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What pre-handwriting skills/learning experiences can you suggest for developing fine moter skills in 5 yr olds

I would like to give children who need to the opportunity to develop their fine moter skills for a short while before I begin printing with them. Can you suggest any activities which I could offer these children to develop hand eye and fine moter skills which can be done in the classroom.

So far I have playdough, using tongs to pick things up and put in a basket and threading beads ... anymore ideas....? Thank you

I wrote an answer that dealt with writing recently. It has more to do with writing numbers than letters, but I hope it helps.

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What we use to get students to write numbers is actually quite different. The problem with writing is that many students do not have the fine motor skills developed to write. They also may not have the concentration.

With that in mind, the question becomes "how do we build that up so that writing becomes a natural thing for children?" I think it is important that we help the child develop these skills early. Once they are older, their hands are already used to working in a certain way. It is harder later to teach them than it is now, but to simply teach them is not appropriate without a solid foundation.

Begin with the earlier years. Focus on several aspects:

1) Fine motor skills. We talk a lot on these boards about exercises in fine motor skills and we do have a lot of great ideas that get presented. I strongly encourage you to develop find motor skills that also promote the pencil grip.
Puzzels that have pegs in them that you naturally use your 2 fingers and thumb are fantastic for this. Transferring beads from one container to the next with your fingers is also an activity that children enjoy and that helps build up control of these muscles. Using small tongs and picking up objects also help with this. Be sure to demonstrate to the children how to do these activities properly.
When I am selecting which bead I want next and presenting this material, I look at my fingers making the motion, then hold it up (not raised...just naturally) as I select my next bead, continually making that motion. Simply demonstrating this way gets most children actively involved in this.

2) Concentration. The activities in the classroom are set up to build up a child's level of concentration. There are things within the materials that tell the student if they messed up. It becomes evident because they cannot complete the task of the material. They have to concentrate and find out the solution to the problem. It is also important to isolate the idea you are teaching. If you are teaching colors, it may confuse the child to have a blue sky matched up with a blue elephant. Why shouldn't the blue elephant be matched up with the red cat? They're both animals. Isolate the materials so that the only difference between them is the blue or the red. This helps the child to focus strictly on the one task he is working on.

3) Order - teach students to work with materials from left to right and top to bottom. This will develop as an instinct over time and will make writing and reading easier, since they're used to starting so many other things this way.

4) Pre-writing writing materials. We have a set of metal shapes that the child can use. They come in a square, red frame and the shape is cut out and inlayed inside that frame in blue. There are 10 frames: Circle, square, rectangle, quatrofoil, ellipse, oval, pentagon, parallelogram, trapezoid, and curvilinear triangle. The knob on the shape to pull it out is exactly like the knobs I described in #1...it allows the student to grab ahold of it naturally with a pencil grip to move it. (There's no easier way to pick it up)

The child takes this, along with some colored pencils, to a table and begins working with it. The first thing they do is place the red frame over the paper (no blue shape in there now) and trace the shape. The main issue when a child first starts writing by now does not seem to be the pencil grip, as they have practiced that since day 1 of school, although indirectly. If this is an issue, it is easily corrected since they already have their muscles trained to the feel of the grip. The main issue tends to be that they press too hard.

They may tear the paper. They may break the pencil. The nice thing about this is that they immediate know something was wrong and can correct it the next time. There is no need for teacher interference at this point. The child just sees it and tries to make it lighter the next time. Tracing the inside of the shape has the control of error that the child cannot go outside the shape itself. This is the first step in control of where the pencil goes.

The second step involves the child being able to trace the ouside of the blue shape. This is much harder because the child must control the pencil to a much higher degree.

Other activities involve drawing lines inside the shapes, different shading within the shape, and various thing that help control the pencil control. It is quite a sight to see a child who can trace the red one, then the blue, then color the inside of various shades from lightest to darkest.

All of those help the child be prepared for writing, even if it does not seem like it at first. (Who would think picking up beads actually helps them write?)

As far as the direct writing of numbers is concerned, many of our number activities use sandpaper numbers. These are numerals cut out of sandpaper and glued onto a wooden board.

The child takes their index and middle finger and traces the shape. If they go outside the shape, they automatically sense the difference. Children, after practice, can even do this blindfolded. This helps them both with feeling how the number is written and learning the name of the number. They have a sensorial experience with what the shape of the number is that leaves a better image in their mind of how to write it.

I also think it is important to educate parents as far as the development of writing is concerned. Many do not realize that when a child is drawing random shapes and calling it writing, that is a crucial early step. They have yet to see the exactness of all the letter/number characters we have. That comes with time and practice. They often then move into shapes in the right spots (left to right) or lines drawn on the paper (straight or squiggly lines). Then they begin to just form letters that they know and then begin to see a process happening. Few parents realize this and are quick to just rush their child into writing things correctly. That's just NOT how it works

Intaglio Printmaking Techniques : Preparing Paper For Intaglio Printing

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