Summer Mark Making Display poster and Table Mat – Pre-Writing Resource

Before a child can write the letter b, they need to be able to draw a (reasonably straight) line, draw a curve and join the two together at the right place. When you think about it, that’s all a letter is – a few simple strokes in the right order.

This summer mark making mat has ten of those strokes in one bright, sunny chart your little learners can use. If your kiddos are already enjoying our line tracing worksheets, this is a lovely open-ended companion to sit alongside them.

Stick it up in your writing / mark-making corner or put it on a table and let your little ones experiment and start growing those pencil skills and developing those writing muscles!

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.

Why Use a Mark Making Chart

Once this chart is on the wall or on the table, children can easily have a look at marks they could make and carry on without needing an adult to demonstrate. Great for some independence!

It also can give everyone some shared words. Once your little ones have seen and named a line and an arch, you can say “draw a line down and then an arch over” when you teach the letter n, and your little ones know exactly what you mean.

What Skills Can Your Little Ones Learn And Develop?

This mark making table mat is designed to help your children practice and develop their prewriting skills, such as:

• Pre-writing control – Many of the marks on the chart appear inside letters and numbers. Practicing them means the movement is already familiar by the time formal letter formation begins.
• Fine motor skills and pencil control – Making a loop or a steady ladder takes hand and finger strength.
• Hand-eye coordination – Children have to look at a model and get their hand to reproduce it.
• Visual discrimination – Telling a wave apart from a zig zag, or a swirl from a loop, builds the same noticing skills that later help distinguish b from d.
• Positional and descriptive language – Words like over, under, across, around and through get used while children work.
• Confidence and independence – as they make the marks themselves without any adult help.

These are all 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 Summer Mark Making Chart

First you’re going to want to download mark making poster by clicking on download button at the bottom of the page.

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Then print it off and put it somewhere your little ones can see.

Get Even More Out of This Summer Mark Making Mat

Here are some ways you could use it.

Take It Outside

Prop the mat somewhere visible, hand out some chunky sidewalk chalk and let children copy each mark on a huge scale across the pavement. Or give them a bucket of water and a decorating brush and let them paint giant waves and swirls onto a fence or wall, which vanish as they dry and can be done all over again. Working big like this uses the whole arm and shoulder so a great bit of gross motor!

Set Up a Sensory Tray Version

Pour a thin layer of sand, salt or shaving foam into a shallow tray and stand the mat up behind it. Children pick a mark, then draw it in the tray with one finger or a paint brush before smoothing it away and choosing another. 

Go on a Summer Mark Hunt

Take the mat outside and see how many of the ten marks you can spot in the real world. Ripples on a puddle are waves, a snail shell is a swirl, a climbing frame is full of ladders and crossing lines. You could photograph the finds and build a display next to the chart. 

Build a Summer Picture Out of Marks

Challenge your little learners to make a whole beach scene using only marks from the chart. Dots for sand, waves for the sea, a circle and zig zags for the sun etc. It turns this practice into something more creative.

Move From Marks to Letters

Once children can produce the strokes confidently, the natural next step is putting them together into letters. Our roll and trace worksheet generator lets you build custom dice tracing sheets for whichever letters you are working on. 

However you use this summer mark making mat, I hope it earns its spot on your wall or writing table and your little ones enjoy it. You can find plenty more to go alongside it over in our writing printables.

Enjoy and let’s nurture those neurons!