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Children in kindergarten, and sometimes kindergarten, are expected to learn how to print letters correctly. Often, though, these young children have not developed good motor skills so that they can be successful in developing the required character traits.
Many articles have been written to address technical aspects of early writing skills and / or pre-writing skills, which set the example for children to become familiar with writing tools, such as crayons and pencils. These articles can encourage you to track the status and have an adult model using the right pencil holder.
There is another important factor, however, besides the technical aspects of spelling, which can have a profound effect on a child’s ability to succeed in forming letters or writing simple words. This key factor is motivation.
For many young children, there is little incentive to complete the pages of a compulsory workbook or to practice typing automatically. Books are things that can be published, that may have little or no meaning for children of this age. They may therefore feel less inclined to practice writing skills, in addition to any practice required by the teacher.
However, there is an easy way to engage children, and encourage them to have fun using the same technical skills that will lead to success in building characters.
Young children love to draw. At first, they wrote about the joys of making marks on paper, and of the fun of using colors. Markers, crayons, and paint are ‘hot’ items in any kindergarten or nursery class.
There comes a time, however, when young children want to portray on paper what they see with their eyes, and they become frustrated when they cannot do this. Kids often know how to break down the drawing process, take a whole picture and break it up into simple, able-to-draw pieces.
Teaching children to visualize different parts of whatever they are trying to draw, and helping them to learn to place them correctly on paper, allows them to create a drawing that looks closer to the image we are trying to create.This is the desire we use most … the desire to show on paper those pictures that children imagine in their eyes.
I have used the process, which I call Modeling Drawing, with great success in both preschool and kindergarten classes. With Modeling Drawing, I work on a white board in front of a group of students, each with a piece of paper, a pencil, and an eraser. My first project of drawing a model is usually drawing a person. Recent projects include cars, buildings and animals.
We start each Drawing project by talking about what we are going to draw, starting with the person. We begin by discussing the diversity of people. The children offer their ideas, and if necessary, I ask questions.
We are all aware of the fact that people vary in characteristics such as height, weight, hair styles, skin tones, etc. This sets up a platform to honor each child’s art and unique talent, ensuring that children will expect and embrace diversity when looking at each other’s drawings.
This part of the conversation … sees the difference … followed by seeing if there are any other obvious similarities. As we discuss the similarities, the drawing begins. It’s an interactive process, in which I lead a conversation to focus children’s attention on a particular section or symbol of a drawn story.
Step by step, as we talk about each similarity, I draw that part on the board in front of the class. I draw the shape of the head, the students draw the same thing on their papers. I walk around the room, making sure each child has something visible on their paper. After that we move on to the next section. We all have two eyes.
After a little discussion about the shape, size, and placement of the eyes, I incorporate them into my model drawing, and again, I walk around the room to make sure each child is successful in their two-dimensional eye-catching efforts. We continue to reach the nose, mouth, ears, and hair, following the same procedure.
For very young children, completing a head painting can be a perfect first day project. In older children, we can move on to include body, neck, arms, legs, etc., and continue to enter body information according to students’ skill levels.
My goal is to make sure they succeed because students who are just beginning to gain skills in drawing will often choose to do it automatically.
I have found that children are very motivated to draw. They really want to be able to make visual images, and they will spend many happy hours drawing if they are satisfied with their results.
They also help each other, thereby strengthening their skills while adding opportunities for their classmates to see how their peers complete a challenging task.
Well, as the kids draw, I know they are developing the same motor skills they would need to succeed in building the characters. And in fact, I have seen that children who can draw simple people, houses, cars, and animals, are the same children who can make letters easily and effectively when asked.