Take time for a little name printing practice

These are just a few activities I have used to teach or provide some practice in name writing skills...

Laminate a name card for children to view and reference as they print their name throughout the day without having to constantly ask the teacher for help...

Provide a variety of name printing activities throughout the school year...

Pick one idea at a time to let children try out and practice...
Although I am showing each idea on one piece of paper - I don't present all the different forms of name writing practice (like those shown above) to the children at one time.


Shown above..
1. Print child's name and child traces over it.
2. Make boxes to form the shape of the child's name and child fills in each box.
3. Print child's name and child uses three or four colors to rainbow trace the name.
4. Print first letter only and child finishes the name.
5. Print every other letter and leave a blank line for child to fill in the missing letters of the name.

Write in Upper and Lower case letters...

Teach children from the very beginning to use Upper Case letter to begin the name and all lower case letters to complete the name. Don't teach name writing in all capital letters!

Print name in upper left hand corner of paper... 

Teach children to start with the pencil or crayon placed on the left side of the paper. This helps children learn to print from left to right. It also helps prevent children from printing their name backwards as shown above.

Here is a great idea from Mom Tried It for helping preschoolers hold a pencil properly...

Providing preschoolers with structured and unstructured opportunities to write

Both structured and unstructured writing opportunities can benefit preschoolers but it is important to understand the difference and to know what is age appropriate.

Unstructured Writing Opportunties

Providing a writing center or writing tools on a table that preschoolers are free to explore are examples of unstructured writing opportunities. As very young preschoolers are developing their fine motor skills, they need the freedom to explore writing or coloring without all the rules. Writing should be viewed as a fun and interesting activity to explore.

Older preschoolers also need unstructured opportunities to color and write but they will begin to express an interest in being able to create specific objects. Older preschoolers may ask their teacher to help them draw a person, dog, or apple. Requests like these are unstructured opportunties to give preschoolers tips and skills to help them improve on their writing skills. Teaching a child how to draw a circle then add a line on the top to create an apple helps the preschooler to begin understanding how they can create symbols and objects that are familiar to them and how those symbols tell stories.

Structured Writing Opportunities
Structured writing opportunties are specific lessons or activities that focus on children's writing abilities or skills. Often times, teachers will select a specific worksheet with dotted lines to trace and other times, the teacher will have preschoolers listen and follow directions to create a specific object.

Structured writing opportunities can improve writing skills but teachers must be sensitive to the abilities of their students. Toddlers, for example, would not benefit from tracing a circle on a sheet of paper since toddlers are still working on their ability to hold a crayon. However, a toddler would benefit from the opportunity to scribble on a blank sheet of paper.

Example of a structured drawing activity

The teacher chose to help her students draw a cat. She demonstrated each step shown above to her Kindergarten class and the children worked to draw their own cat one step at a time.

Each child was given a blank sheet of paper and told to print their name at the top.

The teacher demonstrated how to make a circle, and the children drew their own circle.

Each step was followed until everyone completed their own cat.

The children were then given time to color their cats any way they liked.

Everyone created a cat but each cat looked different in the end based upon the skill, ability, taste, and interest of each child.

Give preschoolers opportunties to write and color

Here are some ideas to consider when giving your preschool students opportunities to color or write.

Offer Choices
Provide your preschoolers with a variety of writing tools to choose from. Add crayons, markers, pencils, pens, colored pencils, and chalk of different sizes and shapes. Provide access to different types of paper as well such as construction paper, newsprint, recycled paper, copy paper, and newspaper.

Offer Time
Allow time for preschoolers to explore the writing materials. For very young preschoolers, you may want to set out a large sheet of paper on a table for preschoolers to go back and forth. They may not want to just sit and color in one long setting but they might get started, leave to do something else, and then come back for more.

For older preschoolers, remember that writing or coloring is more fun when friends join in. Give time for preschoolers to socialize while they write or color. Encourage preschoolers to comment on each other's creations. Preschoolers also love to have their teacher join them as well.

Be Encouraging
You may not recognize the masterpiece your preschooler is drawing, but instead of asking, "What is that?" Say something like, "Tell me about your drawing." Encourage preschoolers to share their ideas and creations. Encourage preschoolers by telling them how much you appreciate their work.

Keep Writing and Coloring Fun
Preschool writing and coloring set the ground work for future attitudes towards writing. Writing and coloring should be a relaxing and fun experience. This is why parents and teachers need to make sure writing and coloring is a positive experience and regardless of how much marker ends up on the table or hands, be sure to notice how wonderful the child's work turned out to be.

Writing Centers
Provide a writing center with additional tools that keep writing interesting for preschoolers such as staplers, hole punches, stamps, ink pads, stencils, glue sticks, and even pre-made blank books. The writing center can be a very popular place if children are given time to enjoy it and a variety of writing tools to work with.


Be sure to Follow My Blog!
Find out why preschoolers should write or color - click here!

Five reasons to encourage preschoolers to color

Set out a piece of paper and some crayons and see the growth and development that is taking place.

1. 
   
   Fine motor skills are being strenthened as preschoolers grasp the crayons and hold on tight enough to make the color show up on their paper.
   
   
   
2. 
   
   Eye-hand coordination is challenged as preschoolers  learn to use the crayons to draw long connected or short curly lines.
   
   
   
3. 
   
   The imagination is sparked as children create what may seem like scribbles to the untrained eye but to the child it may be a house, baby, or the family dog.
   
   
   
4. 
   
   Color recognition is being reinforced as preschoolers choose among the many different color choices made available to them.
   
   
   
5. 
   
   Communication skills are encouraged as preschoolers are asked to share something about their drawings with the class.
   
   
   

Keep crayons and paper available in your classroom all throughout the day and give your students time to color.

Younger preschoolers need time to strenthen their abilities and as they get older, they will be better able to master the skill of coloring and drawing.