Welcome to Building Blocks for Pre-K–5

Aoife is a Pediatric Occupational Therapist from Dublin, Ireland. You can follow her blog https://occupationaltherapyforkids.blogspot.com/. She shares children’s OT tips and tricks for all OT needs! Follow her on Facebook and on Instagram

Before a child learns to write, they need to build pre-writing foundation skills to prepare them for successful handwriting in the classroom. Pre-writing activities are designed to foster body awareness, build fine motor skills, and promote good posture. Once children have mastered these important steps, they can begin to write with automaticity—without having to stop and think about the mechanics of handwriting.

Check out our teaching tips to end the year with a writing unit of independent writing projects.

We made hundreds of new OT friends last week during our time at the AOTA Annual Conference & Expo! Our team shared how to make handwriting fun and easy while spending a few days in “The Big Easy.” Here’s a recap of our AOTA experience.

Take advantage of this special time set aside for appreciating the written word by having your students write their own poem. Here are a couple tips to get you started:

There’s nothing quite like the grip of a good book—something that captures your attention and makes turning the pages almost effortless. In 1958, the American Library Association sponsored National Library Week to ignite interest and appreciation in reading, libraries, and everything that libraries have to offer. This week, we’re celebrating National Library Week from April 7–13 and are as excited for this special celebration as we are when reading a page-turner.