Written by Rebecca Reid

Practice fine motor and early literacy skills by placing stickers on words. This is a preschool activity that blends fine motor skills practice in an early literacy activity. Put stickers on names, sight words, or Valentines! Since Strawberry loves stickers, the color pink (currently her favorite,, although it changes weekly), glittery things, and hearts and she's been asking "when is Valentine's Day?" ever since Christmas ended, she loved today's activity.  She practiced fine motor and early literacy skills by making a sticker words page as a Valentine (for me, apparently!).

Creating Sticker Words Fine Motor Literacy Play

I want her to get accustomed to letters and words all around her, so I wrote the word "LOVE" in outline for her to fill in with stickers. I surrounded it with a heart and handed her the stickers and markers. She decided it was going to be a valentine for me and promptly shoo-ed me out of the room! She was excited about the writing she put on the paper, and she enjoyed putting the stickers down. I  helped her with some toward the end. To create such an activity, all you need is a paper with a word or shape on it, and stickers! I printed a word off of my computer, but I  also could have just written the word on the page as well.

What is Learned from Sticker Words Fine Motor Literacy Play

Here are some concepts she was learning throughout the activity.
  • Fine motor skills required to take stickers off of the back.
  • Fine motor skills to use the markers.
  • Tracing practice (she traced the heart and letters).
  • Recognizing different letters. Yes, some of the stickers were way out of the letters, but she did recognize the L, O, V, and E as she was playing with the hearts.
  • Ownership of her own project and delight at the finished product.
You may think that this looks like a messy page! Her end product is not quite what I imagined. But to me, I think the most important thing is that she had fun while she was practicing. It took me just a few minutes to get her set up (and print out a word for her to fill in), and she gain some important practice in basic fine motor and literacy skills. The possibilities for learning are endless: Choose a seasonal word, trace a name with stickers, or select a sight word! Anything goes as a little one practices tracing the letters with stickers. See another story telling sticker activity or learn about some of my favorite sticker books.

 See more For the Love of Learning posts below!

Visit these blogs to see more For the Love of Learning activities:

Matching Stickers Lacing Cards by Teach me Mommy Valentine's Day Cupcake Graphing by Life over C's Heart Number Bonds by Adventures of Adam Melting Heart Experiment by Crafty kids at Home Fine Motor Heart Garland by Powerful Mothering My Heart Beats for You Printable by Kelly's Classroom Melting Love Hearts by The Gingerbread House Valentine Alphabet Match by The Kindergarten Connection Valentine Playdough Mats by Kidz Activities Lines of Symmetry Loving Hearts by Peakle Pie

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