Do your kids love do-a-dot markers? Grab these alphabet dot and color pages to exercise those fine motor skills while learning about letters at the same time! Preparation Just print the pages and grab some do-a-dot markers. That’s it! Actually, you don’t need do-a-dot markers – any mark-making implement will do…. stamps, stickers, little paintbrushes, […]
Emergent Writing: Why Children’s Play Choices Affect Learning
Emergent writing is dependent not only on a child’s exposure to literacy activities from birth, but how they engage with those activities on a day-to-day basis. This podcast discusses the four play ‘types’ that researchers have found fit the majority of children and what this means for their learning. You can listen to this episode above, listen to […]
Free Alphabet Activity Books
We can never have too many fun letter resources and these alphabet activity books are a great way to help reinforce your child’s learning. What you’ll need Click on the following highlighted link to get your Alphabet Activity Books (A-E). They’ll be sent immediately to your downloads folder or other device equivalent. They come in […]
10 Ways to Count with Play Dough
I want to count with play dough! Why is play dough such a winner? Is it the squishyness? The ability to use it to create anything? The fact that we can make it so easily with the hundreds of quick and easy internet recipes? Who knows! All I know is that kids love it. I […]
Pre-Writing Skills: Tracing Lines
I’m not sure why exactly but young children love tracing lines, whether using a crayon or just pointing with their finger. Since this is a great way to develop their pre-writing skills it’s a great opportunity to go with the flow! Why trace lines? There are many activities children can enjoy that will improve their […]
Ocean Size Sort: Small, Medium and Large
Gotta love the ocean! There are so many creatures for kids to love whether they like cute and colourful or big and scary. Today’s free math activity is an ocean size sort, focused on small, medium and large. Grab the play dough or the pencils and let’s go! Also, scroll down to the bottom of […]
Pre-Writing Skills: Bilateral Integration
Bilateral integration happens when we use two hands together to accomplish something, with one hand being the lead and the other hand helping. For example, when we open a jar, cut paper or thread a needle. This post is all about encouraging kids to practice these important pre-writing skills. Bilateral integration Being able to coordinate […]
Pre-Writing Skills: Hand Division
Hand division refers to children using just 3 fingers, their thumb, index and middle fingers to hold onto something and move it around. The last 2 fingers, the ring and pinkie, are curled up into the hand. These free activities will encourage your kids to get tons of practice! Holding a pencil… …can be crazy […]
10 Tips and Tricks for a Great Pencil Grip
Developing confidence and ease as a young writer involves many factors, but one of the most obvious, and most asked about, is that of developing a good pencil grip. Rather than re-invent the wheel, I’ve gathered some helpful posts and videos together that you might find helpful. Don’t forget to download The Pencil Grip Song […]
Essential Pre-Writing Skills: Visual Discrimination
Visual discrimination is an essential skill to be a successful reader and writer. Children need to be able to distinguish between letters that look similar in order to understand that these slight differences cause a change in meaning. For eg, dog and bog mean very different things and yet there’s only one small difference between […]