Apples and Honey Tracing

I made a simple Apples and Honey Tracing board out of cardboard years ago but revamped it this year as a printable for the preschool. Of course I was more than happy to have it already prepped and ready for my own kids because it’s such an easy and fun way to practice that pincher grasp and create a beautiful Rosh Hashanah decoration at the same time!

What You’ll Need

Apples and Honey Tracing free printable
Cardstock
Red, green and yellow paint
Q-tips

Putting It Together

Print out the Apples and Honey Tracing printable.
Set out red, green and yellow paint and some q-tips.
Invite your child to take a q-tip, dip the tip into one of the paints, then trace the matching colored image.
Repeat for the other two images.

Finished & Loving It!

Using a q-tip to paint is not only fun because it’s different than the usual paint brush, it also forces the kiddo to grip the stick of the q-tip with a pincher grasp. This develops their fine motor skills and is such a great pre-writing activity.

My kids wanted to paint the entire image. And I was fine with that but I did stop them and ask them to first trace the outline. I explained to my kindergartner how this would help him practice holding his pencil when he is writing his letters. He easily shifted to do the tracing. Once all the images were traced, he happily painted each entire image.

Now that you have the printable you could even print it out multiple times and set up different pincher grasp invitations: the q-tips, broken crayons, pencils, rock crayons, and chalk would all help develop these pre-writing skills.

Not only is this a simple but useful activity for pre-writing, it’s also a great one for practicing color identification and matching. My toddler had no interest in tracing and that was fine; instead, we pointed to each image and each color paint and identified the color. Because he has a speech delay, we also practiced our speech articulation.

Less than 5 minutes to set up and an A+ way to practice your kiddo’s pincher grasp! And, after it dries, a lovely Rosh Hashanah decoration to remind us all to have a good, sweet new year!