Mazes

This activity is from the Pre-Writers Club - Unit 3. This unit is themed around The Wheels on the Bus and contains lots of activities to support children with their pencil grip.

What you need:

Draw a maze on the ground. Make sure to have a entrance, exit and a few dead ends. Ask your child to try to drive their vehicle through the maze. Can they find the way out without getting stuck? As they move the vehicle encourage them to say the direction e.g. drive across, go up, go down.

Once the have completed the maze they could try to draw a path through it using the chalk.

Crossing the midline – Making the maze quite large means that your child will cross the midline of their body as they use their dominant hand to push the toy vehicle along. Being able to cross the midline (an imaginary line down the centre of the body) is an important developmental skill. It allows children to draw or write across a page without having to switch hands

Break the chalk into smaller pieces to encourage your child to grip using their thumb, index finger and middle. This will help your child to develop the tripod grip which is the most functional pencil grasp.

We used our @connetix_tiles to create a maze on a baking tray. We added tricky word cards and he had to wobble the baking tray to move the ball through the maze to get it to the word.

As your child moves the baking tray, encourage them to describe how the ball is moving using down, up and across.

Alternatively, you could create a Lego/Duplo maze or use playdough to create the walls of the maze.

Hand-eye Co-ordination – this activity develops hand-eye co-ordination. Your child needs to tilt the tray, making sure that the ball goes the way they want it to.

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Bilateral Co-ordination – Tilting the tray requires children to use two hands together with one hand leading. When they write they will use this skill; their dominant hand will hold the pencil and their other hand will keep the paper still as they write.

If you have a go at any of the activities or think of any more examples, and share photos on social media, I would love to see them. Please tag @miniwritersclub and let me know how you get on.

Anna