Month: December 2019

Christmas Card Drawing Ideas to Support Language Development

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pre-handwriting pics 1

Drawing pictures with your child is a great way of introducing topic specific language, in this case words relating to Christmas and the winter season (depending in which part of the world you live). As you draw the pictures you can talk about the colours, shapes and sound you might hear. Such as: straight lines, curved line, wavy lines, squiggles spirals, circles, squares, triangles, crossed lines, diagonal lines, press softly, press hard, dark and light.

It is also a great way to help your child develop their pre-handwriting strokes and shape forming skills. It is amazing how using simple shapes can help you and your child create fantastic Christmas cards, pictures or gift tags.

We have put together some quick step by step Christmas drawing ideas for you to try using basic shapes such as circles, rectangles and triangles.

We hope you find them useful: http://bit.ly/2LktVRZ

Christmas Finger Printing a Fun Way to Support Language Development

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Christmas printing 2

Hand and finger printing can be a fun way of getting your child used to touching, using different textured mediums and descriptive language associated with it. Such as: slimy, smooth, slippery, squidgy, wet, dry, squelch, ooze, press, push down, harder, softer, gentle, lift, light and dark.

Printing activities also help your child to start to become aware of how to control the amount of pressure they use and to develop a vocabulary to describe the different range of pressures required. Learning to control the amount of pressure exerted and how it feels can be very difficult for some children and it takes time and a range of experiences to develop these skills.

There are some fabulous printing ideas out on the internet; one of my favourite art resources is The Usborne Art Idea Books. Hand and finger printing can create some amazing artwork which can be used to make wonderful personalised Christmas cards, tags and paper.

Who could not be charmed by these fun thumb and fingertip snowmen or robins or delighted by a hand print angel or Father Christmas?

For other useful tips on printing and setting up a printing work station (http://bit.ly/35Z7pWQ ), check out our ‘More fun handwriting activities in our Resources section: http://bit.ly/2kyeo3w

Christmas Fun to Develop Vocabulary Skills

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Salt Dough 1

Learning new words (vocabulary) and their meaning begins with earlier play opportunities. Activities, that use play-dough type modelling materials, are great for developing the language knowledge relating to touch, texture, actions and instructional language. Words such as: cold, warm, soft, hard, smooth, rough, gritty, roll, squeeze, squash and pull.

An added benefit to these types of activities is that they also support your child in developing their hand and finger strength, bilateral coordination, sensory perception and for learning and perfecting different grips for using tools.

Salt Dough

So, why not make some great salt dough Christmas gifts and tree decorations with your child. Not only will they melt the hearts of those who receive them but you will be developing your child’s fine motor skills (needed for good handwriting) while having fun; can’t be bad!

For a salt dough recipe that I have found good to use with children go to our ‘More fun handwriting activities’ page (http://bit.ly/2kyeo3w ) in our Resources section of our Teach Handwriting website ( https://www.teachhandwriting.co.uk/ ) and just download the ‘Salt Dough Modelling’ pdf (http://bit.ly/2Y9pVcn ).