Teacher Tip Tuesday: Pencils and Crayons and Markers--Oh, my!

As we are settling into Kindergarten, our Writing Workshop is in full swing!  We are learning about taking the stories and ideas from our minds and putting them onto paper.

The first step to writing good stories is drawing detailed pictures and correctly forming letters of the alphabet.  Encourage your child to create pictures with lots of color and details.  Show me more and tell me more are great prompts to keep your child thinking.

Beginning writers can get extra practice forming letters by writing, copying, or tracing their names.  Remember, you always have more lower case letters than capital letters on your paper!

Whether your child is an old pro at drawing pictures and writing numbers, or this is a developing skill, there are lots of fun ways that you can help your child strengthen their grip and build their stamina for paper pencil activities.  Try some of the following:

• Tweezer activities:  Practice picking up cotton balls, legos, or other small objects using a tripod grip.  Count as you go for some extra math practice! 
• Buttons and Coins:  Practice using a two finger pinch to pick up and sort buttons or coins.  Use this as an opportunity to practice colors, counting, and coin identification.
• Legos and Play-Doh:  Pinching, pushing, pulling, and forming Legos and Play-Doh are a great ways to strengthen little hands.

If your child is having trouble forming or maintaining a tripod grip, try breaking crayons or other writing materials into smaller pieces.  Having smaller writing tools will force your child to use a more accurate grip. 

Happy Writing!