The write start - Jennifer Hallissy 2010

A-maze-ing You
Guidelines for the Activities

WHETHER YOU’RE TEACHING a child how to hold a pencil for the first time, helping an emerging writer improve an awkward grip, or encouraging young writers-in-residence to refine their grasps (for increased legibility, speed, and endurance), mazes provide great pencil-holding practice. Think of mazes as driver’s ed for little hands. Staying on track, following the lines and curves, and planning ahead are as good exercises in motor control as you can get—and a great workout for children at every writing stage.

I prefer mazes to be of the homemade variety, able to be personalized on a whim. I make a simple drawing (no artistic skill required here, I’m talking stick figures and basic shapes) at the upper left-hand corner of the page, and then another at the bottom right-hand corner. (Whatever my son is interested in at the moment inspires the starting point and the destination. It may be a race car and a finish line, a rocket ship and a moon, a little boy and an ice cream cone; you get the idea.) Then I draw a labyrinth of lines back and forth across the page from the starting point to the goal. This never fails to amuse and occupy. In fact, it is the perfect activity for down time in restaurants, doctors’ office waiting rooms, or (gasp) the Department of Motor Vehicles (think of it as a mini road test!).

MATERIALS

∗ paper

∗ pencil, crayons, or markers

HOW-TO

1. Draw a maze on a piece of paper, then hand it over for your child to complete. Ask for some kid input when creating the challenge to motivate your little problem solver.

Variations

For Scribblers: The first strokes that pre-writers will master are simple vertical and horizontal ones. Mazes should be as basic as possible, say a simple straight path from a car to a garage, or from a bumblebee to a flower. The challenge here is for little fingers to guide a pencil to stay between the lines (which should be at least an inch apart) without veering off course.

For Spellers: Emerging writers can be challenged with lines that are closer together (about one-half inch apart) and that switch directions (back and forth and up and down).

For Storytellers: Children who have had some more pencil-holding experience are ready to tackle narrow lines, twists and turns, obstructions, and dead ends (which require them to retrace their lines in order to “turn around”).

For Scholars: More complex mazes resemble mini paper-and-pencil obstacle courses and can even incorporate some written directions, such as: “Zigzag back and forth through the flags,” “Loop around each rock three times,” or “Travel down this path using a wavy line.” Game on!