stickers while at the same time practicing their pincer drip while they grip the stickers to place on the paper. After they have traced the shapes on the paper, give them the freedom to create their own shapes using the stickers.
Learn more: Busy Toddler
15. Push Pin Maze
Follow the link above to learn how to make a push-pin maze. Children will practice pencil grip while they navigate their way through these fun mazes.
Learn more: Planning Playtime
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!
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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. Dot Markers
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
Attention and memory
Find a pair
Magic Points
Memorize and Guess
Miracle Cubes
Logic
Which is harder?
Lost
Large and small
Complete row 9Ol000
Counting objects
Counting in order up to 5
Funny counting
Counting animals
Learning numbers from 1 to 5
9Ol000Color Sorting
Learn Colors
Color Shapes
Learn to Count to 10
We count in order to 10
Fun.
Counting objects
Entertaining math
Comparison of numbers (up to 10)
Subtraction (up to 5)
Subtraction (up to 10)
Addition (up to 5)
Add (up to 10)
English
Pets
Musical instruments
Alphabetical order
Colors
Rooms
Toys
attention and memory
Magic points
22 Memorize and guess
Miracle cubes
Logic
What is harder?
Lost
Big and small
Additional row
Find the excess
hot and cold
solid and mild
Reading and a letter
Select the letter
of the order of
alphabet
DISCOUNTIONS and similarities
The same objects
Learning to count up to 5
Counting objects
Counting in order up to 5
Fun counting
Counting animals
Learning numbers from 1 to 5
Comparison
Small or large
Narrow or wide
short or long
low or high
Gather animal
Collect the photo
Pick the picture
Figures
Figures and the figures
We distinguish colors
Color sorting
Learn colors
Color shapes
Learn to count up to 10
We count in order to 10
Fun. animals
Counting objects
Entertaining math
Comparison of numbers (up to 10)
Subtraction (up to 5)
Subtraction (up to 10)
Addition (up to 5)
Add (up to 10)
English
Pets
Musical instruments
Alphabetical order
Colors
Rooms
Animals
Toys
Many tasks!
A 4-year-old child develops rapidly and explores the world around him. We advise your child to engage in educational games and online activities for children 4 years old on our platform , 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 the 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 smart 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.
All tasks can be printed
Paper tasks are always more complex and help the child develop several important skills at once, so printing tasks for children is very important. All tasks posted in this section can be downloaded and printed on a black and white or color printer.