Enhancing Pre-Writing Skills with Sand Trays

 Reading to my daughter has always been a huge part of our routine.  Every night before bed she picks 3 stories that we will read together.  Lately I have noticed she will interrupt (which I do not mind!) the story and say “Mommy, whats that word?” or “Mommy whats that letter?”  as she points to words or letters in the storybook.

This is a strong indication that she is developmentally ready and interested in learning alphabet letters and how they make up words.

An important reminder is that young children are naturally preparing themselves for writing by practicing fine motor skills and gross motor skills through play.  When a child holds a crayon and scribbles on paper they ARE preparing their bodies to learn to write.  It is not necessary to sit a young child down and have them memorize flash cards or fill out worksheets – Let them draw and colour using their imagination – they are learning.  As children scribble eventually making horizontal and vertical lines, as well as bumps they are developing the basics of printing.

When children play outside and use their gross motor skills they are strengthening muscles and core strength needed to sit and write.

We often think that work sheets with repetitive movements are the best way to teach printing but they are not! Worksheets are boring, and do not allow any opportunity to experiment and engage with others.

Ok, so back to what I was saying earlier –  I noticed my daughter wanted to learn the names of letters and how they form words, so I have been offering (not forcing) more activities that allow her to learn more.  One of the things I will do is point to each word as I read it at a slower pace.

We also made this awesome Sand Tray!

Supplies:

Tray

Sand

You can make cards that have different lines, bumps, etc if your child is interested in copying – but they don’t have to.

I set up this learning experience on her table, she practiced writing/drawing with her fingers and then took a cob of dried corn and started writing with that.  She then took her alphabet magnets and stamped the sand to create imprints of different alphabet letters.  She then grabbed a paintbrush and used that to draw lines, mountains etc.  She also made hand prints and counted her fingers 🙂

 

As you can see by allowing her to take other materials from different areas of the house she was able to further her learning and enjoyed the experience.  I have seen classrooms that have young children sit and complete activities that are picked by the teacher, and they are not allowed to get up and move around the classroom choosing learning opportunities that are of interest to them, or further their experience by mixing objects from different learning centres.  These rules may be necessary for older students but it is absolutely ridiculous to set these restrictions for young children.    When I was looking at different preschools, this was always a question I asked and one preschool in particular said “no they are not allowed to choose their own activity, I will choose for them and show them how to do it, to ensure success” really?!  Needless to say that preschool was out of the running.

Here is a really great link that explains a little bit about how children learn, and how we have to reflect on our teaching practices to ensure it is in line with child development: https://www.naeyc.org/files/tyc/file/CalendarTime.pdf  It is titled “Calendar Time for Young Children, Good Intentions Gone Awry”

Calendar Time for Young Children, Good Intentions Gone Awry