Simple activities like fingerpainting and playing with shaving cream have been popular with many young children for as long as most of us can remember.  Some people may feel like these activities are "just for fun" or to keep little ones busy.  

However, these types of sensory development activities are much more important than just keeping little ones out of trouble.  These tasks actually help little ones' brains develop in ways that can help with future academic success.  So, bring out those messy activities often!

The week of all things green and gold is finally here!  I promise if we catch a leprechaun over here I will share some of the pot of gold with everyone.

​But until then...here are some ways you can make the day fun for your kids and maybe you can catch one, too!  For those of you with kids in our preschool classes, this is mostly what we will be doing - but you can still do similar things at home, too!

Hi!  This is the third post in my handwriting made easy series.  I hope you have been learning and enjoying from the posts so far!  Little kids have so very many days of school head of them, so I think it is super important to keep the idea of learning as fun as possible while also setting up a great foundation for future success.

Up until now, I have only discussed activities that can help make those little fingers stronger and encourage the correct pincher grasp.  Today I would like to share some of my favorite ways to encourage fun, correct letter formation.

Of course, eventually little ones will need to make letters with a pencil and paper (and I will also share some great techniques for that, too), but let's first start with other letter formation methods to really teach the shapes and get kids thinking about lines.

​One of the most fun ways is...

In my first post about how you can make handwriting easier, I shared with you some simple activities to strengthen up those cute little fingers so a child will be able to successfully approach writing.  Before I move on to explain forming letters with ease, there is one more activity I highly recommend for little hands....

As preschool teachers, we often find ourselves saying hilarious things that you would never imagine a grown up would need to say at work...  It provides us with regular comic relief throughout our days for sure!  

Since these statements bring us so many big smiles and giggles, I thought it would be fun to share them with you.  Here is just a glimpse into some of the ridiculous things we find ourselves saying:

All kids need to eventually learn to write, but not all kids are naturally good at it!  That's ok - there are plenty of activities to help with this.  I am so glad you can join me for Part 1 of this series.  Be sure to sign up with your email so you don't miss the rest...

Before you even show your child a worksheet or a pencil, there are some wonderful, simple, activities you can do to set them up for success.

The main goal of most of these activities is to work on hand strength.  Without strong hands, handwriting will just be torture for everyone - so it's so very important to not skip this step!

One of the best (and simplest) hand strengthening activities that is kid and teacher approved is:

Preschoolers love songs!  Not only do they love songs, but songs help them remember what you are trying to teach them.  In our classroom, we teach a few preschool Spanish topics throughout the year.  For each topic, we have a little song we sing.

Want to learn our theme song?  You Are My Sunshine is a time-honored song that children and adults can all enjoy!  We have developed these special hand movements and are excited to share them with others.  This is a great song for all young children to learn.  Enjoy!

​Follow this link to watch it on YouTube:
​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc3wpNrtTCw