Fine Motor Chalk Activity

One of my favorite things about my work of helping groups of teachers is learning about their favorite activities! This is an activity I learned about from a teacher at a local college daycare. It’s so simple and kids love it. It’s like writing on the table without writing on the table. The brand of this tablecloth is Tableplay.

I’m always encouraging creative coloring, drawing as well as tracing and copying letters in preschool years. It’s really important that children are excited to use a writing tool. Playful activities support enthusiasm and desire to spend time on paper. Creative playful drawing and doodling support letter writing further on down the developmental line. It’s really important to provide a variety of activities that encourage these skills to keep children interested and in a playful mindset.

This tablecloth chalkboard is great to encourage drawing and writing and it also is a great set up for using a sprayer for clean up. You can use a trigger sprayer or a pump sprayer or both. This added fine motor activity provides further strengthening to the activity. It also provides visual motor skills on targeting the chalk with the water spray. Kids enjoy using chalk. Break it into small pieces for older preschoolers to encourage a tripod grasp.

Supporting Tripod Grasp Development

As I’ve mentioned before, writing starts with good solid trunk, shoulder, arm and hand muscles. I discuss this in the following video. Check it out to learn more about how to support the development of a tripod grasp.

Let’s Chat

If you are curious to know more about how you can benefit from my day training or if you’re a parent wanting these types of activities for your children, I would love to speak with you. Feel free to contact me anytime at cyndi@iseeability.com. Thank you for working with kids and have a wonderful summer weekend.