Handwriting Morphs to Math

It is important that children think of handwriting as part of everything they do when writing instruments are in their hands. You may think, “Well, of course!” But sometimes it seems as though good handwriting practice is relegated to isolated lessons, with little relevance to other subjects.

Two days ago in a Kindergarten class children used tweezers and tiny beads for a hand/finger strengthening lesson.
1) Children traced this pattern in the air with their index fingers extended. 2) Next they wiggled their fingers around, then pinched index finger to thumb.
3) They picked up tweezers, holding them between index finger and thumb. Using the tweezers the children picked up tiny beads and placed them in little cups.
4) Next children moved to paper and markers where they chanted as they traced the hair-like patterns on the puppy you see below.
5) They could trace as many patterns as they wanted, and then they took the tweezers and placed a bead on the pattern that they thought the best.

The next day children used the tweezers again with slightly larger beads. The purpose was still hand/finger strengthening, but the lesson was Math. This time they counted out beads as they picked them up with the tweezers and strung them on string to make a bracelet with Math-related decoration.