Looking for a fun activity that provides your little one with an opportunity to practice fine motor skills? Make some ABC crayons! These colorful letters are a great way to practice fine motor skills, increase exposure to the alphabet, and can be used as crayons once you finish. They also make a very cute gift and can be easily implemented into play.
Materials:
All you need is:
- Crayons
- Letter Molds
- Oven
- An Adult (your little one will obviously need your help and supervision).
What We Did:
Most of the fine motor benefit is in the prep work! Have your little help peel the paper off of the crayons and break them. Most kids love this, as it feels like it’s something they are not allowed to do. Watch these videos to see Coco doing the prep work:
WTP Insider Tip:
Break the crayons to encourage appropriate grasp patterns. Smaller pieces provide opportunities to build hand muscles needed to write. Peeling crayons uses fine motor precision and breaking them uses hand strength. Then using small crayons to color helps promote a more mature grasp!
Once the prep work is complete, mix colors and place them into the molds.
Place them in the oven and melt the crayons at 250 degrees. Keep an eye on them and remove when melted. This took ~20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool and get hard before removal.
We advocate for early exposure to letters in the alphabet and to keep it light and fun to encourage interest for developing pre-writing and pre-literacy skills. This activity is a great way to do that! You can talk about the letters and sounds the letters make, feel them, arrange them to spell your child’s name. The opportunities are endless!
Perform activities recommended by Walk, Talk, Play at your own risk with appropriate adult supervision provided. Walk, Talk, Play is not responsible for any injury caused while performing these play activities.
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Looking for More?
Check out this Pre-Writing Activity for preschoolers:
Click here to learn about Pre-Literacy Skills in Preschoolers and find more activities!
