DIY Laminating Tracing Hack

DIY laminating tracing hack Montessori sensory writing tray is a fun and effective way for toddlers and preschoolers to practice pre-writing strokes and lines while strengthening small muscles of the hands.

We ALL LOVE reusing! But what if you don’t have a laminating machine or you wish to spend LESS on expensive thermal pouches that a laminating machine requires? Well, recycled salad or berry container to the rescue! Besides, with these PRE-WRITING tracing strips, which are part of 58-PAGES hands-on Easter PACK, your little one will be developing fine motor, hand-eye coordination, and learning left to right progression. Most importantly, the Montessori sensory writing tray can be varied often to ignite new interest and with this DIY laminating tracing hack, you will be saving TIME and MONEY!

He does it with his hands, by experience, first in play and then through work. The hands are the instruments of man’s intelligence!

Dr. Montessori.

Thus, BEFORE your child learns to hold a pencil for the first time, s/he needs sufficient fine motor control and hand strength to be able to attempt the PRE-writing LINES AND STROKES. So, we need to prepare the hand to hold a pen or a pencil WAY before your child is able to write! The best way to do it is through simple and engaging invitations to play and various sensory hands-on Montessori prewriting activities.

FOR DIY Laminating Tracing Hack YOU’LL NEED

• PRE-WRITING tracing strips
•  corner rounder (optional)
• cardboard
• recycled plastic container (I am using a top of a salad container; you can also use a berry container, just make sure the middle part is flat and sides are raised)
• a hot glue gun
• dry erase marker

INSTRUCTIONS FOR this DIY Montessori Sensory Writing Tray

First, cut the top of the recycled container. Secondly, cut around the edges LEAVING 0.25 inches of the raised parts (you will need them for hot-gluing). I left TWO slithers/openings on each side so that I can slide the pre-writing strips, but you can leave an opening on just ONE-SIDE.

INSERT ~ TRACE ~ ERASE ~ REPEAT

This DIY laminating hack for tracing is a fun variation to dry-erase boards writing, or chalk board tracing.

LERT TO RIGHT PROGRESSION

Also, with this laminating Tracing Hack DIY, your little one is learning LEFT to RIGHT progression which is a VERY valuable skill that sometimes goes unnoticed since it is so natural to us, adults. However it is NOT intuitive to little people and a lot has to happen in their brain to move objects with hands, as well as eyes from the left the right. We want to PRACTICE this skill because this is how we read and write.

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PRE-WRTING STROKES

SEE a DETAILED POST and a VIDEO HERE.

Moreover, if you think of it, letters and numbers are made out of lines and curves. And, the VERY FIRST LINE your little one will master is a vertical line, followed by curves in a circle, and finally by a / slanted line.
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So, beginning at about 18 months, children can exercise CONTROLLED scribbling. Toddlers may make repeated marks on the page—open circles, diagonal, curved, horizontal, or vertical lines. Over time, children make the transition to holding the crayon or marker between their thumb and pointer finger ~ THIS IS WHEN YOU CAN ENCOURAGE following lines/strokes on a Montessori Tracing tray!
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What DIY laminating tracing hack do you know of? Leave a comment if you tried it!

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MORE Montessori Tracing Trays DIYS

SEE DETAILED BLOG POST WITH VIDEOS HOW TO HERE.

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