Weeks 1-3

During the first few weeks of Reception we will be looking at the children's fine motor skills in preparation for mark making. Your child's class teacher might have posted on their Dojo portfolio letting you know which hand is their dominant hand and the type of pencil grip they are using.  Below is a progression of grasps. By the end of Reception our aim is to have children achieve a tripod grasp where possible.

Palmar Grasp         Digital Grasp       Modified Tripod Grasp          Tripod Grasp

Week 4
This week we are going to begin developing the muscles in our core, back and shoulders which will help us with our gross motor skills. When our gross motor skills improve, they give us the strength to write. We will use our dancing scarves as we begin this work.

Use the link below to see some of the moves we will be doing to help us develop our gross motor skills in preparation for writing.

Scarf Dancing

Week 5 and 6

This week we are going to build on our work in week 4. We will continue with our gross motor movements and start to do some fine motor movements using playdough. Each day we will take part in a dough disco session with our own pot of dough. 

We will send each child home with their own pot of dough this week to practice at home. Here is a link to a YouTube clip which can give you some ideas as to what exercises to do with your child. 

Dough Disco Exercises

Weeks 7 and 8

In the last two weeks of the half term we will start work on pen disco. We are going to make marks to music to encourage the children to make long horizontal and long vertical lines on paper!

Click here to see an example of pen disco.