Making their mark made easy (and not messy!)

Are you looking for a few ideas to support your child’s mark making? If you are anything like me, and I know I run messy play classes but I actually opt for less messy options when it comes to doing things at home!

Mark making is the first step in a child’s journey to writing. The scribbles and marks will eventually become letters and numbers. At Little Learners we are all about learning through play and developing the skills needed to become confident writers. I thought I would write this little blog with a few fun and easy ideas that you can easily replicate at home. Ideas that are less messy and also use objects that you will have around the house. At Little Learners we follow the Mark Making Programme, where we meet the ‘Mark Makers’ who each have their own mark.

Lionel – Our Straight Lines Soldier Mark.

For this I used pieces of duck tape and stuck a felt tip to the back of cars. I then created an area where the children could push the cars to make their mark and drive in straight lines. The children loved it and it especially got the boys hooked. You could make roads and maps for the cars, trucks or even trains to go along. I used rolls of wallpaper but you could open up a cardboard box or use the back of wrapping paper.

Archie – Our Colourful Rainbow Mark

To create a colourful rainbow, I stuck coloured pencils together using tape. When the children made an arch shape it would create a rainbow. I found 2 or 3 pencils worked well as the children could hold them. You could try this with crayons, paint sticks or even paint brushes.

Swirlo – Our Swirls And Circles Mark

For this you will need 4 cups and a ball (the size of a tennis or ball pit ball). Place the cups in a line and see if your little one can roll the ball in and out of the cups. This is fab for hand eye co ordination and it makes swirl shapes. To make this easier you could use less balls and further apart. You could then move onto using a marker and allow children to make their mark using the same movement.

Ziggy – Our Monster Zig Zag Mark

Masking tape is a fab resource and can be used in so many ways. I made a huge zig zag along the floor and then asked my daughter to ‘walk’ the zig zag. She also used her finger to trace the shape and feel the route of the masking tape. You could then move onto either making their mark following the shape or use post its or other shapes. This is also fab for exploring shapes such as rectangles, triangles and even stars!

I would love to hear how you get on, so please send pictures or comment below.

Have fun,

Thank you for reading.

Lene x

Little Learners Basingstoke