How to Teach Your 4 Year Old to Write Their Name

As a mama to preschool and kindergarten-aged boys, I am gaining a new perspective on teaching the fundamentals. Sure, I have taught the basics to entire classes and helped a whole lot of children to strengthen their fine motor skills. But when my own child was struggling to write his name, I realized something was missing from the way I was teaching handwriting. I decided to take a closer look and try something new. And man did it pay off! Just 3 days later he had mastered his name and was writing it everywhere I looked! 

My Prewriting Bundle breaks down handwriting into the most basic strokes possible and prepares young students to begin writing letters and numbers with a strong foundation under their belts! 

What’s Included in the Prewriting Bundle? 

When you grab the bundle here, you will gain access to 3 different prewriting products. The first is my Prewriting Strokes product, which includes 64 pages of print-and-go worksheets where students can trace and write basic strokes such as vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines. As well as practice tracing and drawing basic shapes. 

Once your student has mastered their strokes, move on to the Alphabet Prewriting product. This breaks down each letter by stroke. For example, for the letter Hh, your student will practice drawing horizontal lines and vertical lines, then put them together to create an Hh. 

Next, you will find the Prewriting Numbers unit which follows the same concept as the alphabet product but, you guessed it, with numbers instead! 

If you want to go a little further with this prewriting practice, grab my Preschool Prewriting and Drawing Bundle. This includes the three products listed above as well as my Preschool Drawing Unit, Scribble Scrabble. You can read all about this unit in my blog post! 

Can I use this with my child who is already in Kindergarten? 

Absolutely! These prewriting skills are important to practice no matter where your child is in the early writing journey. If you have a preschool-aged student just beginning to learn about coloring and holding a pencil or crayon, or if you have a kindergarten-aged student who needs some extra support drawing straight lines. These activities are created to strengthen fine motor skills and in turn their handwriting skills. 

Results in just THREE days?! How does this look in the classroom or at home?? 

I know it sounds wild! Having a student (whether at home or in your class at school) who is struggling to write the letters in his name go from poor letter formation and weak fine motor skills to mastery in just 3 days, seems impossible. With the typical way of going entire letter by entire letter and tracing the entire name over and over again, it may take weeks or even months for some students. 

However, by breaking it down into super specific and very simple steps, I made it less overwhelming and easier for my 4-year-old to remember and master each and every stroke. Here’s what I did. 

I printed the prewriting strokes activities and put them in a blank, dry-erase menu from Amazon. I used ones similar to these. Every morning he traced these strokes as his ‘morning menu’ activity. You can start wherever in the bundle you think best. That’s it! That’s all we did! 

Students love dry-erase markers, and the activities themselves are colorful and engaging! Plus, dry erase means you can use it over and over again, which is less prep for you! If you are wanting to do this in the classroom with a few of your students, make several ‘menus’ and have students complete it as their morning work (or at another time during the day). At home, create one, and be sure that you make it a priority with your student! 

You’ll begin seeing these results QUICK! As they master each skill, easily switch out the pages and move on to the next step, whether it be the alphabet, shapes, or numbers. 

Wow, I am ready to see these results! How can I get my hands on these activities?!

You will get the most bang for your buck by purchasing the Preschool Prewriting and Drawing Bundle which includes 4 different products that can be used in both preschool and kindergarten! 

If you already have my Scribble Scrabble Preschool Drawing Unit, then this Prewriting Bundle is the one for you! 

There are so many different ways to practice and strengthen your student’s fine motor skills and get them mastering their name in no time! Check out my TpT page for more developmentally appropriate fine motor and prewriting activities!