Wooden clothespins for preschool literacy

You can use wooden clothespins to teach many different skills and concepts. They are famous for helping young children improve their finger and hand coordination, strengthen the muscles they will need for writing and develop the pincer grip used for holding a pencil. Wooden clothespins can also be used to teach spelling words since they provide a hands-on way to understand how the letters fit together to make a word. Many children respond better to physical activities than they do to worksheets. This article will explain how to use wooden clothespins to help preschoolers learn how to spell their name, but the same approach can be used for any reasonably short spelling words. Wooden clothespins work best, but I suppose plastic ones could work, too.

The target age for this project is about 3 or 4 years old.

Step 1: Write one letter of the name on each wooden clothespin.

Step 2: Write the letters of the name on an index card. A short wooden ruler also works fine.

Step 3: Clip the wooden clothespins onto the card and show the child how it looks when completed, so they will know what the goal is.

Step 4: Let the child to take the clothespins off the card. They usually want to do this part on their own and will not need much invitation. The clothespins will end up mixed up in a pile, for most kids.

Step 5: Encourage the child to put their name back together on the card. This gives them the chance to practice manipulating clothespins and improving their pincer grip, recognizing and matching small differences in letters and writing, and learning the letters in their name in the correct order. If a name has both a capital and lower-case of the same letter, (Alan, for example) then even better! Be sure to use the correct terms of 'lower case' and 'capital', instead of 'big' and 'little'. Some children will get extra practice in counting, if they have more than one of the same letter.

This activity is very effective and works well, especially for the children who are easily frustrated and want to give up at first. They may take 20 minutes the first time, but don't do it for them, or you'll steal from them the opportunity to feel proud of themselves. Remember, when they say, "will you help me?" they probably mean, "do it for me", but you can instead interpret "helping" as verbal encouragement and patience and help them stick with it until they accomplish it themselves.

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(all images by Karbyn)