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Writing is a basic language skill. Like reading, it requires knowledge of the written form of the language. Like speaking, it is productive and creative. We use it to communicate our own ideas and feelings to others. But writing is also a physical skill. Young children need to be able to handle unwieldy pens and pencils and correctly form those strange marks on paper that adults call writing.

To do this, children must develop their fine motor skills: the small muscle movements that occur in the fingers, in coordination with the eyes. These skills don't develop overnight. Teaching them to children requires patience — and it needs to be fun, too!

The Gogo Loves English Writing Books take a step-by-step approach to children's writing skill development. Let's take a look at some examples:

• Help students recognize the different letter shapes by showing them similar-looking letters together and asking them to find certain ones. For example, show them a number of lower-case a's, e's and c's and ask students to circle all the a's (see Writing Book 1, Unit 1, Exercise 5).
• Let students trace letter shapes. Have them trace a series of letters and key words (see Writing Book 3, Unit 1, Exercise 6). To make tracing more fun and more tactile, get students to trace letters in sand, in finger paints, etc. Try getting students to trace letters on sheets of card by putting a line of glue inside large letter outlines. Then they can sprinkle colored sand or glitter on the glue and make their own big glittery letters.

Of course, children can develop their fine motor skills in other activities too, such as cutting out outlined shapes, placing and pasting shapes into outlines, tracing, coloring, drawing and doing puzzles. Helping parents with everyday activities like baking cookies or painting a wall is great for motor development, too. For more suggestions on writing activities, take a look at our Activity bank.

Share your favorite writing activity ideas with other teachers. Please send them to us via our Guestbook.