My boys love to learn to write the alphabet in a variety of different ways. They even love handwriting worksheets – but I’m quite sure that’s because we do a lot of other hands-on learning before we get to that stage.
I find that making handwriting practice fun is pretty simple when I follow the pattern of ideas I outline below.
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We always start with something very simple: filling in a large block letter with objects. A bonus is when we can find objects that start with the same sound as the letter itself. I love that yellow starts with y. That made it easy. 🙂
My Three filled his letter Y with yellow color tiles. (My color tiles are a leftover manipulative from my teaching days – definitely worth purchasing because you can do so much with them!) Get our giant letter Y here.
We always try to make the letter with objects from our house — so far we’ve only done straight letters, so it’s pretty easy to find something that works. Today we used yellow yarn.
Then I gave my Five three pieces of yellow pipe cleaner. If starting with the /y/ sound isn’t important to you, try one of these ways:
- rulers
- Lincoln logs
- uncooked spaghetti noodles
- chopsticks
- toothpicks
- Q-tips
You get the idea!
My Three likes to use round dot stickers to complete these pages I make for him. You can see my original post and get the printable here.
Creating a letter out of tiny manipulatives is a challenge only my Five is ready for. He easily made a Y using yellow power magnets on a baking sheet.
My boys like to write the letter with their fingers – especially if the writing surface is something they love to eat! This time they had fun licking their fingers after writing the letter Y in yogurt (tinted with yellow food coloring).
These handwriting worksheets are a great beginning step for preschoolers. They start with the largest letter and work their way down to the smallest — but if your little one isn’t ready for the smallest letters, don’t push. My Three crossed out the little Y’s.
The red starting dot is a great guide, and the bubbly letters leave room for shaky writing. Get letter Y (and the rest of the alphabet) here.
Here’s a stage two handwriting page. Both my Three and my Five like to do these, but I definitely wouldn’t push it on a three-year-old unless he showed an interest. Get your page here.
Our final handwriting page starts with a lot of support and ends with just a single dot for a starting point. If your child can master these, he’s ready for traditional handwriting pages. Get your copy here.
Alphabet Curriculum for Preschool
$36.00
Our curriculum includes lessons for teaching both upper and lowercase letter names and sounds. You’ll get three lessons per letter, built-in review, simple handwriting practice, rhyming, syllable counting, phonemic awareness, and a whole lot more!
Deborah
I really liked your Uppercase Letters on 2 lines and 4 lines. I have been using these with my granddaughter who will enter kindergarten this fall. Do you have Lowercase letters on 2 and 4 lines? Thanks so much for all your great information.
Anna Geiger
Hello, Deborah! I absolutely plan to make those printables for the lower case letters, but I’m not sure when I’ll get to it. We’ve been blessed with a new baby (just two weeks old yesterday!), and I’m finding it very hard to get much computer time. However, I have a son who will enter kindergarten this fall, too, so I will definitely want to have them done before he begins school. Stay tuned — but it might be a few months!
Tiffany
Thanks for these great ideas! I need to incorporate some of these into our letter practice!
Anna Geiger
I hope you get a chance to try some, Tiffany! I’m continually amazed at how many different ways we can find to make the alphabet.
Amanda
I love all the fun and playful ways you have shown that could be used to teach the letter shapes. Thank you so much for sharing with us on FB! I’ve added three of my favorites to the bottom of this week’s playful preschool post on Exploring Simple Science with TRAINS!!! I really liked this post!
Anna Geiger
Thank you, Amanda! Loved your magnet science with trains post!