I am a big fan of working in a vertical plane. It helps promote a child's wrist position when holding a crayon, marker, or paint brush. It also helps their eye hand coordination by placing the paper at their eye level so they can see their hand while they are coloring, tracing, or drawing.
Marker
Paintbrushes & small sponges
Q-tips, chalk, crayons –
cut them in half
Not every child is ready to control a marker, crayon, or paintbrush. Also, many children run out of the room if I show them these tools ;) . So try using stickers on a vertical surface to promote a functional grasp pattern. (Remember: functional = open web space)
Anytime you are asking your child to trace, have them trace an object, letter, or number that is presented as a whole image (not a dotted line - for the worksheets below, trace over the dotted lines with a highlighter before presenting it to your child). By showing them the whole image, you are promoting their visual spatial skill of seeing a whole and breaking it down to its component parts. This is especially important when asking them to trace letters and numbers.
You can also have your child trace letters using other materials:
Although these are designed for right handed children, I have found that even left handed students prefer these over other types of scissors.
The handouts below are pretty advanced for our young children. So here are some suggestions for helping your child develop their tool use for cutting:
These are great for use with playdough and for children that are not yet safe with scissors.
These are a great tool for young children that are developing the motor planning for scissor use. They rely on having the child squeeze the handles together and then release. It is especially helpful for children that need to develop the muscles within the hand.