Provide children with activities that help develop their fine motor skills. Select activities that are suitable for children of this age that allow them to use and strengthen the muscles in their hands. Set out puzzles and have children practice taking them apart and putting them together. Have kids use their hands, using rolling pins and cookie cutters to sculpt clay. Fill bowls with buttons and instruct children to use their forefingers and thumbs to pick up the buttons and move them to another bowl. Allow children to tear and cut paper with safety scissors. They can thread laces through holes punched around cardboard shapes.
Offer children opportunities to practice forming shapes and letters. Use hands-on activities that allow them to feel how shapes and letters are formed and encourage them to use writing tools. Fill cookie sheets with shaving cream, sand or pudding and encourage children to use a forefinger to practice writing shapes and letters. Have children trace stencils of letters and shapes with crayons and colored pencils. Write shapes and letters on paper and prompt children to trace them with finger paint, crayons, colored pencils and paintbrushes. Print shapes and letters on index cards, place them in the pages of a photo album and have children trace the images with dry-erase markers. Allow children to use sidewalk chalk to practice writing on concrete surfaces.
Encourage children to put their writing skills to use. Provide kids with pieces of paper and different types of writing implements. Prompt them to use the writing implements to write images on the paper, or instruct them to draw specific shapes and letters on the paper. Hang an alphabet chart on a wall and encourage children to use the chart as a guide while practicing writing the letters. Ask children to use their writing skills to write letters or stories and have them share what they have written. Though the writing may not make sense, this activity encourages children to use writing to communicate.