These worksheets are used at our CEFA Early Learning schools for our 3 year old children (Junior Kindergarten Two), and presented only after our students have had practice with lines and curves letters.
If your child is not attending our schools and you would like to try these at home, make sure you follow the directions indicated on the large letters (green means start, red means stop, and the arrows will point you in the right direction.
We teach this to our students one child at a time, as the teacher needs to observe to make sure the child is following the right directions (otherwise they are learning it and practicing it wrong, which will impact their writing skills in the future). Make sure you do the same so your child can learn to write the right way (no pun intended!).
You can download the practice sheets here.
Best Ages for This Activity
Three to five
How to Make It
What You Will Need
- Paper
- A printer
Let’s Get Started!
- Print the worksheets
- Invite your child to practice writing
- Give them a fine felt marker if they are beginners, because a pencil is harder for them
- Only do a maximum of one worksheet a day
- If your child wants to keep working, invite them to draw the animals corresponding to each letter instead. Drawing is an excellent fine motor activity to prepare your child to write.
Learning Opportunities
This activity will give your child literacy skills: they will also learn writing skills as they trace the letters and reading skills as they identify the letter and the sound it makes, as well as try to read the name of the animal, with your help.
Since the worksheets are all about animals, your child will also learn vocabulary, and about natural science.
Extended Learning Opportunities
- Talk about the animals:
- What sound do they make?
- Where do they live? (example, in a jungle, in a forest, in a home)
- Have they ever seen one?
- Where could we go to see animals?
- Why it is important for animals to live in their natural habitats?
- Find a video of each one of these animals (YouTube is your friend here) so your child can see them in their natural habitat, and learn more about them
- Visit a zoo, a pet store, a friend’s house if they are pets, a petting zoo, or other places where you can see some of these animals firsthand.
- Find out which letters are in your child’s name
- See which letters are in your name, in their siblings’ names, etc.
- Help your child write their name at the bottom of the practice sheet