Monster Dot-to-Dot Marker Maze

Monster Dot-to-Dot Marker Maze makes a fun pencil grip activity.

Monster dot-to-dot marker maze encourages pencil grip in a risk-free way.

My almost-four-year-old enjoys his morning Breakfast Invitation and almost always goes a little off-key on the final steps. -Which you can encourage, especially with two-year-olds.

Here, I wanted to give him some freedom to explore pencil grip without following a rigid guideline. We want to remember that all kids learn differently and do not fit one mold.

RELATED: Come read 25+ Activities to Improve Pencil Grip. It will help explain all the ages and stages and fun alternatives that do not involve a worksheet.

 

 

So much more goes into handwriting before forming letters.

We hold our toddlers to high expectations of gripping a pencil without much thought into what goes on behind the scenes.

Keep in mind; our main goal is to get children excited about writing, forming lines, and progressing on their own terms. My favorite ways to reach this goal are playing with squirt bottles, using tweezers, and using eye droppers. These are all great tools to help strengthen small hand muscles.

We want to strengthen small hand muscles to have a better pencil grip down the road. You will begin to notice BIG improvements over time as you practice pencil grip in a variety of ways.

These 50 fine motor activities are alternative ways to strengthen small hands!

Setup is simple.

Here, I taped down my white paper roll and grabbed my favorite dot stickers.

You will remember these dot stickers from other activities such as Giant Dot-to-Dot, Feed the Sharks, and Mystery Shapes. We like to keep supplies simple and use the same supply in many different ways to improve fine motor strength.

I placed the dots in no particular design on the white paper. The objective is to draw one continuous line from one dot to the next.

Why? Letters are made up of lines and curves; I want my preschooler to practice the line formations before asking him to write letters.

Next, I made little monster faces on each sticker. Sometimes, a small detail is what it takes to help with investment. I knew by calling it Monster Maze Dot-to-Dot, I would have a little more buy-in.

My goal with this pencil grip activity was to help with:

• Eye-tracking
• Pencil grip
• Drawing lines that wiggle
• Drawing straight lines
• Following a path that had a color sequence

So Let’s Get Setup!

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Invite your preschooler to begin connecting the dots as you sip your hot coffee!

When will you try Monster Dot-to-Dot Marker Maze?