L has been interested in copying shapes and trying to make her pencil markings look like real things, so I set up this easy pre-writing tracing activity that will help her control her hand movements.

I drew some vertical lines on a piece of cardstock with a highlighter and added a dot at the top and another at the bottom.  These dots are to show L where to start and stop her pencil.  I showed L how to trace the first line, then handed her the pencil.

She concentrated so hard on staying on the line, and she frequently stopped to erase her mistakes.  I didn’t tell her to do that, but I also didn’t stop her — erasing marks also works to develop the same skills!

This is what L’s paper looked like after the first time she did this work.  I trace the first line, but she did the rest by herself.  Each time she chooses this work, her lines become a little straighter and more refined.

Once she has mastered vertical line tracing, we will change the paper to one of these to mimic the shapes of parts of letters.  This is the first step in teaching writing, and it’s a great way to begin before your child can read.  Once all of these tracing papers are mastered, you can have your child trace her name or other words of interest.