Can young children do some handwriting practice? You bet! The best place to start is through fun activities that strengthen those fine motor muscles. And as I shared in my post about teaching handwriting to preschoolers, young children need space. And lots of it. That’s why I created these FREE handwriting practice pages for the young child. {The free download link is at the end of this post.}
*Please note that not every young child will be ready for these pages {to be honest, very few will}. This activity was created for my daughter because she showed a high interest and has the ability to trace in the lines. This activity is only a small fraction {very small, actually} of the activities we do with her. We only do these handwriting pages when she initiates the activity. Please do not assume that your toddler should have the interest or ability to try these and require that he/she do these. Developmentally Appropriate Practice {DAP} is important to remember when working with young children {or any child, really}.
*This post contains affiliate links.
Handwriting Practice for Toddlers and Young Preschoolers
They are developmentally appropriate for toddlers and young preschoolers. What makes them developmentally appropriate? They are large with only one letter on each page and the letters are only outlined, giving the young child plenty of room to wobble instead of trying to trace a dotted line.
An added bonus! Like the Letter Sound and Letter Sounds sheets for preschoolers/Kindergartners (a subscriber FREEBIE), each letter has a picture included that begins with that particular letter (such as an apple for A, balloons for B, cat for C, and so on), integrating letter sounds at the same time. The picture is strategically placed on the letter to show the child where to start writing the letter.
My older three have had their handwriting notebooks for about a week now (more to come about those) and NSis, at 2.5 years old, kept trying to interrupt their work. She inspired me to create some handwriting practice pages just for her.
I printed off each page, slipped it into a plastic sleeve protector, and put them all in alphabetical order in a 1″ 3-ring binder. I gave her a dry erase marker (watching her carefully, as the ones we have are not washable, like these).
Am I concerned that she traces each letter perfectly or even start correctly each time? Nope. She has plenty of time until I worry about all of that. For now, I want to give her time to play. Time to experience. Time to learn her way. {And time for the older kiddos to have handwriting practice without a little one marking all in their notebooks. Hehe.}
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Download this FREE Handwriting Practice Pack HERE.
Update: Due to the number of requests, I have created D’Nealian Manuscript style pages as well. You can download them HERE or by clicking on the image above.
~Becky
I love the things you do. I especially like these writing pages. However, we use the D’Nealian alphabet and it is very hard to find anyone who will also put their things in D’Nealian. I make my own stuff as I bought the font to use, but it is time consuming. Any chance anyone could do this?
That’s something I could totally do! Thanks for the suggestion.
That would be great. I wish more people would do that. I noticed a comment on another site today that lamented the lack of D’Nelaian manuscript on something else.
I second the motion for D’Nealian pages! It is really hard for me to find developmentally appropriate writing pages in D’Nealian. If anyone knows where I could find some that would be really helpful!
This is awesome. I so thank you for sharing these. I babysit my 3 and 4 year old grandchildren. The 4 year old is Autistic. These will be so much easier for them. Much appreciation.
You’re so welcome, Jan! Enjoy those grandchildren! 🙂
Thank you so much for creating the D’Nealian pages! 🙂 I wonder if you could do this for your preschool package too! Thanks so much!!!
Thank you so much for doing these in the D’Nealian. I have a Kindergartener who has been struggling and these will make such a difference to have something I don’t have to make myself. 🙂
You’re very welcome!
I’m having a hard time getting the handwriting pages for tots to download. I’ve tried clicking on a number of different places without any luck. Sorry to be so technologically inept. What am I doing wrong? Thanks for your help. I love your resources and especially your generosity in sharing them.
If you look towards the bottom, you’ll see “Download this FREE Handwriting Practice Packet HERE.” Click on HERE and it will take you to the download.