6 Ways to Help Preschool Students Build the Skills They’ll Need for Writing

When we think of teaching writing, it’s tempting to picture a child holding a pencil, forming letters, and stringing words together. But for preschool students, writing doesn’t start with a pencil. It begins long before, with bodies in motion, hands in clay, and imaginations at play.

Helping young children approach writing in a joyful and developmentally appropriate way means honoring the steps that come before handwriting. By strengthening bodies, helping children explore with hands, and nurturing curiosity, we prepare them not only to write, but also to love writing.

6 strategies to support early writing

1. Strengthen bodies before pencils. Writing is a fine motor task, but it rests on a foundation of gross motor strength. When children climb, balance, dance, or crawl through obstacle courses, they develop core stability, shoulder strength, and spatial awareness. These are the same muscles and skills that later help them sit upright at a desk, control arm movements, and steady their hands for writing. Researchers remind us that these early physical foundations are strongly linked to later writing fluency.

Try this: Every day if possible, set up a movement circuit indoors or outdoors with balance beams, tunnels, and climbing stations. Encourage children to invent their own movements, strengthening their bodies while fostering agency. Just 10–15 minutes each day is enough to build consistent strength.

2. Hands-on exploration. Before fingers hold pencils, they need to dig, squeeze, roll, and build. Materials like clay, play dough, mud, beads, sticks, and blocks help children develop grip strength and coordination while sparking creativity. Everyday tasks such as digging in the garden, planting seeds, tightening nuts and bolts, or even simple sewing can be just as effective. These real-world experiences build fine motor strength while also giving children a sense of purpose and accomplishment. These playful, purposeful activities lay the groundwork for symbolic thinking and literacy.

Try this: Two or three times per week, offer a finger gym corner with rotating materials such as threading beads, pinching clothespins, rolling clay. You can also set up a small gardening station.

3. Develop spatial and directional concepts. Writing isn’t just about forming letters, it’s about understanding directionality and spatial organization. Concepts like up and down, left to right, diagonal strokes, and repeating patterns all pave the way for literacy. Painting on large easels, constructing block towers, or playing movement games with arrows and pathways help children internalize these patterns.

Try this: Play a direction game where children follow simple movement prompts: “Step to the left, hop forward, draw a zigzag in the air.” Later, connect these movements to mark-making on paper. It’s enough to play this game or a similar one two or three times per week as a short movement break or warm-up before circle time.

4. Connect play to communication. When children begin to see that their drawings, marks, and symbols can carry meaning, they start to understand writing as purposeful. Labeling block structures, drawing maps of the playground, or adding tickets to a pretend bus all transform play into early literacy.

Try this: Keep clipboards, sticky notes, and markers in every play area. Encourage children to jot down a menu in dramatic play, draw signs for a block city, or make a quick sketch of today’s weather. Materials should be available every day, with teachers prompting gently during play.

5. Nurture curiosity as a driver for literacy. Children are naturally eager to record and share discoveries. When a preschool student finds a snail, builds a tower taller than themself, or notices a rainbow, they want to capture that moment. By connecting literacy opportunities to these sparks of curiosity, teachers fuel motivation to decode and create written language.

Try this: Keep a class discovery journal where children can dictate captions, add drawings, or place photos of their findings. Reading it back together reinforces the idea that writing is a tool for preserving and sharing ideas. This can be done once or twice per week, especially during reflection times or group discussions.

6. Guide emerging writers gently. When children are ready to try early writing, scaffolding is key. Gentle invitations, like cocreating class books, adding names to artwork, or labeling classroom items, help children practice without pressure. Instead of correcting a child’s writing form too early, celebrate their attempts and encourage the joy of expression.

Try this: Create a “writing wall” where children’s first attempts at letters, symbols, or invented spelling are proudly displayed. Seeing their work valued builds confidence and identity as writers. This is a continuous and ongoing activity—children and teachers add new work whenever children create it, letting the wall grow organically over the year.