Simple Crafts


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PLAY-GROW-READ!   Pre-Writing Skills and Activities


Help your child get ready to write! The fun and simple activities listed below are designed to help your child develop the fine motor skills and manual dexterity he or she will need in order to successfully learn how to write in school.

Everyday Activities to Help Get Your Child Ready to Write

Printable Cutting Pages

Simple Crafts to Help Your Child Get Ready to Write

Games for Building Fine Motor Skills

 

Everyday Activities to Help Get Your Child Ready to Write

  • Using scissors. (It's okay if your child can't cut on a line at first.)
  • Coloring, scribbling, painting, and drawing.
  • Writing with an adult. For example, help your child create a play grocery list when you write yours.
  • Playing with play dough. Rolling the dough into small balls or blocks is especially good!
  • Stamping paper with rubber stamps.
  • Opening and closing twist-top jars or bottles.
  • Building with interlocking blocks such as Legos.
  • Picking up small objects like Cheerios. (Note: Always be careful of choking hazards.)
  • Hole punching.
  • Manipulating paper — folding, tearing, wadding it into balls.
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Printable Cutting Pages

Using scissors is a great way for children to get ready to write because it helps develop their fine motor skills!

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Simple Crafts to Help Your Child Get Ready to Write

Design a House

Materials:
• Our blank house template
• Old magazines or newspapers
• Glue sticks
• Scissors

Instructions:
1. Help your child cut out pictures of things to go in his or her house — beds, tables, food, people, etc.
2. Arrange them in the house and glue.



Cheerio Bracelet

Materials:
• Pipe cleaners
• Cheerios (or any unbranded cereal O)

Instructions:
1. Pour a pile of Cheerios on the table in front of your child.
2. Have him or her pick up the Cheerios and string them on the pipe cleaner.
3. When finished, twist the pipe cleaner around your child's wrist as a bracelet.

Safety tip: Always check to make sure your pipe cleaner does not have a sharp, pointy end. If it does, you can often bend it a bit to make it safer for your child.



Paper Plate Face

Materials:
• A paper plate
• Glue
• Old magazines or newspapers
• A popsicle stick or paint stirrer (optional)
• Yarn (optional)

Instructions:
1. Find some large pictures of faces in old magazines and newspapers.
2. Have your child cut out eyes, a nose, a mouth, and ears from different pictures of faces.
3. Glue them onto the plate to create a whole new face.
4. If you'd like, glue on some yarn at the top for hair and tape a paint stirrer or popsicle stick to the bottom so your child can hold up the face like a mask.

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Games for Building Fine Motor Skills

Alligator Chomp

Materials:
• Clip-style clothespins
• Markers
• Googly eyes
• Paper strips

Instructions:
1. Help your child decorate a clothespin to look like an alligator.
2. Have your child pinch it open and shut and run it up and down a paper strip.
3. See who can "chomp up" their paper strip first.



Feed the Fish

Materials:
• Old newspapers
• A basket or bucket
• A few pictures of fish

Instructions:
1. Tape the pictures of the fish to the bucket.
2. Have your child wad up newspaper balls — using just one hand — and throw them into the bucket to "feed" the fish.
3. See who can feed the most fish in two minutes.
4. You can also "water the flowers" or "feed the penguins."



Clothespin Race

Materials:
• 2 clip clothespins
• A timer

Instructions:
Race your child to see who can pinch open and close their clothespin the most times in 30 seconds.

Note: It's easier to help your child count if you race at separate times, rather than at the same time.

This activity will help improve the muscle strength in your child's hands and fingers.



Fill the Jar Race

Materials:
• Cheerios or cotton balls
• Plastic cups or jars
• A timer

Instructions:
1. Dump Cheerios or cotton balls on the table.
2. Set the timer for 30 seconds.
3. Everyone playing must pick up only one object at a time and put it in his or her jar or cup. The person with the most objects in his or her cup or jar at the end of the time wins.

This activity will help your child develop fine motor skills and get ready to write!

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For more information on early literacy or to schedule a workshop, call the Kent District Library Outreach Department at 784-2016 x2220 or x2221, or email program_outreach@kdl.org.