Are you worried about your child holding their pencil the correct way?
Do you want to know how to help them hold their pencil correctly?
Do you want to help prepare your child for starting School?
Don’t worry! I have found the perfect solution.
I recently discovered these amazing cards from Learn Well Eduction. They are perfect for parents who want to know how to help support their child with their pre-writing skills. They give great examples of inexpensive activities which you can create at home. Even as a teacher of over 20 years, there were some activities which I hadn’t thought of doing to help with the correct pencil grip, such as using a tennis ball. They also come with a pack of pencil grips that can be used on many different pens or pencils. I have used them on my daughter’s ‘special’ writing pens that are hexagonal. You can buy the whole pack for £25.99 from tinker tray play.
Learn Well Education Start Write Pencil Grip Kit
Or you can download the pack in PDF format for £5.00
Learn Well Education Left, Write Pencil Grip Card Set | PDF Download
I would recommend the cards for those looking to help children aged 2 onwards. The grips would be advisable from when your child starts to hold their pencil further down towards the tip.
Pencil Grip Stages
12 – 18 months – Cylindrical Grasp
2-3 years – Digital Grasp
3.5 – 4 years – Modified Tripod Grasp
The age is a guideline for when the children will start to use these, please do not feel that your child is failing if they have not used the grip at the ages indicated.
Squirrel Tuff Tray
As I was looking through the cards, I came up with this idea for our tuff tray set up on a squirrel. One of the cards advises using thick chalk to help children to develop their grip. The activity was set up for children aged 2 – 2.5 years old, that are moving from the Cylindrical Grasp to the Digital Grasp. The aim of this activity was to colour in the squirrel using the thick chalk provided. I set out some of the yellow door pre-writing stones to show the children some of the marks that they could use to colour the squirrel. The children loved these and drew over the top of them to follow the patterns. I was very impressed with how well they copied the patterns.
Step by Step to create this
The children in action
The completed Squirrel
Pumpkin Mouths
Again, I used the Learnwell Education cards as my inspiration for this. I just used some packaging and drew on some pumpkins, I coloured these in using paint sticks, which dry so quickly. A sharpie always helps the features to stand out. I left the mouth for the children to complete.
Step by step to complete this
Draw your pumpkin and colour it in. I used the paint sticks from Little Brian, as they are great. Click on this link to buy them.
https://amzn.to/2TactmC
Draw the pattern and cut out using a stanley knife.
Set up ready for the children to use.
Children in action
Completed Pumpkins
