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November 5, 2019 | 11 Comments

How To Teach A 3 Year Old To Write

I get a lot of emails from parents and teachers asking for advice about teaching, worried about children being behind their peers, and looking for ways to help them “catch up.” When I saw a query asking how to teach a 3-year-old to write, my heart sank. No 3 year old needs to be able to write. Some young preschoolers can write at 3, some 3-year-olds can read, some can ride a bike with no training wheels… but that doesn’t mean we should expect ALL three-year-olds to write, read or ride a bike without wobbly training wheels. What we should be doing is creating a strong foundation for the skills that will eventually lead to writing. This is how you teach a child to write. We can’t expect our students and children to be able to successfully learn skills like reading and writing if we don’t focus on the foundation. So these activities are how to teach kids to write.

How to teach a child to write? Start with a strong foundation.

Activities To Build Hand Strength for Writing

The muscles in the hands need to be developed if we want kiddos to hold a writing tool for more than a few seconds. These activities are great for this development. When children have these skills more fully developed, they will be ready to write.

how to teach a child to write

Make Letters With Playdough – squish, squeeze and form letters with this fun playdough activity. This is a great 3 year old writing activity. It’s great for 4 and 5 year olds too.

Glue Tracing Letters – squeezing glue bottles is hard and a great hand workout too.

Playdough Bug Fossils – push the bug in and carefully peel it out. Your students won’t even know they are building handwriting skills with this playful activity.

Clothespins are fantastic little tools that build hand strength, and these clip activities work on hand-eye coordination too!

 

Fine Motor Activities for Pre-Writers

Fine motor skills aren’t JUST for writing, but they are essential for it. Children can’t be expected to tackle handwriting if they have underdeveloped fine motor skills. Bonus these skills are also crucial for using utensils like forks and knives, buttoning their pants, and zipping up their jackets <– I am HERE for that!

bead tray

This bead tray is used ALL the time in my classroom, and it’s survived through many years of use too.

 

writing activities for 3 year olds

Lego is a fun tool for building fine motor skills that doesn’t feel like “work” for children but gives their fine motor skills an enjoyable challenge. This Lego Roll and Build Game is my favorite, but Lego challenges are great too.

Embellish playdough animals with small bits and bobs and build fine motor skills.

Stickers are my favorite cheap material for fine motor skills building. This Sticker Station is so simple and totally perfect for preschool.

Do you have a kitchen utensil holder with holes in it? This one is from IKEA and is a super useful fine motor tool for my preschool classroom. Get yours here with my affiliate link ( I make a small commission from sales) –> IKEA Utensil holder. 

If you celebrate Christmas in your classroom, I love this Christmas lights activity.

Hand-Eye Coordination Activities for Preschool

A vital component for developing handwriting and other self-help skills is strong hand-eye coordination. Without this children won’t know where their hand is moving to, or to master directionality when making marks which will eventually become letters and numbers on paper.

Playdough Kabobs – you don’t have to use sharp skewers for this hand-eye coordination activity, popsicle sticks work great too.

Color matching while working on hand-eye coordination with this fun flower activity. 

Using feathers is a fun sensory addition to this hand-eye coordination activity. 

 

 

 

Vertical Activities To Build Arm Strength

The most uncomplicated vertical activity for children to build arm and shoulder strength for muscle development is paper on the wall, chalk at an easel, even a whiteboard with dry-erase markers. If you are looking for something a little different, here are some of my favorite mural activities for kids. Yes, these are all writing activities for three year olds, even if it’s not what writing activities would look like for you or I.

This Sticky Easel is rad for helping children to develop the shoulder strength needed for writing.

My students love this sheep activity, and they don’t even know that they are working on skills that will help them write someday.

Button Mural – this is fantastic for fine motor as well as arm/shoulder strength!

Explore all kinds of skills and build arm strength simultaneously with these fun mural ideas.

How Do You Make A Great Writing Center?

When your students are interested in making marks on paper, chalkboards, and more, it’s time for a writing center.

ideas for writing centers in preschool

Are your students having fun making marks on paper? Then they are ready for an engaging writing center. Check out my tips for a rad writing center. 

Looking for more great preschool activities?

HERE IS WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT TO FIND INSIDE EVERYDAY PRESCHOOL:

  • Over 170 simple preschool activities that use everyday materials. You don’t need to invest a lot of money to teach your child at home.
  • Activities are short, with minimal prep, so you can fit some learning into your busy day.
  • The book is organized into nine categories of learning; literacy, math, science, sensory, art, fine motor, gross motor, social-emotional, and bedtime reading tips.
  • Everyday Preschool activity book was created using various state standards for PreK and has tips for making activities easier or harder to fit your child.
  • An Appendix filled with an extensive book list links to free printables, song lyrics, nursery rhymes, my favorite playdough recipe, and more.

HERE IS A SNEAK PEEK INSIDE EVERYDAY PRESCHOOL


Filed Under: Age Preschool, Fine Motor Activities, How to teach a three year old to write, Letters & Numbers, Preschool Activities, Writing Activities, Writing Center | 11 Comments

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11 Comments

  1. Akua A Tutu says

    November 19, 2019 at 9:03 pm

    Very great resource.

    to Akua A Tutu" aria-label='reply to this comment to Akua A Tutu'>reply to this comment
  2. Spartan Kids says

    November 29, 2019 at 3:47 am

    Good Artical

    to Spartan Kids" aria-label='reply to this comment to Spartan Kids'>reply to this comment
  3. Rebecca says

    June 14, 2020 at 1:08 am

    Thank you these are fantastic ideas.

    to Rebecca" aria-label='reply to this comment to Rebecca'>reply to this comment
    • Zina says

      October 14, 2020 at 2:18 pm

      Oh my goodness I would have never thought of these ideas thank you so much.

      to Zina" aria-label='reply to this comment to Zina'>reply to this comment
  4. Tara says

    October 5, 2020 at 9:29 pm

    Thank you for all of this information. You have helped me so much in preparing my son. I especially love the focus on preparation rather than pushing.

    to Tara" aria-label='reply to this comment to Tara'>reply to this comment
  5. Aleskha says

    October 7, 2020 at 8:52 pm

    This is the first article I have read that didn’t make me feel like a terrible mother. Thank you for allowing me to keep my sanity. My baby girl will love these ideas!

    to Aleskha" aria-label='reply to this comment to Aleskha'>reply to this comment
  6. Readwki says

    December 3, 2020 at 5:43 am

    Thank you for sharing. What about children reading and kids reading programs like children learning reading?

    to Readwki" aria-label='reply to this comment to Readwki'>reply to this comment
  7. Shannon N Powell says

    December 3, 2020 at 5:46 pm

    These are amazing! thank you!

    to Shannon N Powell" aria-label='reply to this comment to Shannon N Powell'>reply to this comment
  8. Angela says

    March 10, 2021 at 11:35 am

    As a pediatric occupational therapist, I have to say that MY heart sank a little when I saw this link for “How to Teach a 3 Year Old to Write”. Whew…I was scared to click, but was pleasantly surprised that it was NOT what I thought it was. You have hit the nail on the head!!! All of these things ARE teaching those little ones how to write. There are so many skills that are required for handwriting that are bypassed when we just stick a pencil in hands that are not ready for one. Most of the time this leads to poor habits that are difficult, if not impossible, to correct. Thank you for these wonderful, developmentally appropriate activities that will work on skills needed for writing! Great post!

    to Angela" aria-label='reply to this comment to Angela'>reply to this comment
    • Allison McDonald says

      April 12, 2021 at 10:45 am

      So sorry this took me so long to reply – and for the click bait, but so many people were using these search terms to find my site, I needed to make sure they got the right info!

      to Allison McDonald" aria-label='reply to this comment to Allison McDonald'>reply to this comment
  9. The Teacher Treasury says

    August 31, 2022 at 4:13 am

    Thank you so much for these ideas! I like the sticky sheep the most. The sheep is really cute and I think the kids will love it, too.

    to The Teacher Treasury" aria-label='reply to this comment to The Teacher Treasury'>reply to this comment

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