Cactus Letter Tracing and Matching Activities for Preschoolers
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Since Spring is about to start this FREE Cactus Letter Tracing and Matching Activities, to help your preschoolers define their pre-writing skills, and build up a strong foundation for their emerging writing development.
Tracing and matching might look like very simple activities and maybe even silly, but in reality, they are very beneficial because help kiddos build up the necessary foundation to learn how to read and write words later on.
Benefits of Tracing and Matching
Young children love to explore their creativity and put their ideas on paper. That is why they love to “scribble” since they can hold a crayon. This practice helps children develop important skills such as:
Pre-Writing Skills
Tracing teaches young learners how to write letters, because it involves more refined movements, developing their ability to grip and manipulate writing tools, hand-eye coordination, the direction in which to write, and dominant hand development.
Concentration and Focus
These skills are put into practice when your preschoolers use their eyes, hands, and fingers to trace and match the uppercase and lowercase letters. They have to focus on what they are doing and how to move the writing tool they are using (pencil, crayon, or markers) along the lines correctly to shape the different letters and to make sure that they are matching the correct pair of letters as well. This exercise also helps them work on their memory and attention.
Fine Motor Skills
Tracing and matching are also excellent ways to practice fine motor control. These simple activities can also build up strength and coordination on their hands and fingers muscles, which will help them refine the control of the writing tools and their movements.
Visual-Spatial Awareness Skills
These skills have to do with the children’s ability to sense where are things around them. When they trace, they become aware that they have a paper in front of them, a writing tool on their hands, and that they have to connect the lines and trace them within certain limits.
Drawing Skills
Tracing will help children learn how to create the different hand movements necessary to form straight and curved lines to form letters, numbers, and shapes. This practice will help them develop the skills needed to trace the same lines on their own and combine them to create pictures and drawings.
Getting Your Activity Ready
This FREE printable can be used in different areas and ways such as:
- Small group activity.
- Writing center option.
- Reading area option.
- Take home game and Quiet area option.
This printable comes with six pages that include all the letters of the alphabet, in the uppercase and lowercase forms. These low-prep activities will only require:
- Free printable (find at the end of this post).
- Printer.
- White cardstock.
- Scissors.
- Laminator or dry-erase pockets.
- Small basket or Zip-lock bag.
To prepare the activity, fill out the form below to download and print out the free printable. Then decide how you want to use it. If you want a one-time tracing activity, you just have to print the pages on white paper. If you want to use it multiple times, print each page using white cardstock, then laminate the pages or place them in a dry-erase pocket, and have children use a dry-erase marker to trace the letters.
To use it as a matching activity, cut out and laminate the tiles to make them last longer, and place them in a small basket or a Zip-lock bag, to protect them.
Depending on each child’s developmental stage, you can ask them to identify each letter and/or it’s sound before they trace it. If your kids are just starting to learn the names of the letters, let them start with just a few letters. Then you can then two or three more every time they play.
Other Ideas
- You can have the children match the letter with magnetic, wooden or foam letters to have another option for them to do.
- They can write the letters in a separate paper using pencils, markers or crayons.
- They can find words that start with all or some of the letter, and match them with the appropriate letter.
Using Storybooks
You know that I believe there is no such thing as too much reading. The more you read to your children, the better. It is important to keep them interested in books, changing your library periodically according to the theme and season.
These are some good suggestions you can use for Spring. You can find all of these books at your local library, at a used books store, and on Amazon. You can use the links in each picture to get them through my Amazon links, so you can grow your library for years to come.
Pin It For Later
If you are in a rush and don’t have time to read the post and download the printable but want to save it for later, pin this to your literacy or Springboard on Pinterest for later.
I hope you find that this Cactus Letter Tracing and Matching Activities will help and entertain your kiddos, and make your lesson planning a little easier. Don’t forget to get your FREE printable! You just have to click on the bottom below to download it and start using it.
Be happy, safe, and creative. I wish you well.
Love,
P.S. Please let me know if these activities worked for you, and if you would like to see an article or a printable about how to make something specific, please let me know and I will try my best to create it for you. My goal is to help you in any way I can and I don’t like anything better than to post something that you might find useful.
