- 5 - 15 mins
- Fine motor, pencil grip, counting, number sequencing, colour recognition
- Minimal mess
- Easy!
Join the dot activities are a classic! They’ve been around for a while and are still providing entertainment and engaging children years later. There are plenty of printable out there, but I much prefer an open-ended option and have used the classic dot to dot as inspiration to create my own large scale join the dots game instead.
This super easy join-the-dot is a very simple activity with loads of learning embedded. This activity encourages number recognition, counting and number sequencing; it improves hand eye coordination, dexterity, hand strength, pencil grip, visual motor control and is a great pre-writing tool.
Beyond simple to create, with lots of variations!
Join-the-dot activities are a great way to strengthen hand and finger muscles that are important to have to be able to write efficiently. The early years is the optimal time to help develop these vital muscles that will be used throughout our life. Through this activity children can concentrate on gripping their pencil and strengthen their hands while working in a playful way.
What you will need
- Large easel paper
- Circle stickers
- Coloured markers
Activity steps
- On a large piece of paper, randomly stick your coloured circles around the page. This is something your child may like to help with! Another way to practice those important fine motor skills.
- Now using a marker, begin writing numbers on the circles. One number per circle. I chose to start with numbers 1 through to 10, but depending on your child’s abilities, you may like to do less or go beyond this.
- Now encourage your child to use a marker and ask them to find the number 1, this is the start point. For younger children you may need to help with this.
- Now encourage your child to find number 2 and encourage them to move their marker from number 1 to number 2.
- Now repeat the above step and move the marker from number 2 to 3, and so on, and so on.
Variations
- If number concepts are still a developing skill for your child, why not try basing your activity on colours instead. Use a variety of coloured circles and encourage your child to move their marker and link the same colours.
- Instead of number- why not try alphabet letters? Can your child follow the dots in alphabetical order from A to Z?
- Perhaps you could try using words of interest and use it as a name or spelling activity? Find the letters in your name and link them in order.
- Place the circle stickers in a way that would create a shape. A great way to introduce a shape element and help support shape formation when writing. For example, a triangle would use 3 circles. I would place one at each point of the shape and then number them from 1 through to 3 to help show direction and shape formation.
- If you are super creative, perhaps you could even create basic pictures- as the children follow the sequence of numbered dots and connect each one by drawing a line a fun picture will be revealed.
Learning Objectives
- Hand eye co-ordination
- Fine motor
- Dexterity
- Number sequencing and counting
- Colour recognition
Reference sites
We would like to acknowledge these amazing sites that have inspired us to create this activity. Thank you!