Follow the Line to School Activity
This Follow the Line to School activity is based on a really neat book that introduces children to the different areas they may find in their school. The book has awesome illustrations and opens the door for lots of discussions about many of the skills kids will learn once school begins.
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I just love the Follow the Line series of books by Laura Ljungkvist. Follow the Line to School takes kids around a school and shows them all the different things they may find in each area. The book is filled with lots of things to look at and questions to discuss. You can read this book many times and still find more to look at and discuss. I love that!
This activity is super simple to set up and can be done over and over again. Evan actually worked on it for a long time. He kept going over the lines with different colored crayons.
Develop Pencil Control and Fine Motor Ability
While enjoying this activity, Evan was practicing pencil control. He also practiced making straight lines and curved lines. All of this will lead to better fine motor skills and prepare him for writing. When kids write letters they are using straight lines and curved lines to form the letters. Practice with making these types of lines is essential to letter formation and writing development.
Supplies Needed:
- Follow the Line to School book
- Large sheet of paper – I cut some off of our easel paper roll
- Pencil
- Crayons
- Ruler (optional)
1. Draw one long line that goes around the paper. Make sure some of line is straight and some is curved. You could even had some swirls for more advanced writers. My line started at the top left of the paper and ended at the bottom right. In between the line went up, down and all around. I used a ruler to keep my straight lines straight.
Tracing Lines Activity
We read Follow the Line to School because Evan recently started preschool and I thought it would be a good introduction to all the different areas you find in a school. I showed him how he could use his finger to trace the line in the book. It is so neat how the line is continuous throughout the entire book.
Once we finished the book, I showed him the really long line I drew on the paper. Then I told him he was going to trace the line with his crayons. He was going to follow the line just like he did in the book.
At first, he was a bit hesitant and thought he wouldn’t be able to do it very well, but as soon as he got going he was very excited to be able to trace the “super long line!” He wasn’t able to stay on the line perfectly, but that is totally fine. I wasn’t expecting that. I just wanted to give him a fun way to practice writing lines.
This was perfect for him because he isn’t interested in tracing worksheets or anything like that. This was just fun for him. He immediately asked to do it again and decided to follow the line backwards. He went through the line 5 or 6 times and used a different colored crayon each time.
It worked out so well that I plan on doing this again with some swirls, loops and other more complicated lines!
This post is part of a blog hop on back to school activities for kids. Check out the other posts below!
Back to School Bubble Wrap Bookmarks from Crafty Kids at Home
Best Alphabet Books & 5 Natural Literacy Activities from Bambini Travel
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