Therefore, it only makes sense to focus our efforts on these two skills when introducing young children to handwriting. Did you know that there are certain steps to follow when it comes to introducing young children to handwriting? Some adults may unknowingly begin their handwriting instruction using lined paper. Each of your students makes progress with handwriting at a different rate, based on the strength of their fine motor skills.

Fine motor skills refer to the small muscles in the hands that are most often used for writing, grasping small objects, fastening clothing, and more.

Children in Preschool and Pre-K benefit from daily experiences that support the development of fine motor skills in their hands and fingers. You can help your students strengthen these muscles in the classroom by providing fun, engaging, and developmentally appropriate activities on a daily basis. These activities will also support the development of appropriate pencil grasps when your children are ready. A free printable parent handout to help parents understand how to develop fine motor skills at home using supplies they probably already have on-hand.

The following activities will help your students develop the muscles in their hands that are necessary to grasp a pencil properly. These fine motor activities can be embedded into your daily classroom routines or center time. The way a child holds a pencil is called a pencil grasp. Pictured above is a child using the correct tripod grasp.

The tripod grasp requires the thumb, index, and middle fingers to work together, this is also referred to as the pincer grasp. When using a tripod grasp, the fingers of the hand should move with the writing utensil without using their entire arm. The tripod grasp is considered to be the most efficient because it allows the greatest amount of finger movement and control over the writing tool; it is the least fatiguing method for the muscles in the arm and hand.

Many young children hold their writing tools in a closed fist grasp. When using this grasp the child moves the writing tool by moving their shoulder and entire arm.

The improper fist grasp requires extra effort, which causes fatigue in the arm and hand. A child who uses a closed fist grasp will tire easily and struggle with writing. When you see your students holding their pencils and crayons in a fist grasp, it indicates that they are lacking fine motor skills. Instead of forcing them into a tripod grasp or providing them with worksheets , intentionally embed fine motor development opportunities into your daily routine to help them develop the muscles in their hands.

By the age of 2 or 3, many young children will have already selected a dominant writing hand , if they have been given plenty of opportunities for fine motor development at home.

However, you may notice some students who have not yet developed hand dominance in preschool. When you encounter students in your classroom who have not yet selected hand dominance it is crucial that you provide them with plenty of fine motor exercises in the classroom.

The more they exercise their fine motor skills the more quickly their hand dominance will begin to emerge. All letters should start at the top and go down. The reason for this is because it is much easier to roll a boulder down a hill than it is to push it up, in other words, it is easier to write when you start at the top.

When you write from the top down you can write more quickly than starting from the bottom up. Pocket is a virtual pocket for collecting treasures. It allows me to collect examples I want to research or reference later, in a post or in a presentation. I used to email myself links, and then promptly lose them in my bloated inbox. I write in Word , on my laptop, using it to create my Ugly First Draft.

First, I create a list of things I want to include in a piece. The list for this post originally looked like this:. Writing is thinking for me—so I never dictate a first draft. But it would quickly get pretty problematic. My life is one big distraction for me, so I just deal with it. That said, I get almost all of my writing done on Saturday and Sunday mornings, when the life part is relatively quiet.

I rarely publish the same day that I write. Walking away from any writing is equivalent to putting a rock-hard avocado in a paper bag—it ripens almost magically the next time you go back to it.

The second pass a day later is generally where I prune the fat, hone the clarity, and weave in humor or asides that reflect my style and sensibilities.

A human editor is key to creating good content. But for a first pass after writing I use either of these tools to flag not just spelling errors or typos and punctuation problems but also weak construction, passive voice, or sentences that are difficult to understand.

The software flags all that and more, and then recommends fixes which you can either accept or ignore. Spring for the paid version. HemingwayApp also assigns a readability level. I try for right around the middle of high school, because no one will complain that you made something too simple to understand.

I need my notebook to unleash my inner crazy! Really need to check it out now! Yes, Maham! Scrivener is the bomb for novels or novel-length projects, but I feel like I just touch the surface of its functionality. Hi Ann, First — loved you at Marketing United!

Every time i put on my shirt with the little emma girl on it I giggle and think of you. Every now and then I go through the memos and journal and create word docs for each separate idea. I found, over time, it became a tremendous tool for honing my attention to the smaller details — so I still use this for myself and for my writing clients to help them bring their attention to their days. You have a great list of tools. I use some of the common writing tools as well but you gave me some others to look at, so thank you!

I came in with a closed mind — but your words lightened my heart, widened my smile and, most importantly, taught me to NEVER assume! Your post inspired me. I found an app and. You did mention Evernote but not as a tool specifically and I cannot live without Evernote. I hear how much others like you love Evernote and I feel like I missed that day at school. Thanks for shedding light on other tools like Trello.

You just pretend something is due in an hour and start writing. Sometimes the first couple of paragraphs are pretty basic. Generally, the lede pops up in the third to fourth graf. Then I cut and paste it and start again. I also recommend getting yourself a writing buddy, i. As you talk it out, take notes — you may find yourself dictating the meat of the piece.

Good thoughts, Donna. So often the true lede lead is 3 or 4 paragraphs in. What a terrific article. I need my pad and fancy pen or mechanical pencil to make order and lists.

The other thing is a clean desk. I have to clean my workspace before I can start. I love prowritingaid. I will second and third you on a professional editor to give things a once over. I follow you on twitter and you have become a terrific mentor in terms of what to do on social media. I never have the sense that you are posting just for the sake of posting. Beautiful post. I thought you would list Evernote too because it is a really great tool to organize notes, thoughts and research work.

I also use Grammarly and I love it. It seems that more and more people are using Scrivner but even though I have an iMac, I still use Word. I guess old habits die hard. Thanks for chiming in, Frances. I am a marketing professional turned entrepreneur. Since many of us think associatively and write linearly — I found most tools most lacking in their ability to help organize thinking notes to self and research and writing in one workspace.

I found Word and Google Docs too monolithic I fear a blank piece of paper! Would love to know what you think! And I thought I was the only one on earth who was allergic to Evernote. I guess we both ditched the same day at school when they had the Evernote assembly:. Very through and really detailed to a fault, only because you got off track and went into your process which kind of strayed from the focus of your tools, at times. I would have been thinking more about tools as being typewriters, paper, pencils, post its, paper clips, highlighters, magazines, dictionaries, the little brown book, images, or of course G-2 ink pens my favorite.

I loved the Google inclusion because I make use of Googgle a lot. I would have wanted to include a lot of the tools you mentioned but to have more of the why would have made it more fun. For instance, if you liked to use paper with lines but hated the college ruled type because the line width was to thin or you liked fine ink pens instead of bold ones because you have a naturally fancy handwriting and fine pens added more elegance to you handwriting style.

Sharing some things like that would kind of draw me in a little more. Maybe telling me that you liked to use the fat pencils like you used when you were first learning to write because they keep you in touch with your creative side, like playing with a slinky or doodling on a pad does would have not only made me laugh but I would have recalled an earlier time of innocence and maybe that awkward little girl who use to twirl her ponytail.

That is the kind of stuff that would have made this tool share more fun but maybe that is just because I would rank elementary on that HemingwayApp. Has anyone ever done the Customer Service Cleft Notes thing? Thanks Ann. I knew when I followed you years ago, l was onto something.

I put chapter titles there for my book. For research are you ready for this? As an example, I did a lot of research in the area of psychology. Lo and behold, some great chapter ideas were coming to me in my FB feed. Facebook and Psychology Today figured me out pretty quickly. Since I was passing on articles about brain plasticity and clinical studies, yet clicking through to anything related to love, relationships and sales, these types of articles showed up in my FB feed every day… and Psychology Today received quite a few attributed quotes and references, too!

It is a great way to keep the creative juices flowing. These beginning writing skills are future predictors of reading and writing success. Children must be given daily writing opportunities to help strengthen the tiny muscles in their hand and provide a chance to draw, scribble and express themselves. Kids usually move from holding crayons in the palm of their hand to write to grasping the crayon with their fingers and moving their whole arm to color.

We want to help them transition into gripping the pencil between their fingers and having their fingers do the writing just like adults do. Try the Pinch and Grip Method to create a proper pencil grasp:. Pour some rice, cornmeal or salt on a plate. Have your child write the letters of their name in it.

Show them a piece of paper with their name written clearly, so they can see how the letters are formed. Write in capital letters, which are easier for younger children to form. Start with writing one letter. During bath time, squirt shaving cream on the tiles and smooth it out. Have them form letters using their index finger. A big line down, then three little lines across. Start with writing the first letter in their name. Make sure you show them their name written clearly on a note card or piece of paper so they can see and copy how the letters are formed.

If your child is doing this easily, move on to writing the full name! Letter and Number Tracing. Note: Kids can access all games for this website from a home computer for free, however the app for phones and tablets costs a monthly fee.

Instill a love of writing by giving your child their very own writing tools.