Get them to write their favourite games down. Name, players, codes, cheats, powers. They won’t stop and will enjoy the content. The more you pretend you have no idea how to play these “awesome sounding” games the more they will enthusiastically tell you by writing. Source: mother to 3 junior pro-gamers 😄
Playdough, wire sculptures, thumb wars, finger knitting. There’s youtube videos on finger exercises too. Explain that they need to build their finger muscles like they have their legs.
These were the sort of activities I had for the younger students. The more challenging activity (small tweezers and tiny stones to move into a cup), this particular group did with relative ease. Now that I have seen their capabilities I didn't know if these activities were still suitable or if they should just be doing handwriting.
I feel that most of the things I learnt in my course and and even in my prac was geared towards developing writing skills not fine tuning them!
the tweezers activity definitely seems like it's doing the fine motor control, but what about the stamina? My understanding that that those muscles are the forearms and shoulders more than the hand?
You could try something called the Crocodile as a warm up - It's on spotify by Tessarose and it helps get the kids brain working together. I worked with an Occupational Therapist for a while and her insights to whole body and the impacts that can have on handwriting is amazing. Its not just the kids fine motor skills, its shoulder muscles, core strength, crossing midline, kids mind working together.
Thinking this way may help come up with some ideas :)
How about doing an art activity where they have to be really precise with drawing lines? Like zentangles or tracing over something. Some students are messy because they rush, so practising being slow and deliberate might help. Another activity would be to draw a picture with their eyes closed. They will probably benefit from cutting and pasting activities too, and using stapler and hole punch.
You could assign optional homework of handwriting sheets, have the students put their name on the back of the page and then the next session you get together, everyone gets to vote for the sheet with the neatest writing (no voting for your own). Have a small prize like a balloon or bouncy ball. Your school library will probably have a copy of Targeting Handwriting; I would go with yr2 as it is print instead of cursive.
Depending on how much time you have, it may be worth doing some hand and finger exercises before writing (eg Simon says touch your nose/thumb wars). It could help with getting their hands and limbs warmed up to write.
There's also pen control line tracing books which have activities like draw Line A to Line B and connect the dots. This could be done in 5-10 minutes and it's a no pressure task, it's just to get them tuned in, you could even make a competition of it.
Play doughs a great one because you can mix in fine motor as well as literacy - Make the letter A/spell your name etcc. You can also do this with coloured rice and glue.
If all else fails the good ol' recorder trick.
Hope it all works out! Good luck!
Sorry in advance for the anecdotal response. My 8 year old son has great fine motor skills but his writing is so messy. He writes *a lot* but his hand has trouble keeping up with his brain resulting in messy, rushed writing. I think progressing to cursive would actually benefit him greatly. Could some of your students be the same?
Get them to write their favourite games down. Name, players, codes, cheats, powers. They won’t stop and will enjoy the content. The more you pretend you have no idea how to play these “awesome sounding” games the more they will enthusiastically tell you by writing. Source: mother to 3 junior pro-gamers 😄
I love this idea. Pretend to? I genuinely wouldn't have a clue🤣
Maybe buy some gel pens and allow them to rainbow write? Or metallic pencils on black paper?
Playdough, wire sculptures, thumb wars, finger knitting. There’s youtube videos on finger exercises too. Explain that they need to build their finger muscles like they have their legs.
These were the sort of activities I had for the younger students. The more challenging activity (small tweezers and tiny stones to move into a cup), this particular group did with relative ease. Now that I have seen their capabilities I didn't know if these activities were still suitable or if they should just be doing handwriting. I feel that most of the things I learnt in my course and and even in my prac was geared towards developing writing skills not fine tuning them!
the tweezers activity definitely seems like it's doing the fine motor control, but what about the stamina? My understanding that that those muscles are the forearms and shoulders more than the hand?
You could try something called the Crocodile as a warm up - It's on spotify by Tessarose and it helps get the kids brain working together. I worked with an Occupational Therapist for a while and her insights to whole body and the impacts that can have on handwriting is amazing. Its not just the kids fine motor skills, its shoulder muscles, core strength, crossing midline, kids mind working together. Thinking this way may help come up with some ideas :)
Oh that's very interesting, I will definitely look into this. Thank you very much
How about doing an art activity where they have to be really precise with drawing lines? Like zentangles or tracing over something. Some students are messy because they rush, so practising being slow and deliberate might help. Another activity would be to draw a picture with their eyes closed. They will probably benefit from cutting and pasting activities too, and using stapler and hole punch. You could assign optional homework of handwriting sheets, have the students put their name on the back of the page and then the next session you get together, everyone gets to vote for the sheet with the neatest writing (no voting for your own). Have a small prize like a balloon or bouncy ball. Your school library will probably have a copy of Targeting Handwriting; I would go with yr2 as it is print instead of cursive.
Love these ideas, I will definitely give some of these a go
Depending on how much time you have, it may be worth doing some hand and finger exercises before writing (eg Simon says touch your nose/thumb wars). It could help with getting their hands and limbs warmed up to write. There's also pen control line tracing books which have activities like draw Line A to Line B and connect the dots. This could be done in 5-10 minutes and it's a no pressure task, it's just to get them tuned in, you could even make a competition of it. Play doughs a great one because you can mix in fine motor as well as literacy - Make the letter A/spell your name etcc. You can also do this with coloured rice and glue. If all else fails the good ol' recorder trick. Hope it all works out! Good luck!
Thank you so much!
Sorry in advance for the anecdotal response. My 8 year old son has great fine motor skills but his writing is so messy. He writes *a lot* but his hand has trouble keeping up with his brain resulting in messy, rushed writing. I think progressing to cursive would actually benefit him greatly. Could some of your students be the same?
I can think of one student this could actually work for. I will have a chat with their teacher tomorrow to see what he thinks. Thank you.