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Rainbow Writing Letter Formation Activity

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Colorful letter As and lowercase a's with overlapping colors. Text reads "rainbow writing"

This quick and easy rainbow writing activity is an easy handwriting activity to working on letter formation and letter construction.  Rainbow writing handwriting is a strategy to work on letter formation as a multisensory learning activity for kids. This handwriting activity is an Easy Handwriting strategy that can be so helpful in teaching letter formation and pencil control. 

rainbow writing

You can practice letters with rainbow writing using different utensils. We used rainbow writing with chalk before too.

What is Rainbow Writing

Rainbow writing might be a handwriting activity that you’ve heard of before. Many times, we see rainbow writing as an option for practicing sight words or high frequency words, especially as a multi-sensory learning options.

Typically, you’ll see rainbow writing as one way that kids can practice writing words and letters: They are asked to write the words in a color of the rainbow and then trace over those letters with another color, thus making a rainbow of letters.

Rainbow writing is a great strategy for practicing handwriting! Kids get multiple attempts at forming letters, working on motor planning, pencil placement, and repetition (practice) that very much plays a part in handwriting legibility.

Things to Watch for with Rainbow Writing

Color mixing rainbow writing activity for helping kids with letter formation

When tracing, there are some things to consider. Especially with rainbow writing, kids can develop bad letter formation habits. Read through this resource on tracing sheets to see the pros and cons of tracing with kids.

Some things you’ll want to consider about rainbow writing activities:

  • Be sure to watch how the student starts the letters when they rainbow write. It can be easy to start a poor muscle memory for writing the letters if they start at the wrong starting point or form the letters incorrectly. When they rainbow write each letter and it progressively gets worse, this can create an incorrect motor plan in the handwriting process.
  • Make sure the child that is using rainbow writing to practice letters don’t progressively move their pencil in bigger and bigger strokes as they include each color.
  • Some kids tend to make the rainbow letters with colors next to each other like a rainbow rather than tracing on top of each color. Ask the student to make a mixed up rainbow by tracing right on top of each color.

How to use Rainbow Writing for handwriting

Rainbow writing is a way to work on legibility of written work.

Helping kids write letters with correct letter formation is essential for legibility, especially as kids get older and are required to produce more written work at a faster rate.  Consider the high school student that needs to rapidly jot down notes.  If letters are formed from bottom to top or in sections, their speed and legibility will drastically drop. Sometimes it is speed OR legibility  that suffers when a child needs to produce more amounts of written work in a specific period of time (i.e. copying down notes as a teacher rattles off details.    

The younger student will be affected by inaccuracies in letter formation as well. Around the third grade, students are responsible for jotting down their homework assignments into a planner.  

When the child is bombarded by classroom sensory input (pencil sharpeners, students, desk chairs moving, hallway distractions, coughing classmates…) difficulties with letter formation can result in illegible homework lists and trouble with re-reading the assignment list when the student attempts to start on homework.  

Rainbow Writing Color Changing Activity

There’s more to rainbow writing than incorporating colors and sensory experiences into handwriting. Color Mixing Rainbow Writing is a creative way to help kids learn the right way to actually form letters, because the task allows children to self-correct their written work right in the moment.

They can see where their letter formation has veered into poor letter size or placement. Rainbow writing then becomes a strategy to improve motor planning in handwriting and pencil control as well.    

Affiliate links are included below.

In the handwriting activity shared here, we are taking rainbow writing a step further.

This letter formation activity is really simple and a LOT of fun.  Kids can work on typical motor pattern of letters by exploring color mixing.  

MATERIALS for Rainbow Writing

When you rainbow write, a student can use different colors of crayons, markers, colored pencils, or even chalk. You can use colors of the rainbow, or if you want to work on color changing, use just a couple of the colors.

  • You’ll need just three markers for this activity.   
  • Red, Yellow and Blue markers  are all you need to work on letter formation with color mixing.  We used dollar store markers, but also tried these washable markers (affiliate link- As an Amazon Influencer, I earn from qualifying purchases.) and the activity worked too. 

How to rainbow write with color changing

  1. For this activity, you’ll need to first write the letters that you are working on in one color. Then, using another color, trace over the letters to create a new color.  

2. Mixing the yellow and red made orange letters and mixing the yellow and blue markers made green letters.  

Kids can work on letter formation but experience the color changing of the markers when they write over letters in different colors.

Some different options to try with this rainbow writing activity:

  • Use just 2 colors so kids can try mixing two primary colors to see what the colors make
  • Not when the colors do not change: did they marker lines go off the lines? Can letters be written again or can the student try again to make the colors change?
  • Some kids may benefit from a model that is written in one color by the teacher, therapist, or parent. Then, the student can try to keep their letters on the lines to ensure proper size, spacing, and formation
  • Try making color coded messages to one another using the color changing activity
  • Work on phonetic awareness, by making vowels or phenomes one color and consonants or letter blends another color.
Rainbow Writing Activity with Color mixing for handwriting.

 

Tips for Rainbow Writing

Because kids can develop bad habits with rainbow writing, here are some things to keep in mind.

  1. Work on letter formation with this activity by providing kids with the amount of assistance they need to form letters correctly.  At first, they may need verbal, physical, and visual cues to form letters correctly.
  2. Encourage students to form the letters from top to bottom and in the correct way.  When they re-trace the letters with a second color, be sure they are forming and tracing the letters correctly.    
  3. When kids trace over the colors, they will be forming letters slowly in order to trace over the letters and ensuring the colors mix.  
  4. By tracing over the lines to form letters, they are building the typical motor patterns needed to write the letters correctly and efficiently.  

We worked on cursive letters with this activity, but it would work very well with printed letters, particularly letters that are typically reversed or confused like b and d reversals.  

Here is more information on letter reversals to consider.

Color mixing rainbow writing activity for helping kids with letter formation

 Looking for more creative ways to work on handwriting?  Check out these creative ways to help kids work on their written work:  

Functional Handwriting Practice Ideas

What is Visual Spacing

Visual Tracking Tips and Tools

Handwriting Spacing Tool and Spatial Awareness Tips and Tools

DIY Dry Erase Board Handwriting Travel Kit

Colors Handwriting Kit

Rainbow Handwriting Kit– This resource pack includes handwriting sheets, write the room cards, color worksheets, visual motor activities, and so much more. The handwriting kit includes:

  • Write the Room, Color Names: Lowercase Letters
  • Write the Room, Color Names: Uppercase Letters
  • Write the Room, Color Names: Cursive Writing
  • Copy/Draw/Color/Cut Color Worksheets
  • Colors Roll & Write Page
  • Color Names Letter Size Puzzle Pages
  • Flip and Fill A-Z Letter Pages
  • Colors Pre-Writing Lines Pencil Control Mazes
  • This handwriting kit now includes a bonus pack of pencil control worksheets, 1-10 fine motor clip cards, visual discrimination maze for directionality, handwriting sheets, and working memory/direction following sheet! Valued at $5, this bonus kit triples the goal areas you can work on in each therapy session or home program.

Click here to get your copy of the Colors Handwriting Kit.

Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

Tracing Letters with Chalk

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chalk lines overlapping to make letter z in several colors of chalk. Text reads "chalk tracing"

Have you heard of rainbow writing? How about chalk rainbow writing? There are many fine motor and visual motor skills that are used when using rainbow writing as a handwriting practice strategy! Let’s break down what rainbow writing is and how this chalk writing activity is a skill-builder for letter formation. Also check out our handwriting library for more ideas.

tracing letters with chalk

Tracing letters with chalk is a handwriting practice strategy that helps to build muscle memory when learning letter formations. You can rainbow write on paper or with different utensils such as crayons, colored pencils, markers, or chalk!

Tracing Letters with Chalk

Tracing letters with chalk is a colorful way to practice letter formation. The strategy builds skills in visual motor and hand eye coordination in order to trace over the lines of a letter.

When you use chalk tracing to practice a letter or a word, the child traces over the letter with each color of the rainbow.

They will end up with 6 or 7 trials in writing over the letter.

Some things to consider with tracing with chalk

Tracing over letters with chalk, crayons, or colored pencils is a powerful strategy when practicing letter formation and the line awareness needed for letter size and line placement.

Read through this resource on tracing sheets to see the pros and cons of tracing with kids.

Some things you’ll want to consider about chalk tracing writing activities:

  • Be sure to watch how the student starts the letters. It can be easy to start a poor muscle memory for writing the letters if they start at the wrong starting point or form the letters incorrectly. This creates an incorrect motor plan in the handwriting process.
  • Make sure the letters don’t progressively get worse as the student traces over the letters when rainbow writing.
  • Some kids tend to make the rainbow letters with colors next to each other like a rainbow rather than tracing on top of each color. Ask the student to make a mixed up rainbow by tracing right on top of each color.

Rainbow Writing with chalk

We did rainbow writing with chalk one day. This was a great way to work on letter formation while outside because there was the added benefit of playing on the ground.

Using chalk to practice letters supports development by adding proprioceptive input through the core, strengthens the shoulder girdle for adding more stability for writing, as well as adding strength and stability to the wrist. It’s also a great way to focus on wrist range of motion exercises in a fun way.

Upper body strength in this way supports distal finger dexterity and mobility needed for writing.

Chalk Rainbow Writing

This chalk tracing activity was a lot of fun.

We have a big ol’ bucket of chalk that we play with almost everyday.  Our sidewalk and driveway have been know to be very colorful at times!  We took the chalk to our sidewalk squares one day this week and practiced a little letter formation.

Our sidewalk squares were the perfect area to practice forming letters accurately.  I used simple verbal cues to describe the formation of each letter (big line down, little curve around, little line) and we started in the corner of each square as we made the letters. 

I made the letter first and Big Sister and Little Guy watched.  Then we went to work making our letters very colorful!

Tracing the letters over and over again was a great way to practice accurate formation.  Big Sister got into this activity.  Little Guy only wanted to make a few letters that are in his name.

When the child is tracing the letters over and over again, they become more efficient at planning out and executing the movements needed to make a letter accurately.  This activity is great for a new writer because they are given a confined space to practice a letter, and visual cues (and verbal prompts from mom).

 

 
 
 

Use the activities and ideas in The Handwriting Book for more ways to work on writing skills.

The Handwriting Book is a comprehensive resource created by experienced pediatric OTs and PTs.

The Handwriting Book covers everything you need to know about handwriting, guided by development and focused on function. This digital resource is is the ultimate resource for tips, strategies, suggestions, and information to support handwriting development in kids.

The Handwriting Book breaks down the functional skill of handwriting into developmental areas. These include developmental progression of pre-writing strokes, fine motor skills, gross motor development, sensory considerations, and visual perceptual skills. Each section includes strategies and tips to improve these underlying areas.

  • Strategies to address letter and number formation and reversals
  • Ideas for combining handwriting and play
  • Activities to practice handwriting skills at home
  • Tips and strategies for the reluctant writer
  • Tips to improve pencil grip
  • Tips for sizing, spacing, and alignment with overall improved legibility

Click here to grab your copy of The Handwriting Book today.

Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

Cursive Writing Order to Teach Cursive Letters

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order to teach cursive letters

Did you know there is a specific order to teach cursive letters to promote cursive writing legibility and carryover of cursive handwriting? Occupational therapy providers work with the occupation of handwriting and cursive letters are part of that process. In this post, you’ll learn about cursive writing order to teach letters of the alphabet, including the Handwriting Without Tears letter order for teaching cursive. The order that kids should learn the cursive alphabet, including print letter patterns that are directly transferable to cursive alphabet letters.

order to teach cursive letters

Using a developmental approach to teaching cursive letters supports children and sets them up for success.

order to teach cursive letters


The order that cursive letters are taught is based on development of skills. Just like the order to teach printed letter formation is based on development of pencil control skills, visual motor skills, cursive letter order is also taught developmentally.

This means that letters are grouped into similar pencil strokes, or letter families.

Learning to write the alphabet in cursive, writing one’s name in cursive, and writing words in cursive is something that many kids want to do around the second grade.

It’s around second grade, or 7-8 years of age that fine motor skills develop in such a way that pencil control and graded precision are developed to enable greater in-hand manipulation, and movement through the range of mobility in the thumb and intrinsic muscles within the hand.

This enables pencil movements to become more mobile and fluid, which are pre-requisites for cursive writing skills.

Prior to this skill achievement, handwriting is taught based on pencil strokes, including uppercase letters before lowercase letters because of the developmental aspect of learning letter formations.  

Cursive seems like a “grown up” style of communication that kids see adults or older students using and they try to make swoopy writing on their own.  

Some children can be very motivated to learn to write the alphabet in cursive and use it in their written work.

Cursive writing alphabet and how to teach kids cursive handwriting with correct cursive letter order.



However, one tip for teaching children to write in cursive is to go through the letters in an order that makes sense according to the pencil movements needed to create the letters.

Writing cursive letters in a group of similar pencil strokes is helpful for carryover of pencil control practice and letter formation. Here is more information on teaching groups of similar cursive letters together in a chunk, or cursive letter families.


Once kids have a start on cursive letter formation, they can practice in creative ways like on the window.


Other children who may not be exposed to cursive written work might have their first exposure to cursive in the classroom.  Still other students might be in a public or private classroom where cursive handwriting has been dropped from the curriculum.  These kids may need extra practice at home or might need to learn cursive handwriting from the very beginning.


But where to start when teaching kids (or adults!) the cursive writing alphabet and how to form words in cursive?  Read on for tips and strategies to get started on learning cursive letters.




Cursive Letters Order



We’ve touched on cursive handwriting in previous posts, include a small piece about starting to teach cursive letters.  This strategy will outline the alphabet and the letter order to make learning cursive more easy, based on learning letters in a developmental and progressive order.

RELATED READ: Practice letters in a Cursive Writing Journal.


There are print letter patterns that are directly transferable to cursive letters.


These are cursive letters that are formed similarly to their printed letter counterparts. The muscle movements of the hands that are used to form some printed letters are directly related to the same letters.  For this reason, it’s a good idea to start with these letters when learning the cursive writing alphabet.


The printed letter patterns that make up some letters will transfer directly to cursive, and when formed with a few subskills, cursive letter formation will easily follow (in most cases):

  • Left-to-right strokes
  • Good starting points
  • Direction of movement
  • Consistent stopping points
  • Control of downstrokes
  • Smooth rhythm

Given the subskills noted above, cursive letter formation will lend to more legible letter formation.  Often times, learning correct letter formation and motor practice will help with legibility and ease of cursive writing into a viable form of written communication.

Cursive Letter Order Patterns

If you take a look at cursive letters, you might see a pattern that is similar among the letters. This is part of why we use a cursive pre-writing lines approach when teaching cursive for the first time.

You’ll see pencil and paper activities that support this pencil movement with different pencil strokes:

  • Upswing (the line to start a cursive i or t)
  • Downswing (the line to start a cursive c or a)

Both of these movements can transfer to different starting lines for the other letters. The muscles used to make these lines can then transfer to the other starting movements. Check out our blog post on cursive beginning lines for more information on this concept.

Heling kids to start off with confidence in pencil control to make these beginning strokes supports confidence when learning cursive letters from the start!

When teaching the cursive alphabet, where to begin?

These letters have print patterns that are directly transferable to their cursive letters. This is related to the pencil strokes that are used to form the cursive letters. For this reason, there is a different order to teach cursive lowercase letters compared to their uppercase letter counterpart.

When we consider printed letters, we can directly translate the pencil strokes to some of the cursive letter counterparts. This means that learning the cursive letter form of the letter should be easier based on knowledge of the printed letter’s form.

Having letter recognition skills for printed letters supports the ability to learn cursive letters. For example, there are printed letters which directly translate to the pencil strokes in cursive:

  • t, i, and u and w transfer to their cursive letter counterparts.
  • e and l transfer to their cursive letter counterparts.
  • n, m, p, and h transfer to their cursive letter counterparts.
  • a, c, d, q, and o transfer to their cursive letter counterparts.
  • j and g transfer to their cursive letter counterparts.

This means that the remaining letters are the only ones that need to be taught as a new handwriting motor plan in mind. Those letters include:

  • b, f, k, r, s, v, x, y, and z

We can help learners with this group by calling them cousins or relatives to their printed letter counterpart because they are similar, but different.

Lowercase Cursive Letters

The following letters transfer directly to their cursive letter forms: c, a, d, g, o, q, i, t, u, j, e, l, f, h, p, n, and m.

Knowing that there are letters that use similar motor plans as a starting point, it is recommended to follow an order when teaching lowercase cursive letters:

  • c, a, d, g, q – These letters can be considered “wave letters” because of the beginning stroke.
  • i, t, p, u, w, j – These letters can be considered the “tree letters” because of the beginning line to swing up.
    e, l, f, h – These letters can be considered the “loop letters” because of the loop that the pencil makes.
  • k, r, s
  • b, o, v – These letters can be considered the “tow truck letters” because of the ending connection.
  • m, n, y, x, z – These letters can be considered the “bump letters” because of the beginning pencil stroke.

Uppercase cursive letters

Upper case cursive letters should be presented in a specific order as well:

A, C, O, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, P, R, B, H, K, N, M, I, J, E, L, I, J, Q


This letter order uses a combination of research-based strategies and focuses on movement based patterns as well as common letter formations, i.e. the way the letters connect to form words. Read about how to connect cursive letters for specifics.

In general, it’s considered that the baseline connecting letters are taught prior to the middle line connecting letters. This isn’t accurate for the Learning Without Tears program (Handwriting Without Tears cursive letter order) when it comes to letter w which is taught near the beginning, due to it’s direct translation from the printed version of letter w.

This upper case cursive letter order (or cursive capital letters) order teaches upper case letters that are similar to lower case letters first.  Always teach lower case cursive letters before upper case letters.

Print out the Free printable version for the classroom or home.

Cursive writing alphabet and how to teach kids cursive handwriting with correct cursive letter order.

Affiliate links are included below.

WOrk on Cursive Letter Order with these Ideas:

Here, you’ll find More creative ways to work on learning cursive writing:

Cursive Writing Order

Looking for more information on how to teach cursive writing? You’ll love our 31 day series on How to Teach Cursive Writing.  

the handwriting book The OT Toolbox
The Handwriting Book

The Handwriting Book breaks down the functional skill of handwriting into developmental areas. These include developmental progression of pre-writing strokes, fine motor skills, gross motor development, sensory considerations, and visual perceptual skills. Each section includes strategies and tips to improve these underlying areas.

  • Strategies to address letter and number formation and reversals
  • Ideas for combining handwriting and play
  • Activities to practice handwriting skills at home
  • Tips and strategies for the reluctant writer
  • Tips to improve pencil grip
  • Tips for sizing, spacing, and alignment with overall improved legibility

A final note on teaching cursive letters

Sometimes, cursive letters are taught as a writing format for children that struggle with the motor plan to form and use legible printed handwriting. This might be the case for several reasons:

  • The motor plan to form printed letters is choppy and difficult to recall the different pencil strokes for each letter.
  • Cursive letters use a smoother flow to form letters. The continuous hand movements can be easier for some students because it involves fewer stops and starts compared to print writing.
  • The challenge of letter reversals and letter confusion that occurs with dysgraphia can mean that cursive writing may be easier to learn and use than printed handwriting. This is because cursive letters connect with continuous pencil strokes, leading to less letter reversals and other common writing errors associated with dysgraphia.

Just like printed handwriting, cursive letters are one form of written expression however, there are differences when it comes to legibility. Perfect formation and pencil strokes are not always necessary!

Cursive Letters Tips

We have many blog posts here on The OT Toolbox that support cursive letter writing. Explore these activities and tools to teach the cursive alphabet.

Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

Letter Learning with Bottle Caps

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Bottle caps with lowercase letters on them sitting on each letter of the uppercase alphabet Text reads bottle cap letters

In this older blog post, we shared how to make your own bottle cap letters for multisensory learning and fine motor play. Creating DIY instructional materials can be both educational and fun. One creative idea is to make bottle cap alphabet letters.

Bottle Cap Letters

By collecting various bottle caps and adding individual letters to them, you can create a unique set of bottle cap letters. This homemade alphabet set can be used for matching big and small letters, helping children learn the alphabet in an engaging way. Kids can enjoy the tactile experience of sorting and matching the big and small bottle cap letters, making it a hands-on learning activity that enhances their letter recognition skills!

 
 
This Letter Learning game was something I made for Big Sister a couple of years ago.  We have played with the letter bottle caps so many times and in a ton of ways.
 

 

How to make bottle cap letters

You’ll need just a few materials:

  • 26 bottle caps (one for each letter of the alphabet)
  • Label paper
  • Marker
  • Cardboard for a play mat
 
The cardboard has upper case letters and the bottle caps are used to match the letters. 
 
It doesn’t matter what size bottle caps you use because you cut the label paper to fit the caps. If you use a lot of milk in your home, or have access to a bunch of bottle caps in the same size, use those.
 
In our case, we had a case or two of Gatorade bottles and used those bottle caps to make our letters.
 
 
  1. I used a sheet of label paper to make the lower case letters.
  2. Trace a bunch of circles in the correct size.
  3. Cut out the circles.
  4. Write the letters.
  5. Stick them to the bottle caps.  Easy!
 
 
 

How to use alphabet bottle caps

Our homemade bottle cap letters are a great DIY instructional material to use in learning and play. 
 
  • We’ve also played with the bottle caps in play dough,
  • Use them to spell names and words.
  • Move the bottle cap alphabet to label objects with it’s starting letter.
  • Work on learning which direction the “p”, “b”, and “d” should go. This is a great hands-on activity to target letter reversals!
  • They are so great to manipulate and play with in a sensory bin filled with corn, too.
  • Or, pair the letter bottle caps with our alphabet exercises to target fine motor and gross motor skills. 
 
How else can we play with these bottle caps??
 
bottle cap letters
 

 

Working on fine motor skills, visual perception, visual motor skills, sensory tolerance, handwriting, or scissor skills? Our Fine Motor Kits cover all of these areas and more.

Check out the seasonal Fine Motor Kits that kids love:

Letters Fine Motor Kit
Kit de motricidad fina de verano
Summer Fine Motor Kit
Outer Space Fine Motor Kit
Space Fine Motor Kit
Spring fine motor kit
Valentines Day fine motor kit
winter fine motor kit
Winter Fine Motor Kit

Or, grab one of our themed Fine Motor Kits to target skills with fun themes:

Want access to all of these kits…and more being added each month? Join The OT Toolbox Member’s Club!

Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

Writing Trays for Handwriting

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Child's fingertips drawing a letter S in sand. Text reads sand writing tray

Writing trays are a fantastic way to help kids work on handwriting, letter formation, and pre-writing skills.  There are so many benefits to a sand tray (or other sensory writing materials) in helping with letter formation and handwriting. There is a reason that writing trays are a popular way to encourage fine motor skills and an introduction to handwriting; They use a tactile sensory strategy to encourage movement in learning in a multi-sensory way.  Writing Trays make letter formation fun and meaningful in a play-based manner.


Try this easy rice writing tray for a simple sensory writing experience.

Writing trays are sensory activities to teach handwriting

Amazon affiliate links are included in this blog post. As an Amazon Influencer, I earn from qualifying purchases.

What is a writing tray?

I’ve used writing trays in my occupational therapy interventions and with my own kids for years. Writing trays are such a powerful tool to add a multi-sensory component and moveemnt to learning to write.

Writing trays are a dry or wet sensory material in a low tray or bin type of container. Children can use their finger or a tool such as a pencil, paint brush, or other item to draw, write letters, or form numbers into the sensory material.

Writing Trays are a creative way to help kids learn to write letters, numbers, shapes, and pre-writing strokes.  There are a ton of different ways that writing trays can be set up and used in letter formation. Essentially, a writing tray uses a low container (or TRAY) and a medium that can be moved and shifted for writing.

Sensory writing trays can contain sensory fillers of any type. If you are able to move the material in a way that letters can be drawn in the tray, then the sensory writing tray is a success. With a sensory writing tray, children can write letters independently or copy letters from a visual letter card.

You can find them used in schools, clinics, preschools, early learning centers, and homeschool dinging rooms.  

Writing trays are one tool to support development of Near point copy skills skills.

Writing tray sensory filler ideas for handwriting

Writing Tray Sensory Filler Material

Affiliate links are included in this post.

What is in a Writing Tray? (Writing Tray Fillers)

Writing Trays are filled with a filler that us manipulated and shifted so that letters or writing lines are visible.  Some ideas for filling a writing tray include the sensory materials listed below.

Sand (affiliate link)
Colored Sand (affiliate link)
Rice
Dyed Rice
Salt
Dyed Rice
Play Dough (affiliate link)
Other Doughs
Sugar
Flour
Cornmeal
Slime (Check out the fun we had with slime in a writing tray!)
Spices (affiliate link)
Crushed Chalk (affiliate link)


While sometimes, a child can use their finger to form the lines in their writing tray, a writing tool is typically recommended. (More on that below.)
Use writing trays for handwriting and letter formation

Sensory Writing Tray Benefits

Kids can use writing trays to practice letter formation, or pencil control and stroke sequence in writing letters.  
 
Typically, they will be provided with a visual cue or cue card for copying the letters/numbers/shapes.  
 
Other times, kids can form the letter/number/shape independently when prompted to make a specific letter. This is a great way to work on visual memory and independent letter formation.
 
Be sure to verbally prompt children to form letters or build letters with correct stroke sequence.  This is essential for carryover of accuracy with letter formation in handwriting.  
 
Otherwise, the child is simply playing in the sensory tray and not effectively using the writing tray as a tool for improved handwriting.  
 
Encouraging the child who is learning pre-writing strokes and beginning letter formation can use a writing tray as a base for forming letters independently. Try using visual and verbal cues to promote correct letter construction.
 
A few more must-dos when using a writing tray for addressing letter formation:
  • Make sure letters are not formed in parts.  In other words, don’t allow kids to make a circle and then a line to form an “a”. 
  • Make sure letters are formed from top to bottom. 
  • Realize that the motor plan to form letters with your finger is different than the motor plan to form letters with a pencil or other pencil-like writing tool.

The nice thing about writing trays is that they are very versatile. Students of all ages can use writing trays to work on different levels of handwriting. Some ways to work on handwriting include:

  • Copying pre-writing lines
  • Copying shapes 
  • Letter identification
  • Uppercase letter formation
  • Lowercase letter formation
  • Letter copying
  • Letter writing from memory
  • Cursive letter formation
  • Cursive letter writing from memory
  • Word copying
  • Sight word writing
  • Spelling word writing
Writing trays for handwriting, letter formation, and fine motor skills.

 

Fine Motor Skills and Writing Trays

A writing tray can be an effective tool in boosting fine motor skills.  Kids can use their finger to form lines and letters while strengthening finger isolation and separation of the two sides of the hand, including an opportunity for the ulnar side fingers to tuck into the palm for a more effective pencil grasp when writing.
 
Children can also use a tool to form letters in a writing tray.  This can be an opportunity to develop pencil grasp.  
 
However.  There are a few items that should be mentioned about using a writing tray to address pencil grasp and appropriate motor plan for letter formation.
 
Writing Trays are a common tool.  But if you just place a writing tray in front of a child, you will likely see an inefficient writing activity.  You will probably see most kids forming letters with an awkward grasp on the writing tool, a flexed and deviated wrist, an abducted shoulder, and generally ineffective positioning.  


Positioning absolutely carries over to letter formation and handwriting.
 
A writing tray can be used to address pencil grasp and handwriting needs.  However, it is essential to use the tray in a proper manner.  There are a few ways to do this:
  • Place the writing tray on a slight slant. Try using a DIY slant board.
  • Use a low edged tray.
  • Use verbal, physical, and visual cues for appropriate positioning. 
  • Position the writing tool in your child’s hand with an appropriate tripod or modified tripod grasp.
  • Show the child how to hold the tool at the end of the tool as if they were holding a pencil.
Once you’ve got your writing tray set up and positioning taken care of, it’s on to the fun stuff…making a writing tray!
 
 

How to make a Writing Tray

Making a writing tray to gain benefits of teaching sensory handwriting is easy. You can use materials found around the home.

The options are limitless when it comes to writing tray combinations! You can create a writing tray in any theme or to meet any need. You’ll need just a few items: a container, a filler, a tool, and letter cards.

Writing Tray Ideas

First, you’ll need a low tray, basket, bin, or other container. We’ve used a variety of containers in our sensory writing trays. You’ll want a container that will hold the sensory writing material within its edges.

In some cases, you can even scatter the sensory material on a flat surface like a table or a plastic table cloth on the floor. For example, we used dyed rice right on the kiddie picnic table for a pre-writing and hand strengthening activity.

Kids will be using a tool or their hands to write letters and the sensory material can scatter. Some specific ideas include:

  • Kitchen baking trays (jelly roll pan or cookie sheet with edges)
  • Food storage containers
  • Melissa and Doug wooden puzzle boxes
  • Cardboard boxes cut low on the sides
  • 9×11 cake pan
  • Shirt box
  • Tray
  • Low basket

Writing Tray Tools

Next, you’ll need a tool to use to write the letters. This can be items found in the home as well.  Some writing tray tools include:

  • Finger
  • Eraser end of a pencil
  • Paint brush
  • Feather
  • Straw
  • Pointer stick
  • Stick from a tree
  • Craft stick
  • Chopsticks
  • Toothpick (Incorporate our toothpick holder activity to further fine motor skills!)
  • Craft pom pom attached to a clothes pin

Writing Tray Letter Cards

Next, an important part of a writing tray is the letter model. As mentioned above, writing trays are great for copying pre-writing lines, shapes, letters, numbers, and words. 

Cards can be used as a visual model for forming letters or words. Some cards include direction arrows. Others might include a sight word or spelling word for the child to copy. These cards can be positioned in different positions to address different needs. 

  • Position the letter cards right in the tray for near-point copying.
  • Position the writing tray cards in a vertical position near the writing tray to challenge vision shift. 
  • Hang the writing cards on a wall for far point copying to work on visual shift, visual attention, visual memory, and copying from a distance. 

Writing Tray Fillers

You’ll also need a sensory material to act as a filler. This is the material that the child will actually “write” in. When we say “write”, they are using the tool to form letters as the sensory filler moves in the tray. They will not actually write a letter with a pencil or other marking device. Sensory filler material can be as creative as you let it. Some writing tray fillers include these materials:

Click each link for ideas on how to set up these creative writing trays.

 
 
 
 
Dyed Rice
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
As you can see, the ideas are limitless when it comes to sensory handwriting! Use a theme or materials that meet the needs of your child or client and are motivating and fun!
 

More sensory Handwriting Activities

Sensory Writing Bag

Sensory Handwriting Camp at Home

Teach letters with sensory textures

Pencil pressure activities

 

 
 
 

 

Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

Sand Writing Tray

One very easy way to create a sand writing tray is to use a child’s picnic table placed either outside in a sandbox or over a tarp (or outdoor space where it’s ok that sand goes into the ground and lawn).

We loved using our kid’s picnic table in this way to make a sand writing tray.

sand writing tray

For this sand writing tray, we made it super simple and just dumped a thin layer of sand onto our (Amazon link) Little Tykes picnic table. Then, I invited the kids to all sit down and draw in the sand using their fingertips. This is a great exercise in finger isolation.

sand writing tray

Practicing letters in a sensory surface like writing and drawing in sand on a picnic table surface is a motivating and fun activity for kids because it’s not something they typically do.

Kids learn new skills well with a multisensory learning experience and a sand writing tray is a great, inexpensive way to do just that.

To encourage vocabulary and verbal expression, tell stories on the table surface and ask questions that extend the story further. Then, while practicing lines and drawing shapes and figures, gently smooth the sand with the palm of your hand and start over again!

sand writing tray for preschool

Preschoolers can practice pre-handwriting lines, while older kids can form letters and numbers in the sand. They can also copy and trace letters to improve their penmanship skills.

Winter Number Tracing Worksheet

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Winter number formation

When it comes to managing the long winter with activities, this winter number tracing worksheet has you covered. Be sure to read up on our recommended use of tracing sheets as a tool to support functional writing. Use the printable below along with our winter number tracing worksheet to talk with kids about winter clothing AND work on number formation. It’s a winter printable that you’ll want to add to your therapy toolbox! Also be sure to grab our winter crossword puzzle and our winter clothes worksheet (for visual perception) as a tool to build visual motor skills.

You’ll want to grab this winter worksheet because it covers number formation and writing numbers with a wintery theme!

Kids also love this mitten printable to race the mittens across the page whild building motor skills.

Winter clothing worksheet

Free Winter Number Tracing Worksheet

On the winter worksheet, you’ll find number writing spaces where the user can trace numbers. By practicing numbers through tracing, you give the user the opportunity to practice the motor plan needed to form the number. We talk about the occupational therapy provider’s perspective on tracing in our resource on tracing sheets. Specific for this winter clothing activity, we wanted to add the number practice option along with a few other ways to practice specific skills.

This winter number tracing worksheet is similar to our recent Christmas lights number tracing printable.

Winter means different things for different people depending on their climate. Winter in the southern United States means adding a sweatshirt, possibly a hat at the bus stop early in the morning.  In the northern states winter is a different story.  Up north, winter starts in mid- September and seems to last until May.  I have northern roots but am a southern girl by heart. 

Winter months in cold areas of the world mean bundling up and adding clothes.  Mittens, hats, coats, snow pants, boots, gloves, earmuffs, thick socks, long johns, and lots of layers are the customary daily garb.  Imagine trying to put this on and off a toddler each time you head out!  As soon as you get your child decked out in all these layers, they usually announce the need to go to the toilet!  It never fails.

Since bundling up is a daily chore in the frozen north, why not add it to your treatment plan? The Warm Winter Clothes Number Trace Worksheet is a cute printable to build essential skills while using meaningful, relevant content.

This free winter number tracing worksheet is a winter clothes activity for kids that helps with motor planning of number formation using a winter clothing printable.

Tracing Numbers Worksheets

Let’s talk tracing so you can use it to the maximum benefit and its intended purpose. 

I am not a fan of tracing unless it is used correctly, or the objective is understood. Here is information on the benefits of tracing. 

  • Tracing is not going to teach number/letter formation if the learner does not know what those figures are.  To a learner who does not know these symbols, they will be tracing lines, not numbers or letters
  • Know your audience. If your learner does not know the letters or numbers, use the activity as a fine motor task to develop dexterity
  • Kinesthetic awareness.  This long word means to learn by doing.  Theoretically if a person writes the number 5 enough times, the body will start to recognize this pattern and commit it to memory.  This only works if the learner understands what is being traced. Using our sandpaper writing trick is one great way to incorporate kinesthetic awareness into number tracing and number formation.
  • Tracing for dexterity. This is the type of tracing I like best.  Tracing for dexterity works on staying on the lines, fine motor control, building hand muscles, scanning and a whole host of other important skills as defined below

Winter Clothes Worksheet

While worksheets are not a favorite among occupational therapists, there are ways to support skill areas by using worksheets to meet the needs of kids. When we address the underlying skill areas to support function, printables like this winter clothes worksheet can address a variety of areas.

What does this winter number tracing worksheet work on besides tracing?

  1.  Kinesthetic awareness – This means learning by doing.
  2.  Hand strength and dexterity – staying on the lines builds hand muscles and develops muscle control. Check out the In Hand Manipulation Printable Worksheet to incorporate developing the intrinsic hand muscles.
  3. Visual motor skills –Combining what is seen visually and what is written motorically.  This takes coordination to be able to translate information from visual input to motor output. Coloring, drawing, counting, cutting, and tracing are some visual motor skills.
  4.  Visual Perception – Developing figure ground to see where one item start and finishes, scanning to find all answers, and visual closure to understand that dotted lines will create something.
  5. Strength – Core strength needed for sitting, shoulder/elbow/wrist stability, finger strength, and head control all play their role in writing.
  6. Bilateral Coordination – Be sure your learner uses their helper hand for stabilizing the paper while using their dominant hand for writing.
  7. Counting/Learning Numbers – Count the items to understand number concepts in addition to tracing them.
  8. Social/Executive Function – Following directions, turn taking, task completion, orienting to details, neatness, multi-tasking, attending to task, and impulse control can be addressed using this Warm Winter Clothing Printable PDF.

When using a task such as this number tracing worksheet, therapists can utilize and focus on all the above skills or just one or two.  There are times when I am working more on executive function than fine motor skills but will use this task with more of my focus on these executive function skills.  My note might not say much about their number formation, counting skills, or neatness, but how well they were able to attend to the task, complete the task, follow directions, and control their impulses.

Number Tracing worksheet for winter

Winter Clothing Printable

There are so many ways to use this winter clothing printable to work on number tracing, and more.

How do I incorporate or modify this task for the needs of all my learners?

Lots of ways!  As always, this sheet can be laminated for reusability or marker use, printed on different colored paper for readability, enlarged or made smaller, made simpler or more complex. Try having learners color the shapes and write the numbers independently on the back to add more visual motor tasks to this winter clothes worksheet.

This covers one day of winter, what about the other 240?

Glad you asked!  The OT Toolbox is stuffed with activities, blog posts and work pages to fill those winter days. The Winter Fine Motor Kit full of handouts and PDF files provides several visual motor tasks to be used throughout the winter season.

Plus, in The OT Toolbox Members Club, you’ll find winter clothing printables and resources to address a variety of needs.

Winter Fine Motor Kit Deal

In addition to these handouts, you can also read this article on Winter Fine Motor Activities for more great ideas and suggestions:

Winter Fine Motor Activities

Winter is a very long season. Especially if you are not a fan of the cold weather (author raises hand).  Adding fun activities and games can take some of the monotony and sting out of the long cold days. 

Brrrrrr, bundle up!

Free WINTER NUMBER TRACING WORKSHEET

Want to access this printable number tracing worksheet? Enter your email address into the form below. You can also find this winter clothing printable in The OT Toolbox Member’s Club.

Winter Clothing Number Tracing Worksheet

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    Victoria Wood, OTR/L is a contributor to The OT Toolbox and has been providing Occupational Therapy treatment in pediatrics for more than 25 years. She has practiced in hospital settings (inpatient, outpatient, NICU, PICU), school systems, and outpatient clinics in several states. She has treated hundreds of children with various sensory processing dysfunction in the areas of behavior, gross/fine motor skills, social skills and self-care. Ms. Wood has also been a featured speaker at seminars, webinars, and school staff development training. She is the author of Seeing your Home and Community with Sensory Eyes.

    Watch for more winter clothes worksheets and winter printables coming to this space.

    How to Write Cursive a

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    If you are teaching kids to write in cursive handwriting, these tips on how to write cursive a will help with a starter letter that supports the development of cursive writing skills. Writing letter a in cursive might seem like a good place to start when teaching cursive writing (after all, it’s the beginning of the alphabet!), but actually, you’ll want to start developmentally by teaching cursive letters in a sequential order.

    How to Write Cursive a

    Teaching cursive handwriting is a challenge for many parents and teachers.  Taking it step-by-step is key. Here, you will find strategies for how to write cursive letter a. Many times, there is not a specific curriculum that schools use and teachers need to scramble for resources and THEN fit handwriting time into an already jam packed day.

    That’s why here at The OT Toolbox, you will find cursive writing tools that can be easily added into a school day. So, if you are wondering how to teach cursive writing, then you are in luck, because we have specific tips and tricks to teach cursive letters a-z.  

    Here you will find tricks and tips to write cursive a…in fun ways!

    Teach kids how to write cursive a with these cursive writing activities, tips and tricks that will stick.  

     

    Lowercase cursive letter a is one of the wave letters.  The letters c, a, d, g, q, and o make up these letters that contain similar letter strokes. That’s why when children are taught to write in cursive, these letters are typically grouped together. We talked about how cursive letters are related and grouped into cursive letter families.

    Teaching cursive letters in groups helps with letter formation, including the motor plan to form similar letters. When kids can practice cursive with a sensory approach to writing letters, they engage multiple senses along with the motor movements to form each letter. Grouping them into like letters makes the learning easier.

    a in Cursive…where to start?

    Start by reviewing how to form cursive c.

    Start by reviewing and practicing cursive letter c. Cursive letter c (and cursive a) is a wave letter. Starting with some pencil strokes and multi-sensory practice of the wave formation is a good place to begin. Try some multi-sensory approaches to build motor planning for forming cursive a. 

    Hold a small crafting pom pom or cotton ball in the thumb, pointer finger, and middle finger. This positions the hand into a tripod grasp and “wakes up” the muscles for writing.

    Holding the cotton ball, students can use whole arm motions to “draw” an imaginary wave in the air. Encourage them to be sure to re-trace the wave so it has a big curved portion at the top or crest of the wave. Here is more information on teaching wave letters. 

    By re-tracing that wave back down to the bottom, they can see the letter “c” or the beginning part of a letter a forming.

    One tip to get that line really formed with re-trace is to tell kids that they want the wave to be great for surfing under. If the wave is fat at the bottom, it’s not a surfing wave. We want to see a wave that is ready to fall over and crash so a surfer can surf right along the inside of the wave.

    Making a string of cursive c’s or a wave with several waves together is a good exercise.

    These handwriting tips can help teach kids how to write cursive a

     

     

    Next, turn cursive c into a cursive a.

    Once that curved c is reviewed, and the students are tracing back over their wave lines so the curve looks like a single line, it’s time to turn lowercase c into lowercase a. 

    Teach cursive a by telling students to form a cursive c that looks like a wave ready to crash over.

    Their pencil should trace back over the wave line and move along the baseline. The pencil should move straight up to the top of the wave and pause where the wave is just about to tip over.

    Next, the pencil should trace strait back down to the bottom line of the paper. Then, the pencil can move along the baseline to connect to the next letter. Here are tips to teach cursive letter connections.

    Here are those cursive writing directions listed out:

    1. Write a cursive c with the top of the wave ready to crash.
    2. Move the pencil along the baseline and up to touch the tip of the wave. 
    3. Pull the pencil strait down to the baseline.
    4. Curve away to connect.

    Poor Formation of cursive a?

    What happens when the cursive a (or other writing in cursive) falls flat? There can be some troubleshooting to do when it comes to writing in cursive. Here are some problems you might see whth letter a.

    • The lines curving up to the top of the lowercase a aren’t touching- Remind the student to trace back over the curve of their magic c. Review how to make the curve of a letter c.
    • The “wave” looks to wide- A gaping wave can make the letter a look sloppy. Teach students to trace back over the curve of the along the same line. Try using rainbow writing for this method.
    • The up line to touch the top of the a is slanted. The a looks

    Read here to find more tips to teach each cursive letter.

    Practice cursive a with multi-sensory approaches to teaching letters

    • Use the pom pom/cotton ball large motor method described above
    • Practice the wave curves (focus on those thin, ready to break waves!) on the palm of the hand, by “writing” with the pointer finger
    • Rainbow write with crayons, markers, or chalk
    • Paint water onto construction paper
    • Try some of the sensory writing strategies described in this free creative cursive writing journal 
    How to teach cursive letter a.
    The Handwriting Book is a comprehensive resource created by experienced pediatric OTs and PTs.

    The Handwriting Book covers everything you need to know about handwriting, guided by development and focused on function. This digital resource is is the ultimate resource for tips, strategies, suggestions, and information to support handwriting development in kids.

    The Handwriting Book breaks down the functional skill of handwriting into developmental areas. These include developmental progression of pre-writing strokes, fine motor skills, gross motor development, sensory considerations, and visual perceptual skills. Each section includes strategies and tips to improve these underlying areas.

    • Strategies to address letter and number formation and reversals
    • Ideas for combining handwriting and play
    • Activities to practice handwriting skills at home
    • Tips and strategies for the reluctant writer
    • Tips to improve pencil grip
    • Tips for sizing, spacing, and alignment with overall improved legibility

    Click here to grab your copy of The Handwriting Book today.

    Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

    Clay Letters

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    clay alphabet

    These clay letters are a fine motor activity we made years ago, but we still use them today in multisensory learning activities. In fact, the clay alphabet is such a great tool for sight word and spelling word manipulatives. This week, we used two of my top Occupational Therapy recommendations in a combined fine motor power activity…to make stamped letters for learning!

    We used clay and alphabet stamps to make our own clay letters for hands-on learning, including practicing spelling words, sight words, letter identification, and letter order.  This was the perfect learning tool for my second grader, kindergartner, and preschooler!

    Make clay letters with alphabet stamps and use them in spelling words, decodable reading, word building, letter identification, and alphabetical order activities for multi- age learning ideas and hands-on learning in this fine motor work learning and play idea for kids.
     
     

    Clay Letters for multisensory learning

    As an Occupational Therapist, I often times recommended using clay as a therapeutic tool.  It’s resistive and provides proprioceptive feedback while working on hand strength.  Combined with letter stamps, we were able to make our own movable and colorful letters.  

     

    Pressing the alphabet stamps into the clay is a great fine motor exercise and one that strengthens the hands, promoting a functional pencil grasp, separation of the sides of the hand, and intrinsic hand strength.

    Make clay letters with alphabet stamps and use them in spelling words, decodable reading, word building, letter identification, and alphabetical order activities for multi- age learning ideas and hands-on learning in this fine motor work learning and play idea for kids.
     

    Fine Motor Work Activity

    Make clay letters with alphabet stamps and use them in spelling words, decodable reading, word building, letter identification, and alphabetical order activities for multi- age learning ideas and hands-on learning in this fine motor work learning and play idea for kids.
     

    How to Make Clay Letters

    This post contains affiliate links.

    You’ll need to start with alphabet stamps for pressing into the clay, and some colorful clay. You’ll want to get the type of clay that quick dries.

    We used our Alphabet Stamp Set to press lower case letters into small, rolled balls of modeling clay. I love the bright colors of THIS brand.

    To make he clay letters, kids are really strengthening the hands.

    First, ask your child to first pull off small pieces of clay from the long rolls.  Roll the clay into small balls and gently press them into disks.  

    Then, have your child find the letters of the alphabet in alphabetical order.  Using the Melissa and Doug Alphabet Stamp Set was a great way to further our fine motor work.  The size and shape of the letter stamps in this set are perfect for working on intrinsic muscle strength and tripod grasp.  

    Pressing the stamps into the clay is a nice way to address precision.  

    Press too hard, and the clay disk is too thin.  

    Press to lightly, and the letter’s impression is not deep enough in the clay.  This precision of grasp requires proprioceptive awareness.

    Make clay letters with alphabet stamps and use them in spelling words, decodable reading, word building, letter identification, and alphabetical order activities for multi- age learning ideas and hands-on learning in this fine motor work learning and play idea for kids.
     

    The brand of clay that we used does not harden.  This makes a nice activity for kids, but if you want to keep your letters, use a modeling clay that does dry out.

    Make clay letters with alphabet stamps and use them in spelling words, decodable reading, word building, letter identification, and alphabetical order activities for multi- age learning ideas and hands-on learning in this fine motor work learning and play idea for kids.
     

    Learning Activities with Clay Letters

    We used our clay letters in a bunch of different activities. Try some of these hands-on letter activities:

    • Practice spelling words.
    • Practice spelling sight words.
    • Arrange letters on the table.  Ask kids to visually scan for letters to find in alphabetical order.
    • Practice letter identification.
    • Copy the letters to work on letter formation.
    • Arrange the letters on a table.  Pull out a letter and ask your child to name a word that starts with that letter.  Ask them to write the words to practice handwriting.
    • Practice decodable reading and word building with the clay letters.
     
     



    Make clay letters with alphabet stamps and use them in spelling words, decodable reading, word building, letter identification, and alphabetical order activities for multi- age learning ideas and hands-on learning in this fine motor work learning and play idea for kids.

    More Letter Fine Motor Activities

    You’ll love the fine motor activities in our Letters Fine Motor Kit. The printable kit is loaded with letter activities that build fine motor skills. You can grab it and all of the other themed fine motor kits below, to build skills through play.

    Working on fine motor skills, visual perception, visual motor skills, sensory tolerance, handwriting, or scissor skills? Our Fine Motor Kits cover all of these areas and more.

    Check out the seasonal Fine Motor Kits that kids love:

    Letters Fine Motor Kit
    Kit de motricidad fina de verano
    Summer Fine Motor Kit
    Outer Space Fine Motor Kit
    Space Fine Motor Kit
    Spring fine motor kit
    Valentines Day fine motor kit
    winter fine motor kit
    Winter Fine Motor Kit

    Or, grab one of our themed Fine Motor Kits to target skills with fun themes:

    Want access to all of these kits…and more being added each month? Join The OT Toolbox Member’s Club!

    Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

    Preschool Pre-Writing Skills

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    pre-writing skills

    This pre-writing skills resource is a resource for anyone working with preschoolers. The fact is that in the preschool years, developmentally, preschoolers should not be writing. Rather, pre-writing is the area of focus. A huge topic of discussion for pediatric occupational therapy professionals is the fact that preschool pre-writing skills are developed rather than introducing handwriting at this young age. Developmentally, there is a lot of progression in the preschool years and pre-writing skills are just one of the many areas. Our resource on fine motor activities for preschoolers covers more on these areas. Refer to more information on preschool activities for other developmentally appropriate activities.

    pre writing skills needed before preschoolers can write with a pencil.

    Pre writing Skills in Preschool

    Many times, parents of very young children don’t think about handwriting skills. It’s not typical to think about holding a pencil, writing words and sentences, and copying letters when children are just mastering building with blocks, learning to pull on socks, and creating finger paint masterpieces.  

    But the truth is, when young preschoolers are playing, they are building the very important precursors to handwriting.  

    The skills needed for managing a pencil, copying letter forms, and managing pencil control when copying lists and paragraphs into a space on a page are initiated in the early childhood years.  Below, you’ll find more about preschool pre-writing skills and the components of pre-writing skills that are developed through play.

    Related, is this blog post on friendship activities for preschoolers.

    Pre-writing skills development begins with preschool aged children through play.

    What are Pre-Writing Skills?

    Preschool is prime time to develop the underlying skills needed for handwriting. So often, the older, school-aged kids that are struggling with handwriting are missing the underlying areas that make up the skills of handwriting.


    First, it’s important to recognize that handwriting is made up of so many areas. Handwriting is much more than holding a pencil (pencil grasp) and forming letters and numbers!  

    There are many pre-writing skills that transfer to accuracy in written work. These areas need to be developed and refined before handwriting can be successful. These skills are pre-requisites to even holding a pencil to form shapes and then letters.

    Consider the following skill areas that relate to handwriting: 

    1. Sensory Motor Pre-writing skills
    2. Fine motor pre-writing skills
    3. Visual-motor pre-writing skills 

    Let’s go into each area separately.

    Sensory-Motor Pre-Writing Skills- The sensory motor component is closely related. Consider the pyramid of learning and the developmental base that enables refinement in higher levels of development. The closely related areas of sensory and motor skills are pre-requisites for pre-writing before copying lines and shapes is even possible.

    • Gross motor development
    • Motor planning
    • Initial core control and core body strength
    • Bilateral arm and hand use
    • Crossing midline
    • Imitation of movements
    • Ability to learn novel motor movements
    • Tactile sensory awareness
    • Discrimination of sensation

    Fine Motor Pre-Writing Skills- From holding the pencil to moving and controlling the pencil when writing letter forms, handwriting requires a variety of motor movements that all must work together.

    These fine motor pre writing areas of development include:

    • Hand dominance
    • Pinch precision (using a tip to tip grasp)
    • Finger opposition
    • Finger isolation
    • Separation of the sides of the hand
    • Hand strength (endurance in play)
    • Fine motor development
    • Separation of the two sides of the hand, including:
      • Development and control of the skilled side of the hand                  
      • Development and control of the strength side of the hand stable side of the hand
    • Thumb Isolation and use as a stability point
    • Thumb dexterity and strength
    • Finger Isolation
    • Development of a dominant hand and an assisting hand
    • Manipulation of objects and dexterity of the hand with objects
    • Grasp strength

    Note that preschool can begin as early as 2 years old with some preschool classes. There is a big difference in development from the 2-5 year range in all areas, including fine motor development. A young 2 year old will developmentally have more primitive fine motor skills than a 5 year old child.

    Young preschoolers will develop precision and refinement of fine motor skills through play.

    Visual Processing Pre-Writing Skills- Additionally, there are the eyes.  What is seen and recognized needs to be coordinated with the hand.  Visual processing has a huge component in written work!

    During the preschool years, visual processing skills are developed through play. These components include:

    Cognitive Pre-Writing Skills- In addition to the motor components are the cognitive skills. These include the ability to follow directions, pay attention, and focus. The cognitive areas are closely related to the motor skill prerequisites.

    • Direction following
    • Attention and focus
    • Directional concepts
    • Memory
    • Sequencing
    • Awareness of left-right concepts in books and written work

    When Preschoolers are asked to write letters

    When young children are asked to write, trace, or copy letters before these skills are developed, bad habits can form. In these cases, you’ll notice that older students tend to have difficulty with handwriting.

    There are many things happening all at once that develop poor motor plans and bad habits. Because preschoolers are not developmentally ready to write with a pencil, you may see these issues:

    1. Immature grasp on the pencil/writing utensil
    2. Inability to form diagonal lines
    3. Forms letters from bottom to top
    4. Forms letter segmentally and inappropriately
    5. Weak grasp on the writing utensil
    6. Inconsistent hand use
    7. Weak pinch and base of support on the pinky side of the hand
    8. Poor posture
    9. Inattention
    10. Difficulty identifying letters and copying complete parts
    11. Many other issues!

    These mentioned issues with starting handwriting in preschool is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to introducing letter formation before kids are developmentally ready.

    We have put this information into a video to further explain what happens when preschoolers are taught to write letters or write their name before they are developmentally ready. If you would like to view this video on YouTube, check it out on The OT Toolbox YouTube channel.

    Pre-Writing Lines in Preschool

    It is very important to mention pre-writing lines. These are the pencil strokes that precede formation of letters. Here are some resources you’ll want to read over and utilize in this important step in preschool development:

    1. We cover a great deal about pre-writing lines here.
    2. Use this pre-writing lines activity to work on this essential step.
    3. Consider this pre-writing lines slide deck when working with preschoolers in a virtual setting.
    4. Read about the developmental progression of pre-writing lines.
    5. Use this pre-writing leaf activity to work on the development of underlying skills as well as pre-writing line formation.
    6. Use these handwriting activities to work on pre-writing skill development.

    If any of these areas might be an issue for your child with handwriting troubles, consider grabbing The Handwriting Book as a resource that covers all of the underlying skill areas related to handwriting.

    So how are all of these areas addressed as a pre-writing skill in preschool? 

    The answer is through play!

    Can you believe that all of these areas are being addressed htrough play in the early childhood development stages?  And that all of these areas are building and developing with a resulting use in handwriting?  Amazing, right?  

    Pre-writing skills start to develop in preschool aged kids.

        Stop by later this week to find out easy ways to encourage development of the above skill areas in group settings in the preschool environment.  It can be difficult to address the needs of a preschool class when there are 16 four year olds that need reining in.  I’ll have easy ways to encourage development of fine motor skills, visual motor skills, and attention skills in fun and creative ways…coming soon!  

    The Handwriting Book

    BUY The Handwriting Book NOW    

    Want to know more about The Handwriting Book?  Click on the image above to find out how to address every underlying area related to handwriting skills.     Click here to BUY NOW.

     
     

     

    Working on fine motor skills, visual perception, visual motor skills, sensory tolerance, handwriting, or scissor skills? Our Fine Motor Kits cover all of these areas and more.

    Check out the seasonal Fine Motor Kits that kids love:

    Letters Fine Motor Kit
    Kit de motricidad fina de verano
    Summer Fine Motor Kit
    Outer Space Fine Motor Kit
    Space Fine Motor Kit
    Spring fine motor kit
    Valentines Day fine motor kit
    winter fine motor kit
    Winter Fine Motor Kit

    Or, grab one of our themed Fine Motor Kits to target skills with fun themes:

    Want access to all of these kits…and more being added each month? Join The OT Toolbox Member’s Club!

    Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

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