Prewriting Cards & Preschool Beach Activities
As the sun-kissed days of summer approach, many parents and educators alike are on the lookout for engaging activities to keep young minds active and eager to learn. Preschool beach activities like these beach themed prewriting cards is one tool making waves in writing skill development.
Whether used for tracing practice or fine-tuning those essential fine motor skills, these cards provide a cute seaside twist to prewriting practice. So let’s dive into an ocean of preschool beach activities with these prewriting cards – because there’s more than one way to use them!
Introducing a unique tool for teaching writing skills to preschoolers: beach-themed prewriting cards.
As summer approaches, educators and parents seek engaging activities that combine fun with learning.
These cards offer a creative solution, incorporating sandy beaches into tracing practice and fine motor skill development. They provide an effective means of introducing young learners to the basics of writing, making the educational process both enjoyable and effective.
Try these beach activities in your preschool or kindergarten classroom and discover the versatility of these prewriting cards. Beyond traditional tracing exercises, they can be used for rainbow writing and serve as manipulatives to enhance both emergent writing skills and fine motor development necessary for formal writing.
Beach activities pair well with ocean preschool activities, like our ocean preschool centers.
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Ocean Preschool Centers$8.00
Why Use Beach Prewriting Cards
There are loads of reasons why these beach prewriting cards are must-have for your preschool classroom or home learning environment. Here are some of them:
- Encourages fine motor skill development:
- Through activities like tracing, rainbow writing, and manipulative play, beach prewriting cards help strengthen the muscles needed for writing.
- Check out this list of hand strengthening exercises.
- Enhances hand-eye coordination:
- By tracing shapes and patterns on the cards, preschoolers improve their hand-eye coordination, a crucial skill for writing.
- Supports emergent writing skills:
- Beach prewriting cards provide a scaffold for children as they begin to explore writing, helping them gain confidence and fluency.
- Read this post which outline emergent writing development.
- Offers versatile learning opportunities:
- From group activities to independent practice, these cards can be used in various ways to accommodate different learning styles and preferences.
- Fosters sensory learning:
- The tactile experience of manipulating the cards adds a sensory dimension to writing practice, engaging multiple senses for enhanced learning.
Printable Beach Activities for Preschoolers
What I love most about these prewriting cards is that you can use them in so many ways. As per the norm, I’ll share with you one way to use the printable, then list other ideas below.
What You Get
This free printable pdf comes with four full pages of prewriting cards, totaling twelve individual cards for prewriting practice. Each cards features a unique, hand-drawn piece of clipart that fits perfectly into your beach preschool activities.
Materials
This post may contain affiliate links, which means that at no cost to you, I may earn a small sum if you click through and make a purchase.
- free beach theme prewriting cards
- dry erase pocket
- dry erase markers
- small beach themed manipulatives (ideas below, following the activity)
- If in need of fish tank decorations or designing miniature garden beach scene, these make an…
- Having assorted sea shell case handy in your art and craft supplies kit will make beach decorations…
- Perfect for name tags, favor boxes, fashion buttons, gift tags, cellophane wrapped gifts that have a…
- CUTE ERASERS: Our erasers are designed with cute sea animal elements, including butterflyfish,…
- PACKAGE CONTAINS: Come with 60pcs mini erasers in 6 styles(10pcs for each style). The versatile…
- PREMIUM MATERIAL: This mini eraser is made of high quality rubber, light weight, odorless, safe and…
- Durable and reusable translucent plastic keeps numbers covered, but visible .
- 500 Pieces in total,6 colors including red, yellow, blue, green, orange and purple,random mixing.
- Each measures 3/4 inch in diameter, easy to use and maneuver.
The Set Up
Print out the free prewriting cards in color on heavy cardstock. I have a basic Epson Workforce printer, which despite how inexpensive it was has lasted a number of years and continues to go strong.
Cut apart the cards.
From here you can choose to laminate or place the cards in a dry erase pocket. I prefer the dry erase pockets because the marker comes off easier than laminating. Plus, if a preschooler forgets to erase their card the marker doesn’t become permanent.
Place the cards and marker on a tray and invite your preschooler to practice drawing lines with you.
How to Use Prewriting Cards
Using these prewriting cards as a tracing exercise is the most common way to use these cards. Some teachers like to leave them uncut to keep them as worksheets. Using them as tracing cards is definitely the easiest way to add them to your preschool writing center.
Offer your preschooler many colors of dry erase markers to motivate them to trace the prewriting strokes multiple times.
How to Work on Pencil Grasp
Your preschooler may not use a mature pencil grasp when using a dry erase marker, and that is ok. When I teach writing to my preschoolers, I allow them to hold the pencil any way they choose. Often they will begin with what is most comfortable for them and then naturally progress and transition to a mature quadrupod or tripod pencil grasp.
If I have a preschooler who is just about at a mature pencil grasp, but not quite, I will offer pencil grips like these claw grips. I like these pencil grips better than others because they really help preschooler understand where to place their fingers on the pencil for the most control.
However, if a child doesn’t like them, they are not forced to use them. But in my experience these claw grips can really help boost a preschooler into the tripod grasp we are looking for.
When teaching writing I emphasize that writing starts on the left side of our papers and goes to the right. That’s why my prewriting cards always have the pictures on the left side of the card. I tell my preschoolers to “start at the picture and draw on the lines.”
Beach Activities Using These Tracing Cards
Tracing the lines is one route, but what if you have a preschooler who isn’t interested or isn’t ready for tracing? Try of of these fun ways to practice prewriting skills while using the same printable.
- In keeping with the beach theme, work that tripod grasp by offering tiny seashells to place along the lines. These are our favorite mini seashells. But have you ever seen these teeny tiny starfish!?!
- If you don’t have seashells, then use any math manipulative. These fish counters are a good option for toddlers and young preschoolers.
- We used transparent math counters because my kids threw all our mini seashells in the sandbox!
- Squeezing glue is a great hand strengthening activity, so invite your preschoolers to trace the lines with glue, and then sprinkle colored art sand over the top. Then, you end up with tactile tracing cards!
- Or use these cards in a salt tray.
Beach Theme Preschool Activities
No beach preschool theme is complete with just a set of prewriting cards! Put these in your preschool writing center and then check out these other beach activities for preschoolers.
- Seashell Playdough Invitation to Play
- Lowercase Letter Crab Match
- Sand & Seashell Name Recognition Sensory Bin
- Roll a Beach Ball Playdough Mat
- Surfboard Craft
- Ocean Discovery Bottle
Grab your Beach Themed Prewriting Cards Here
Want these free beach themed printables prewriting cards? Fill out the form below and we’ll send them right to your inbox!
I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.
Thank you for these prewriting pages. I work with Special Ed children and always need new pages to keep them interested!