Straight Lines

When children are three years-old, they naturally develop beyond a pattern of circular scribbling in their drawing and begin to be able to form stronger and stronger circles.  At first the circles are wobbly, then they become more symmetrical and round. 

After children have mastered drawing circles, they are ready to begin to work on forming straight lines.  Again, at first the lines are wobbly and they start at the bottom of the paper.  But through development and practice, children can make strong, straight lines and they begin to remember to start their lines at the top.  This becomes important for forming letters properly. (There is a song for this too.  Here is a slightly catchier version than what we have been singing in class.) 

To build an understanding of what a straight line is, we have many opportunities in class to explore lines and to build designs.  There are magnetic letters that the children considered closely as they sanded them to prepare them for use and exploration.

We have used crayons and now are moving on to chalk on slates.  

On the slates, the children trace a line with a small sponge (wet) and then repeat with a tiny paper towel (dry) and finally form a line on their own with chalk (try).  Wet, Dry, Try is a very popular activity. Repetition like this offers deep practice.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, children even drew a straight line design in chalk and then took it to clay to build the line design in clay.  Children are developing many skills and building strength as they play with lines.