Mark Making and Pre-Writing

When we look at our little toddlers we wonder how on earth they are going to learn all they have got  to master so they are able to access learning and express themselves when in school! This section of my blog is about learning to write but I shall concentrate on the early pre-writing skills as I am passionate about the early building blocks of learning which happen mainly in the home. I hope this section will be helpful and give parents/carers some simple ideas to help their child develop the skills they need.
Children move through many stages before they are able to record their thoughts in written form and the learning begins when they are really small...
From 1-2 years writing begins with random scribbles...up and down, side to side and in circles.
From 2-3 years children learn to imitate vertical, horizontal lines and circles in a more controlled way.
From 3-4 years they learn to copy those lines and begin to draw shapes and can physically hold a pencil correctly in a writing position.
From 4+ children begin to learn to form letters, moving on to write simple words and to learn the power of the written word!
Of course all children need to have the opportunity to practice all these skills using a variety of tools and in a variety of contexts.
Here are some activities that will help your child develop their mark making skills (pre-writing skills) so they are ready to become real writers!

Activities to encourage pencil grip and rotation.
Play-dough Pinching, squeezing with the thumb and forefinger, poking, rolling and quiet simply enjoying playing with the squidgy stuff!

Sorting and manipulating small objects Threading, sewing, weaving, using tweezers, filling and emptying containers, using pipettes, posting and mastering inset puzzles.

 

 

 

 

Use a simple trigger spray These can be purchased for under £1.00 from places like Wilko's

 

Finger rhymes Stretching and curling the fingers, moving them independently to point and count. Circling the arms and responding to the rhyme with actions.

Messy play  A variety of materials that can be poured, stirred and manipulated.

Craft activities Sticking, cutting, painting, drawing, colouring and decorating.

Begin by gathering resources and make them accessible for your child to self select. I have made a collection of activities, each in their own small zipper bags that I can quickly access and are small and handy enough to pop into a handbag when out on a trip with, or visiting my grandchildren.

 

Create a Writing Box which can be carried around the house, into the garden and even on holiday or day trips out.

Play Trays

Messy Play tray activities have been a favourite with my Granddaughter. They encourage imaginative play and are brilliant for improving hand eye control and fine motor skills. I use...wait for it...plastic dog baskets as trays as they are just the right size for a kiddie  hands and have a front lower rim and built up sides and back to keep everything contained.
Here are a few examples of messy things to play with in the Messy Tray.

Bubbles, use drinking straws, tiny whisks and bubble blowers.

 

 

Cornflour is amazingly gloopy!

It changes from liquid to solid in the most magical way!

 

Rice with lots of scoops and containers.

I often colour the rice with food colouring, leave it to dry before use.

At Messy church we had rainbow coloured rice for our Noah theme.

A wedding themed play tray with tiny champagne glasses for filling and pouring.

 

Pompom and ribbons to explore.

 

 

Scissor skills

Using scissors, learning to cut out in all forms helps young children to develop their fine motor skills and can help with handwriting later on. It is also a skill that opens up lots of exciting opportunities for children to be creative.
IMPORTANT - get the correct scissors for your child's age and hand size.
Children should begin to use scissors at around 2 years old and always need adult supervision when learning the skills and they need to be helped along the way. Teach your child the correct way to hold the scissors as relearning once a child is used to doing it wrong can be really hard.
Getting the right grip and the grasp / release action are essential and can begin even before they pick up a pair of scissors!

1. Use a trigger spray bottle (in the garden!)...fix clothes pegs everywhere using that squeezing movement.

2. Learn to snip but start with things like play dough and drinking straws.

 
3. Snip paper using different thicknesses including card. I purchased a large dress pattern book that was a great hit with my granddaughter, especially when she found the Disney dresses!

 

 

4. To begin to control the cutting skills start with cutting along straight lines, strong black lines are best.

 

5. Move onto cutting circles as you need to begin to turn the paper.

 

 

6. Next cut simple shapes such as circles, triangles, squares and rectangles. These require turning the paper

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. Move onto cutting more irregular shapes such as wiggly worms and mazes.

 

 

8. Finally begin to cut out more complex shapes like vehicles and people.

 

Always praise your child's attempts, celebrate their achievements!  

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 



                                                                                        

 

Collections

Often children around the age of 5 years become interested in collecting things. Their collection is usually sparked by something that interests them such as dinosaurs, badges, shells etc. The toy industry capitalises on this by creating toys that can be collected...the latest Disney characters, Pokémon, Trolls, Lego figures...children enjoy collecting and they get a lot out of the experience. They learn to group items, count, categorize, sort and differentiate. Their ability to name toys, identify characteristics and talking about them often leaves us amazed. Collecting can also help children to establish a circle of like-minded friends increasing their self esteem.
As a parent you could try to encourage collections that are less expensive than the toy manufacturers are currently promoting...it would save you a lot of money!
Choose something that is easy to find and help your child to search the local junk and charity shops. Don't forget to tell people what you are collecting as they will probably help, especially Grandparents!
Here are some suggestions:
buttons, fossils, autographs, key rings, rubbers, badges, marbles, pencils, shells, a type of toy animal such as elephants, frogs or penguins, bottles, egg cups, salt and pepper pots.
Many adults are avid collectors and often they began in childhood, what did you collect as a child and is the collecting still going strong?

Here is a collection of badges that my Granddaughter spent ages collecting from Mammas drawers, toy boxes, charity shops and car boots. She particularly loved the birthday badges and we enjoyed collecting 1 to 10 and putting them into the right order. Collections help children to look really hard, to recognise differences and similarities, sort by size, colour and type. Children also love to display and talk about their collection.

Storage and display. It is fun to be able to show off your collection and you will want to keep it in order and in good condition so have a go at making a storage/display box for your collection. We  enjoyed decorating a box to keep our badge collection in, we used  google images for the pictures, a cardboard box and lid and decoupage paper glue.

When teaching I loved to present children with challenges and one that was really successful was to fill a small jar (or matchbox) with tiny things. I was amazed at the variety and number of things they found to fill their pot! The children also loved sharing and comparing their collection with their friends explaining where they found each item and which were their favourites.

Loris Malaguzzi, a famous educator and psychologist said "Children are full time researchers, untiring re-makers of action, ideas and theories"

 

Some questions to ask your child when and if they let you look at their collection:
What does it look and feel like?
What are they made of?
Are they natural or manmade?
Ask about the colour, size, weight, number.
How is it put together?
How is it used?
What are the differences?
Which is your favourite?
Which would you swop?
Have you got duplicates?
What are you looking for next?

More ideas for storage include old boxes that contained chocolates...especially the posh ones with drawers, glass/plastic jars as you can see your collection but be careful if it's glass! Ikea have a lovely selection of storage boxes in cardboard and wood that can be decorated. I have found some lovely cheap, yet interesting storage boxes in my local charity shop. Shoe boxes are good as they can stack when your child's collection starts to grow! This can make a great summer holiday activity, giving purpose and interest to those long days.

Please let me know if your child begins a collection this summer?

Colour sorting and matching

Young children love colourful objects, they love to sort colours and are so proud when they can identify and name colours. Here are just a few of my colour inspired activities.

I created a colour track using patterned fabrics and included a variety

 of small objects to sort on the track. The track rolls up to fit into a

plastic jar with the sorting items for easy portable storage.

Here is my Granddaughter sorting through a colour themed basket of objects.

Children love treasure baskets and these can be themed to promote learning about

specific things such as colour. 

 

Have you come across this book?

Nick Sharratt and Sally Symes' book Something Beginning with Blue.

It's great for introducing an Eye-Spy game looking for colours

  

The last page has all the found objects hidden in the picture.

I make treasure bottles as a hide and seek activity with a list of objects to spot.

Here is a home made Christmas treasure bottle

Here is a commercially bought 'Find It' game

see www.finditgames.com

 

Creating a cardboard rainbow and 7 pots of sorting toys I made an

independent activity.... sort the toys onto the rainbow and back into

the colour coded boxes

The boxes contain a variety of interesting little toys and household items like buttons...

all of which keep children interested.

 

I can't help recreating ideas in fabric.

Here I have made a quilted rainbow, the colours being created using fabric

crayons and decorated with buttons and other embellishments.

The rainbow can be used with the sorting boxes.

Both rainbows follow the song colours Red and Yellow........

 

Rhyming Colours (Early reading skills)

If your child is in F1 or F2 (Nursery/Reception) have a go at this rhyming-colours game to help them develop their rhyming skills ready for reading (awareness of onset and rime) Using the rainbow or anything showing different colours...even their t-shirt, call out a word that rhymes with a colour e.g. red - bed, bread, fed, ted     blue - queue, glue, shoe    green - queen, scene, been 

Playing with words and sounds helps your child to tune into listening for patterns and later on they will use that knowledge to decode unfamiliar words.

 

Colours and Mood

Have you heard about how different colours and using information from a number of sources I have come up with a brief break down of colours and how they effect the mood which could be helpful when choosing colours for your child's bedroom.

Red - enriching and warm  Pink - nurturing, gentle, relaxing and restful  Orange - warming, relaxing, friendly  Yellow - brightening, enlivening, warming, mentally stimulating  Green - cool, cold, quiet, tranquil, natural  Turquoise - cool, uplifting, clears the head, aids communication  Blue - cold, sterile, relaxing and peaceful if balanced with warm colours  Purple - warm, powerful  White - cool but frightening, cold and clinical  Black - cold, frightening, tiring    Brown - warm, nurturing, earthy, safe Grey - un-distracting but bland, uninspiring on its own  Gold - rich, inspiring  Silver - cool, feminine

These are very general statements but there are so many different shades and tones of colour so trust your instincts when choosing.

In Suzy Chazzari,s book on Colour she suggests soft, light, pastel shades for a baby/toddlers bedroom and for older children to stick with soft colours but to introduce brighter colours through curtains and bedcovers to "stimulate a child's enquiring mind". As your child gets older they may express their own preferences and she recommends parents respect this but where possible ensure they have a cosy corner decorated in muted colours such as yellow and cream so they have a down time area where they can relax and chill-out...I love this idea! Have you any ideas to share to create a chill-out area for children?

 

Colour Sorting Balloons

I had a spare day and fancied doing some sewing and following the colour sorting theme and the song I can sing a rainbow I made some padded fabric balloons with matching ribbon, choosing the colours from the song and a mixture of textures I also made some matching bean bags and covered some wooden shapes with the same fabric (the shapes came from a charity shop find...a game with wooden counters) The set can be used with toddlers for sorting activities. The collection boxes containing lots of little coloured items as introduced above can be used with the balloons instead of the rainbow.

 

 



 

 

 

 

Weaving

                                                                Weaving
Weaving is great for kids and they can use a variety of materials to create lovely results. Children do need a level of maturity to master the art of weaving so I would recommend it for children 6+ although a joint effort with an adult can be successful. Try using lots of different materials to weave including natural materials such as grasses, twigs and feathers.