Learning to write letters and numbers

Question

What are some effective ways to teach a preschooler to learn how to write letters and numbers. The daycare she goes to basically puts a bunch of dots down in the shape of the letter, and the kids trace the dots. My daughter does fine when she's tracing the dots but when it comes to writing them without the "dot aid" she can't grasp it. She just writes scribbles. What are some things that worked for your kids? She's one of the younger kids in her class at daycare and all the other kids were writing the letters with no problem, so maybe she's just a little young. She's 3, most of the kids in her class are older 4 yr olds.

Answer 1

I understand you as I have a friend with preschoolers who visit me. She was going the dot route too. One afternoon they were at my house and wanted to write. I got paper and pencil.Althugh I allowed the 3 yr old twins to mark up on the paper, I played a 'game' with the four year old. I used the idea of up the hill, down the hill and across the street for the letter A[capital]. She did not know the difference betwen up and down so I had to guide her and repeat the idea,getting her to repeat it too. Within a few minutes she had filled the page and wanted more paper. Since it was an old book, I let her make A until her Mom was ready to go. Her mother found it incredible that I had helped her daughter to achieve such success in a short time. What I say to you is simple.Look at the shape of the letter and come up with a memory aid; then let your child practice it.At first you will need to assist; but eventually the child will become independent.

Answer 2

i would not be stressed if your child cannot write letters or numbers yet. i teach 3 and 4 year olds and each child develops at a different pace. children start out scribbling...the scribbles then start to become lines and circles....those then start to form shapes and letters. tracing is a good way to practice. but another effective way is to let her watch you write letters. do one line at a time and let her make the line you make. for example...when making "P", draw the line down..let her draw the line down. then you draw the half circle...let her do it. kids love this. and after completing it...give her LOTS of praise.

good luck! :)

Answer 3

Age/development definately makes a big difference.  I really wouldn't stress too much about it.  Remembering that she is only three.  Most typically developing three year old's job is to "mark" the page instead of writing.  You can being working with writing her name.  Don't really need to expect more than that from her right now.  Here is how I do daily name practice.

I use Print Shop so I can add clipart and such to make it more fun/theme related but you can just do it with marker if you want.  On the top portion of a landscape paper I use the "dot" method of the font they learn in our elementary school (remember capital first then lower case for the rest of the name).  It's nice to put a green dot where the letter begins.  Either have the child trace it, if capable, or do hand over hand.  Then on the bottom half of the paper they "write" their name.  At first it's just marks...but soon they begin to make the connections.  You may also want to do hand over hand after some "writing exploration" on the bottom.  I place them in sheet protectors and then they get to erase it.  That's their favorite part!  :-)  Use washable markers or dry erase markers.

Answer 4

You can relate the numbers to things like: 8 could be a snowman or a pair of glasses. Or you can relate it to shapes like 8 would be two circles.  

Answer 5

Check out Dr. Jean Feldman's website- she does highway letters with the connect the dots but it looks like a road so the children can see the letter better. She also has great songs that explain how to write the numbers (you practice in the air and sing) and letter sounds. Writing at three may be too much for her- work on writing #'s and learning letter sounds for now.  

Answer 6

She is just young.  Don't worry about it, she will catch on as the school year goes on.  There is a big difference between 3 and 4 year olds, and also a big difference between a young 4 and an older 4.  One Preschool I was at had classes listed as such- "Young 4's" and a different class for "Older 4's and 5's".

Answer 7

I teach this age group and there are a lot of things involved with writing and drawing. Let her practice drawing her letters in creative ways: in shaving cream on a tabletop, in a cookie sheet or on a window; in salt, sugar, sand or flour in a cookie sheet; squirt letters from a squeeze bottle on the sidewalk or driveway, in fingerpaint (you could even substitute pudding); use playdoh "worms" to make 3d letters; draw the letters with a stick in the dirt/sand; YOU draw the letter and she glues pasta, rice, m&m's, etc. to make the letter 3d. The possibilities are endless but the point is to help her get the concept of the shape in as many ways as possible.

Personally, as this is the beginning of the school year, I'm not big on the children being able to write their alphabet yet. I begin the year teaching sight recognition of the alphabet along with sign language. I have found that this is a great way to access both sides of the brain. At my school, the children have 3 years of preschool before kindergarten (Pre1, Pre2 & Pre3), so my main goal with my group is to give them tools to learn such as listening, following directions, working with a group . . .

This is just my perspective, so hope this helps!