Early Literacy Storytime: Here Come the Animals

One of the things that helps children get ready to write is building strong muscles in their shoulders, because these muscles provide stability to the smaller muscles in the forearms and hands. More stability means less effort is needed to complete fine motor tasks.

Activities that simply allow the shoulders and arms to bear some of the weight of the child’s body will help develop these muscles (like climbing walls and monkey bars on the playground). But an easy way to do that in storytime is to walk like animals!

In any animal storytime, invite the children to pretend to be animals with you. Engage their shoulder muscles by channeling:

When you are done playing, say something like this to the grown-ups: “Parents, when you play active games like this with your child, they develop arm and shoulder muscles that give support to their hands and wrists. More support means they will be able to write and draw more confidently and more precisely.”