Writing Letters With Fingerpaint

My favorite way to teach letter formation is with finger paint! I like D'Nealian or Modern Manuscript printing. The schools in my area use this type of printing. It has a nice flow and makes transitioning to cursive easy for children.

Writing with finger paint is easy, fun, and a little messy. You'll love it! Tape a large piece of freezer paper with the shiny side up to a table or wall. Then glob enough finger paint on the paper to make a thick layered writing surface. Smear the paint and smooth it out. Click here for a video of my son getting his paper ready. Use the index finger of writing hand to write like a pencil. The white of the paper becomes the line you make.

I think teaching correct letter formation is important from the start. My oldest son started writing his name in preschool. He started making his lowercase "r" from the bottom. He also started his lowercase "m" and "n" from the bottom. Even after I taught my son the right way to form the letters, his hand and brain reverted back the way he had practiced.

Grouping letters by where they start and teaching ones that are similar helps teach proper formation quicker. In this video I show forming the letters a, c, d, and g.


Make it productive by only teaching as long as a young child has patience. (3-5 minutes) Give a child a little creative time. Allow mixing more paint, writing more letters or making designs. I suggest cleaning up after 10 minutes. The paint will start to dry out. Sometimes my children saved the last letters, words or designs they created.

I like Crayola Finger Paint, but it can get expensive.
Here's a link for homemade finger paint.

Writing can be a way to get a child ready to read. As a child writes a letter, say the sound for a letter and encourage the child to voice the sound while writing a letter.


What style of printing and cursive will you teach your child?
There are many popular types of handwriting. I have shown D' Nealian or Manuscript in my videos since that is the type taught in our schools. If you are homeschooling, you can choose your favorite type of handwriting to teach. I suggest finding out what type is taught in the school your child will attend if you are not homeschooling.
Zaner-Bloser
D' Nealian
Handwriting Without Tears

Writing Letters With Fingerpaint

Journal Writing for Beginning Readers and Writers

Ideas for Journal Entries

Help a child think of something that would be nice to remember years from now, something exciting coming up, or something from a story. Ask questions and encourage details or feelings. Then have the child say it in one complete sentence. Make sure it’s the exact words. Write it down in a hidden place if needed, so you don’t change what was said.

Journal page

The child is expected to write as much as possible. A mental or written list of known words and known letters will help guide you. You write words that are too difficult, or use a separate working page writing it on the journal page. Include proper spacing and punctuation.

Working page

Phonemic awareness, knowledge of phonics, and word recognition can be improved through writing.

Learning letters and sounds: Have a beginning writer write an almost known letter three times, making the sound as he or she writes on a dry erase board or separate working page. Make it fun. Say, “Write it big. Write it small.” Then ask the writer to write it on the journal page.

Learning high frequency words: Have a child practice a high frequency word three times on the working page. Have the child say the sounds for the letters as letters are written if there is a letter-sound match. Teach phonic rules and show tricky rule breakers. At first a beginning writer may need to copy the word. Encourage writing without looking once the word is almost known. You can even make the word with magnetic letters, mix it up, and put it back together before writing a word on the journal page.

Learning to hear and record sounds in words: Separate sounds for at least one word from a journal entry. Make lines for each sound in the word, not each letter, on the working page. For a child just developing phonemic awareness say the word slowly, and then break it into separate sounds touching each line as you say the sound. Encourage a beginning writer to do this with you a number of times before writing correct letters for sounds. Only use lines when a word follows phonetic rules. Ask the writer to tell a sound or letter he or she hears. Record that sound above the correct line. A beginning reader and writer may not give you the sounds in order or give all the sounds. Touch and say each sound in order, stretching the sounds without pausing between. Then blend the sounds together to sound like the word. As a child’s phonemic awareness improves he or she will take over more of the task. Your modeling will help.

Learning features of printed English: Draw attention to tricky parts and patterns.
Examples: ed endings make different sounds; silent letters, ‘e’ at the end, ‘b’ next to an ‘m’, or ‘k’ at beginning; doubling final consonants in some words when adding ‘ing’ ‘ed’ ‘est’; dropping ‘e’ in some words when adding an ending; common combinations (like oa, oo, ai, ow, ur, ar, ight, tion); a ‘c’ or a ‘g’ next to an ‘e’ will make the soft sound; and unusual spellings. The list goes on. If you don’t know a rule or the learner tries to make a connection that isn’t usually true, just say not all words have rules. This is the way we write this word.

Generalizing and grouping: If you know a pattern or a child is trying to make a connection, write a list of similar words on the working page. (Walk, talk, chalk) (Night, right, light)

Encourage Independence: Once a beginning writer understands the task, let the child do every other entry alone. Tell the beginning writer to write words the best he or she can. Praise correct or almost correct writing. Ask what the sentence says if needed and write it correctly in smaller writing somewhere on the page.

Reading Fluency: Have the journal writer read previous entries.

Together Time 4 Families has a post worth checking out to teach and support a beginning writer. http://www.togethertime4families.com/2010/07/scaffolded-writing-method.html

Michelle's Charm World shows ways to make writing areas inviting and fun.
http://michellescharmworld.blogspot.com/2011/05/write-some-more.html

Journal Writing for Beginning Readers and Writers