PreWriting Lines Activity Rainbow Slide Deck

prewriting lines activity rainbow slide deck

This rainbow therapy slide deck activity is a prewriting lines activity that can help kids with the visual motor skills needed for writing letters, numbers, and in all aspect of handwriting. Prewriting skills are those very important developmental skills needed before kids can actually write letters or numbers. Pre-writing lines activities are an often-times skipped step of handwriting. That’s why I wanted to create a rainbow drawing art activity that can be used in teletherapy (or face-to-face sessions) that works on this important skill.

You’ll also love these free rainbow therapy slide decks: Rainbow drawing art activity and the rainbow emotions slide decks. Add both to your occupational therapy interventions.

This therapy virtual activity is great to use along with some fruit loop rainbow craft ideas for hands-on rainbow themed fun.

Prewriting lines therapy slide deck for teletherapy and air writing prewriting forms.

Prewriting lines

As we discussed in this blog post on a past pre-writing lines activity, working on pre-writing lines prior to practicing letter formation is an important step for preschool-aged kids, and actually helps to develop a strong basis for proper letter formation.  

Establishing pre-writing lines allow kids to strengthen visual motor skills, hand muscles, promote pencil strokes needed for letters, and improve pencil control. 

We’ve also previously talked about the progression of pre-writing lines. Prewriting lines development is as follows:

What Are Pre-Writing Skills?

In short, pre-writing skills are the lines and strokes kids need to master and know BEFORE learning how to print the alphabet. Each of these lines is developed in a sequence, based on how old the child is. We’ve covered developmental progression of pre-writing lines previously.

This developmental sequence of prewriting lines is as follows:

  • Age 1-2: Spontaneous scribbles
  • Age 2-3: Imitates a vertical line, horizontal line, circle
  • Age 3-4: Imitates a cross shape, and diagonal lines, a crude square
  • Age 4-5: Imitates an X, triangle, square

This is a very basic description of ages and developmental progression of line development and pre-writing skills.

As always with child development, each child will progress through this developmental sequence somewhat differently and at different speeds. Some children may draw a square with refined pencil strokes and sharp corners or controlled curves before another child. Other children may form perfectly slanted diagonal lines while others at the same age may make bumpy or curved diagonals.

Still another concern that should be addressed: Older kids may have been introduced to handwriting before they have mastered prewriting lines and then you see the breakdown in letter formation, reversals, inaccuracies with curves, diagonals, line placement, etc. In this case, it is ok to go back and work on these forms in multi-sensory learning strategies. Use sensory bins, rainbow writing, drawing on sandpaper, finger-paint, drawing in shaving cream, etc. to work on accurate copying and forming of these line forms.

This developmental progression of pre-writing lines should be taken as a general outline.

In short, we want to see each of these line formations develop before a child is asked to copy or trace letters.

There are many hands-on activities that help to work on these skills.

Pre-writing virtual activity

So how do you work on pre-writing skills in a virtual occupational therapy environment? There are many ways!

Copying pre-writing forms can be achieved in teletherapy through creative thinking, use of the camera, and items the child has in the home. To get started on thinking outside the box, check out our free teletherapy with kids mini-course, where you will find loads of information on all things teletherapy, including for those who are at the pre-writing stage in their in their writing and visual motor skills.

prewriting lines teletherapy activities

Rainbow prewriting lines activity

You can use the slide deck presented here to work on prewriting lines with children, as another virtual therapy activity.

In the free Google slide deck, kids can complete several activities to work on copying pre-writing lines, and they all have a rainbow theme.

prewriting lines rainbow activity for kids

Kids can first copy the prewriting lines with air writing as they point to the lines. Then, they can use whole body movements to air write the forms. This incorporates motor planning, crossing midline, and visual tracking.

In the rainbow therapy slide deck, you’ll find all of the pre-writing lines, including slides for strait vertical lines, horizontal lines, diagonal lines, a cross, curves, wiggly lines, arches, a square, a triangle, and more.

teach prewriting lines to kids with a rainbow theme

Finally, children can draw the prewriting forms onto paper.

Want to add this prewriting lines therapy slide deck to your teletherapy toolbox?

Enter your email into the form below and you’ll get access to thsi free Google slide deck.

Prewriting Lines Activity Rainbow Slide Deck!

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    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.

    Rainbow Breathing

    Adding to our deep breathing exercises here on the site, is this rainbow breathing activity for kids. It’s a breathing exercise that kids can use in a rainbow theme in therapy sessions, or as a coping tool to help kids with self-regulation, mindfulness, and focus. Print off this rainbow breathing printable and add it to your deep breathing activities!

    This rainbow breathing activity is a great mindfulness tool to use with other rainbow activities. You can even add some Rainbow Fruit Loop craft ideas for fine motor fun.

    Free rainbow breathing deep breathing exercise for kids

    Rainbow Breathing Activity

    Kids will love this printable rainbow breathing activity. It makes a great poster for a therapy room, classroom, of homeschool room, too, especially this time of year.

    There are many benefits to breath control in breathing exercise as coping tools, and there is a reason why we are seeing more need for these types of resources.

    To use this free deep breathing printable, ask kids to start at the white dot on one side of the rainbow. They can slowly trace along the colors of the rainbow as they take a deep breath.

    Then, when they reach the other side of the rainbow, they can begin at another white dot where they can trace along another color in the rainbow. Ask kids to trace in rainbow order.

    Rainbow meditation

    You can extend this rainbow breathing activity by incorporating rainbow meditation into this mindfulness activity.

    Ask children breathe deeply, they can focus on the breaths that they are taking in and noting how their body slows down to an alert and ready state. Rainbow meditation exercises involve using the colors of the rainbow ask children focus on each color along with mindful thoughts.

    For each color, ask the child to focus on the color of the rainbow as they breathe in or breathe out. They can think about an object that is that color in nature or in their environment.

    To help the child focus on the benefits of guided meditation with this rainbow activity, ask the child to visualize the rainbow colors flowing through them with each deep breath.

    Red-They can take a deep breath in as they trace along the red band of the rainbow. Ask them to think about red things as they visualize red flowing through their body. Some things that are red might be hot and warm. Can they “feel” warmth flowing through their body? They can picture the color coming in through their nose and flowing through their body.

    Orange- As the child traces along the orange band of the rainbow, the child can picture orange objects. They can breathe deeply out through their mouth as they picture orange colors of the rainbow flowing through their arms and legs and then out through their mouth. Things that are orange might be warm and energy. Can they “feel” warmth and safety flowing through their body?

    Yellow- Ask the child to trace along the yellow band of the rainbow. They should be taking a deep breath in through their nose again. Ask the child to picture yellow items. Can they visualize the flow of yellow as it courses through their body? Yellow things might be bright and sunny. Do they feel alert and awake?

    Green- Next, kids can trace along the green band of the rainbow. As they do, ask the child to breathe out through their mouth. They can then picture green things and imagine the green of the rainbow is flowing through their body. Green can be bright, soothing, and energetic. Do they feel that flowing through their body?

    Blue- The next color in the rainbow is blue. Ask the child to trace along the rainbow band and breathe in through their nose. Blue might be calming, or peaceful thoughts. Can they feel calm colors flowing through their body? What are some blue things they can picture?

    Purple- Finally, ask the child to trace along the purple band as they breath out through their mouth. Ask them to picture purple flowing through their body. Purple can mean creative and awareness. Can they picture any purple objects?

    Free Rainbow Breathing Printable

    Want to add this printable exercise sheet to your therapy toolbox? Enter your email address into the form below and you’ll be on your way.

    Rainbow Breathing

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      More breathing exercises you’ll love:

      Heart deep breathing exercise

      Pencil deep breathing exercise

      Clover deep breathing exercise

      Rainbow Binoculars

      rainbow binoculars

      These rainbow binoculars is a rainbow craft that we made years ago. However, the binocular craft can be a great way to help kids develop many skills including scissor skills, bilateral coordination, visual scanning, form constancy, visual convergence, visual tracking, and other visual processing skill areas. Add this to your therapy tool box. Be sure to check out all of our rainbow activities for more ways to play and learn with the colors of the rainbow.

       

      Rainbow Binoculars

       
      This was a fun craft we made for a MOMs Club playdate.  A fellow mom offered up her stash of toilet paper tubes and this is what I came up with.
       
      We got busy…
       

      searching for Rainbows with our Rainbow Binoculars!

      (Or, as little guy said, he had to go look for Tick Tock crock.)
       
      This is what it started out as. 
       
      Big Sister helped me make a set of Rainbow Binoculars for our friends to copy at the playdate.
       
       Use two toilet paper tubes, glue strips of colored paper around, and tape together.  Attach with yarn for handy access during Rainbow Expeditions.
       
       
      Cousins during our weekend-cousin-sleep-over had fun searching for rainbows, too.
       

       

       
      Tick Tock Crock has been spotted and sent to the hot, hot lava*
      🙂
       
       

       

      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.

      Rainbow Play: Foam sheets on the window

      This foam sheet activity builds fine motor skills while playing on a vertical surface, to create a fine motor rainbow. This foam sheet activity is a fun and engaging rainbow activity for kids.

      Foam sheet activity

      This activity is one we did on a window, but you could use on a bathroom shower wall or a dry erase board to engage an extended wrist.
       
      It’s also a great activity for core strength, upper body strength, and eye-hand coordination
       
       
      We have had a fun little activity going on here alllll week. 
      We cut foam sheets into strips and gold coins.
       
      But didn’t have a black foam sheet for the pot of gold. 
      What could be used…oh, a take out container would work!
       
       
      This was on the little table and I put it by the door:
      Foam strips, foam gold coins, foam black pot, and a little bowl of water.
       
       
      Everyone had so much fun with this!  They played for a looong time.
      And ever since, when a piece falls down, they will go into the bathroom and wet the piece under the sink and put it back up. 

       

       Baby Girl loved this activity!  It took a whole 15 minutes before she drank the water in the bowl.  I was surprised it took that long. 🙂
       
       
      We have been doing so many fun Rainbow play activities this week.  Little Guy has a new line when we say the colors of the rainbow:  “Don’t forget the indigo and violet, Mom”.