Pencil Control

The pre-writing patterns children practise before letters. Each row has a dotted pattern to trace and two faint rails to keep it between, which is the part that builds control: the hand has to hold a size as well as a shape. The patterns run easiest to hardest — straight lines and rain, then curves, then corners, then loops and spirals, which need the wrist to rotate — and there is a page of shapes to trace (circle, square, triangle, rectangle, oval, star and heart). Switch on the pictures and each row runs from one picture of the book's theme to another, so the child is taking the bee to the flower rather than tracing a line. Turn on the blank second half and the dots stop halfway, so the child carries the pattern on alone with only the rails to guide them; that is the step that turns tracing into writing. Set the rails wide and the rows few for a three-year-old, narrow and many for a child about to start letters.

Age

ages 3–7

Answer key

Not needed for this page

Skills

pencil controlfine motorhandwritingpattern recognition

What you can change

• Which patterns

  A mixture, First lines, Straight lines, Corners, Curls & loops, Shapes to trace…

• Rows

  2–8

• Rail spacing

  Wide, Medium, Narrow

• Blank second half

• Pictures at both ends

• Start dots

• Every page also takes the book's language, page size, theme and pictures.