Learning Intentions:
- To hold a pencil using the correct pencil grip.
- To be able to control a pencil to make patterns.
Step 1: Activity overview for parent, carers and pupils
Part of learning to write is developing good pencil control. To do this children need lots of opportunities to colour and draw.
This activity is designed to help develop fine motor skills, which are required to use a pencil with control.
There is a two page PowerPoint which you can either print out or copy for your child to use.
There is also a short video rhyme for your child to join in with, approximately two minutes long, and an information video about pencil grip approximately one minute.
The main activities can be completed offline.
Step 2: Introduction to the activity and additional information
Let’s start by warming our fingers up so that they are ready to do some drawing.
Click below and join in with the actions as you sing along with this well-known nursery rhyme.
‘One, two, three, four, five once I caught a fish alive’.
Finger rhymes are a great way of developing the muscles in the hands that are needed for pencil control.
Here are some other rhymes that you can use for finger exercise. If you don’t know them you can find them on YouTube.
- Incy Wincy Spider
- One finger one thumb keep moving
- Tommy Thumb
Step 3: Tasks to carry out for this activity
Activity 1 – Pencil Patterns
Look at the patterns below. You can either download and print them out or draw them out for your child to use.
- Once you have the patterns encourage your child to take their pencil for a walk to show the bee or the snail how to get to the flower or the leaf.
- Help your child to hold their pencil correctly. See pencil grip video below.
- Use different colours to make a rainbow path to the flower or the leaf.
- When your child is confident they can have a go at making the patterns on plain paper.
Click below for information about pencil grip.
Activity 2 – Take your pencil for a walk
Resources:
Large piece of paper A4 size or bigger
Coloured pencils
- Ensuring your child is holding their pencil correctly get them to take their pencil for a walk around the paper.
- Change colours and take that coloured pencil for a walk around the paper.
- Encourage your child to use lots of different colours.
- What patterns can they make?
Talk about the colours and the patterns.
Activity 3 – Outdoor activity
Bucket of water and large paintbrush
- Practise making the patterns from the handwriting sheet in activity one by painting the water onto the ground, the fence or a wall.
- Encourage your child to make large up and down movements, circular movements and side to side movements whilst painting the water.
Once you have completed the task you can email anything you create (photos, documents, screenshots etc.) directly to your teacher or directly upload it to any of the available places in Step 5.
Step 4: Look over the success criteria for this activity:
Success criteria #1: I can hold my pencil correctly.
Success criteria #2: I can draw some simple patterns with my pencil.
Look at the learning intentions ‘how well do you think you have done?’
Step 5: Upload your work
Click on the relevant link below if you have any work to upload to your online areas