Drawing model: a fun precursor to writing for young children

Children in kindergarten, and sometimes even preschool, are expected to learn how to spell the letters of the alphabet correctly. However, often these young children have not developed enough fine motor skills to enable them to be successful in forming the required letter shapes.

Many articles have been written to address the technical aspects of early writing and/or pre-writing skills, suggesting, for example, that children practice with writing tools such as crayons and pencils. These items can encourage shape tracing and have an adult model using the correct pencil grip. Some articles encourage the development of early fine motor skills by suggesting that the child be given the opportunity to use modeling clay and scissors. All of these are valid suggestions.

However, there is another key factor, beyond the technical aspects of letter formation, that can radically affect a young child’s ability to form letters or write simple words. This key factor is motivation.

For many young children, there is little intrinsic motivation to complete the pages of a required handwriting practice booklet or to spontaneously practice letter formation. Letters are abstractions, which may have little or no meaning to children this age. Therefore, they may feel little interest in practicing writing skills, beyond any practice required by the teacher.

However, there is a simple way to engage children and motivate them to happily practice the same technical skills that will lead to letter-forming success.

Little children love to draw. Initially, they scribble for the joy of making marks on paper and for the fun of using colors. Markers, crayons, and paints are “hot” items in any preschool or kindergarten classroom.

However, there comes a time when young children want to put on paper an image that they are visualizing in their minds, and they can become quite frustrated when they cannot do so. Children often don’t know how to break down the drawing process, take a whole picture and separate it into simpler individual pieces that they can draw. Teaching children to visually recognize the discrete components of whatever it is they are trying to draw, and helping them learn to place them in a proper configuration on paper, allows them to create a drawing that recognizably resembles the whole picture they are dealing with. to draw. to create. It is this desire that we capitalize on… the desire to put on paper the images that children envision in their minds.

I have used a technique, which I call Model Drawing, with great success in both preschool and kindergarten classrooms. With Model Drawing, I work at a whiteboard in front of a group of students, each of whom has a piece of paper, a pencil, and an eraser. My first Model Drawing project is usually to draw a person. Later projects include vehicles, buildings, and animals.

We start each Model Drawing project by talking about the item we are going to draw, starting with a person. We first discuss variations between people. The children offer their ideas and, if necessary, I ask them questions. Together we notice the fact that people differ in terms of attributes like height, weight, hairstyles, skin tones, etc. This sets the stage for honoring each child’s creativity and different ability, ensuring that children will expect and accept variation when viewing each other’s drawings.

This part of the discussion… noting the variations… is followed by the observation that there are also some definite similarities. As we discuss the similarities, the drawing begins. It is an interactive process, in which I lead the way through the discussion to focus the children’s attention on some particular part or attribute of the subject being drawn.

Step by step, as we talk about each similarity, I draw that particular part on the board in front of the class. I draw the shape of a head and the students draw something similar on their paper. I walk around the room to make sure each child has something recognizable in her role. Then we move on to the next part. We all have two eyes. After a little discussion about the shape, size, and placement of the eyes, I add them to my drawing model and again walk around the room to make sure each child has succeeded in drawing two eyes. We continue with the nose, mouth, ears and hair, following the same procedure.

For very young children, completing a drawing of a head can be the entire first day project. For older children, we can move on to adding a body, neck, arms, legs, etc., and continue to add body details according to the skill levels of the students. My goal is for them to be successful because students who are beginning to acquire drawing skills will spontaneously choose to practice again and again.

I have noticed that children are highly motivated to draw. They want very much to be able to make recognizable drawings, and they will spend many happy hours drawing if they are satisfied with the results. They also help each other, thus reinforcing their own skills while adding opportunities for their classmates to watch a classmate complete a challenging task.

Of course, as the children draw, I know that they are developing the same fine motor skills that they will need to be successful at forming letters. And in fact, I have noticed that children who are able to draw simple people, houses, vehicles, and animals are the same children who are able to form letters more easily and successfully when asked.