Recommendations for pre-writing activities please!

[hairygodmother]

I want to do some pre-writing activities with my dd 3.1. I was thinking along the lines of snakes that you draw the wiggly lines in, drawing waves on the sea, drawing circle shapes in a picture etc. I've got some books with actual letters in but thought I'd try and get her doing the basic patterns first. Can anyone recommend any good activity books or even websites where I can download stuff? Thanks!

1. Take a line for a walk ? see how long the pencil can stay on the paper.

2. Sorting ? small objects such as paper clips, screws, bolts, buttons, etc. 3. Clipping things together ? using pegs, paper clips, etc. 4. Dressing up activities ? involving the use of clothing fasteners such as buttons, zippers and laces. 5. Post-a-shape ? matching shapes to the correct opening. 6. Bead threading ? copy the pattern. 7. Tracking and maze activities 8. Cutting and pasting ? patterns, pictures, classification activities, project scrapbooks. 9. Tracing ? lines, shapes and simple pictures. 10. Copy writing patterns 1 ? using coloured sand. 11. Copy writing patterns 2 ? using chalk. 12. Colouring patterns and pictures ? using different media. 13. Dot-to-dot pictures ? using numbers and the alphabet. 14. Line-links ? following the line from one end to the other (e.g. mouse to the cheese). 15. Modelling ? with clay, Plasticine etc. 16. Painting and printing ? using different sized brushes and different types of printing materials. 17. Jigsaw puzzles ? starting with simple peg puzzles with pictures and shapes that need to be slotted into the correct space, then introducing traditional puzzles of varying degrees of difficulty. 18. Peg boards ? these can be used to make simple or more complex patterns. 19. Building blocks ? start with larger wooden ones if possible and then introduce smaller ones. 20. Constructional apparatus ?of varying degrees of difficulty (e.g. Duplo, Lego). 21. Jacks or marbles ? children learn to control fine motor movements with these games. 22. Computer-aided picture and design activities 23. Sewing activities 24. Finger puppets 25. Construction activities ? involving the use of plastic nuts, bolts and screws. 26. Musical instruments ? playing as wide a range as available.

Some sheets here but he may find the control required hard to achieve at 3.

Also for fine motor skills -"Writing" in wet sand, flour or paint with a finger, using a chunky paint brush with water on the patio or wall to draw and write, making letters out of pipecleaners or playdough and generally kneading and rolling playdough, baking and cutting biscuits, megasketcher/etch a sketch, chunky pavement chalks and so on

under5s.com or co.uk is very good.

smash as in the powdered mash potatoe mixed up is a good 1