At a Glance
A Halloween mark making pack for preschool and kindergarten. It contains a display poster and table mat that shows ten pre-writing strokes, a set of prompt cards with one mark per card and then eight recipe cards that combine the marks to show how they can make pictures like a ghost, bat, pumpkin and more.
This Halloween mark making pack has a poster, 10 prompt cards and 8 recipe cards.
The poster could go on the wall. The prompt cards on the table, in a tray, or hidden around the room. And the recipe cards give your little learners something to actually make with all that practice.
Let’s get making some marks!
What Exactly Is Mark Making?
Mark making is an umbrella term for every scribble, dot, line and loop a child makes before they start forming actual letters.
The National Association for the Education of Young Children points out that children as young as two begin imitating writing through drawings and symbolic markings, and that these early skills are strong predictors of later reading and writing ability.
What Skills Can Your Little Ones Learn And Develop?
These Halloween themed mark making resources are designed to help your children practice and develop their prewriting skills, such as:
- Pre-writing control – Many of the marks in the pack turn up inside letters and numbers so practicing the movements is great for when letter formation begins later.
- Fine motor skills and pencil control – Loops, ladders and neat rows of dots all need a steady hand and a bit of finger strength.
- Hand-eye coordination – Looking at a model and making it themselves somewhere else is harder than tracing.
- Visual discrimination – Telling a wave from a zig zag is the same noticing that later helps separate b from d.
- Sequencing and working memory – The recipe cards ask children to hold two or three steps in mind and carry them out in order.
- Positional and descriptive language – Over, under, around, across. These come out naturally while children work and talk.
- Confidence and independence – Nothing here has a wrong answer, and children can choose what mark they want to make and then actually make it all on their own.
Many of these are vital fine motor skills that will enable them to become great writers in the future!
RELATED Playdough can also be a great way to improve hand strength – you can check out an easy no cook recipe here!
How To Prepare The Halloween Mark Making Writing Center Pack
First you’re going to want to download the pack by clicking on the download button at the bottom of the page.
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Then print them off, cut them out and laminate them if you want to.
What’s Inside the Pack
The Display Poster and Table Mat
This poster has ten pre-writing strokes on one bright chart: swirl, zig zag, ladder, wave, arch, line, circle, loop, cross and dots. Stick it up in your writing center or lay it on a table. Full details and plenty of ways to use it are over on the Halloween mark making mat post.
The Prompt Cards
The same marks split across ten individual cards. Use them for display, prop them beside a sensory tray, spread them face down for a lucky dip, or hide them around the room for a hunt. There’s more on all of that in the Halloween mark making prompt cards post.
The Recipe Cards
Eight cards showing a Halloween themed picture and the marks needed to make it. A line plus a swirl makes a lollipop. An arch plus a cross makes a gravestone. There’s a ghost, a bat, a spider, a pumpkin, a broom and a cauldron in there too. Have a look at the Halloween mark making recipe cards post for the full set of ideas.
However you use these Halloween mark making resources, I hope your little ones have some spooky fun!
Enjoy and let’s nurture those neurons!
