✏️ Writing & pencil control · Ages 2–3 · about 3 weeks

Busy Fingers

Goal: Build strong hands and fingers, and make marks: scribbles, up-and-down lines and circles.

For parents: Writing starts in the hands, not with letters. Squeezing, tearing and pinching build the muscles a child needs to hold a pencil later. A fist grip is normal at this age.

Do together

  1. Dough play

    You need: A ball of dough (atta dough or play dough)

    Squeeze it, roll it into snakes, pinch it, poke holes with a finger. Make balls and count them.

  2. Tear and stick

    You need: Old newspaper or coloured paper, glue stick, a sheet of paper

    Tear paper into small pieces and stick them onto a big shape you have drawn — a sun, a fish, a tree.

  3. Big scribbles

    You need: Chalk on the floor, or crayons on a big sheet of paper

    Make big up-and-down lines like rain, round and round like a wheel. Scribble to music: fast music, fast lines; slow music, slow lines.

Talk about it

  • Can you make rain lines? Can you make a big circle?
  • What did you draw? Tell me about it.
  • Can you squeeze the dough really hard?

Words to use

  • up
  • down
  • round
  • line
  • circle
  • squeeze

Play

  • Trace It
    Pre-writing
  • Dot to Dot
    Pencil control & counting on
  • Match Paths
    Matching & connecting
Play these games free

Every game is free for every family until 20 November 2026.

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