Set your preschooler up for writing success with these St. Patrick’s Day themed trace in the path fine motor pre-writing practice pages! Use them as a print and play no-prep activity or laminate them for repeated use.
These prewriting practice tracing pages will help your child develop their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination as they trace along the path with a finger or draw between the lines with a marker or crayon. They were made my special request – my four year old asked for a “new St. Patrick’s Day trace” to practice with. I hope your little learner enjoys them as much as mine does!
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It’s easy to use these prewriting printables as a no-prep activity when you print them out and let your child trace away with their favorite pencil or crayon. We use these nontoxic beeswax crayons and preschooler-friendly pencils.
You can also make the activity reusable by laminating the pages or sliding them in page protectors for use with a dry erase marker. It’s also easy to cut the laminated pages into strips that you slip onto a binder ring for a go-bag activity that easy to wipe down after a car ride or trip to the doctor’s office. My daughter loves erasing the pages herself with a damp paper towel or white board eraser.
In the image below, you can see my daughter using her car tracing pages cut into strips to see what I mean:
How to print and use trace in the path prewriting pages
This set has four different pages with four tracing paths each. There are various straight, curved, zig-zagged, and shaped lines to help your child gain fine motor control and hand-eye coordination.
These trace in the path pages are perfect for toddlers and preschoolers. Kindergarteners who need additional fine motor practice. Your child can even use a finger to trace the lines if they aren’t ready for a pencil or crayon yet. My daughter was barely able to trace the paths with her finger when she first started using this style of prewriting practice pages at around age 2.5. Now, as a four year old, she’s a pro and is so proud of tracing the lines (relatively) accurately.
Materials needed:
- Free St. Pat’s trace in the path printables. Download information is located lower in the post. Look for the big blue image that reads “click here to download.”
- Paper and a printer.
- I recommend 32 lb bright white paper for crisp, beautiful images, especially if you’re going to make the pages reusable. This paper is also heavier and stands up better to enthusiastic learning. To see the difference this paper makes, stop by this post on the best paper for printables.
- Laminator, dry erase pockets, or page protectors. Optional.
- I love my inexpensive home laminator because it saves me the time and hassle of going to a copy center.
- Instead of dry erase pockets, I usually use “secure” page protectors. They’re sturdier than regular page protectors and have a flap to keep the page inside.
- Scissors or paper cutter, if you want to make tracing strips.
- When the strips are laminated, they’re easy to wipe down the sanitizing wipes.
- A guillotine style cutter is better for cutting laminated pages, but I usually use my paper trimmer because it’s less scary to have out around kids!
- Binder rings, optional for an easy go-bag activity or less mess at home.
- Crayons, pencils, markers, etc. for tracing
- Markers provide less friction. This means they are both easier to use and less of a fine motor challenge.
- Pencils and crayons have more friction and can provide a greater challenge. We like Honeysticks beeswax crayons because the colors are easy to see and they’re pure beeswax.
- Your child can also fill the line with small manipulatives, like pompoms, using a pair of plastic tweezers.
- Your child can also just use their finger for tracing!
How to use trace in the path pages
Make sure to get your download from lower down in the post. Look for the row of purple arrows pointing the way.
Print the pages you want to use. If your child is new to this type of activity, you might want to skip printing the last page. If they’re very practiced at tracing, they might not be interested in the first, easiest page. The page shown below is the second page with a medium-level of difficulty.
Demonstrate how to use the pages. You can start by tracing from left to right with your index finger, or you can jump straight to using a marker/crayon.
If your child has trouble tracing, or if you want a new activity to keep your child’s attention, you can have your child place small manipulatives to fill the path instead of tracing inside.
Almost anything small can work for covering the path. You can use nature treasures, pompoms, balls of play dough, mathlinks cubes, etc.
After placing the manipulatives, you can count together how many it took to reach the end of the line. You may even want to leave the objects on the line so you can count and compare how many it takes to fill various lines. It’s amazing how many ways you can use these simple printables for learning.
Free printable St. Patty’s Day trace in the path fine motor practice pages download
Like all free preschool printables on The Artisan Life, these are for personal and single classroom use. You are welcome to use them with Scouts groups, home school co-ops, library activities, therapy clients, etc.
You are not licensed to redistribute the files or printouts to others for their personal use or post them for sale or redistribution online. Instead, please send your friends and coworkers to this page so they can download their own copies.
If you agree to this license, you may click below:
I hope your little learner enjoys using these St. Patrick’s Day trace in the path pages as much as mine does! There are many more free printable St. Pat’s activities here on The Artisan Life. Make sure to download them, too, while you’re here!
Free Printables for St. Patrick's Day
These printables for St. Patrick's Day are all available for personal and classroom use.
There are activities for "big kids," like word scrambles and searches, family activities like picture bingo, and games for toddlers and preschoolers like St. Patrick's Day matching cards and do a dot printables.
I hope you enjoy!
Free Printable St Patrick's Day Bingo
This St. Patrick's Day picture bingo is, hands down, the most popular St. Patrick's Day activity on the blog! Picture bingo provides low-prep fun for the entire family. There's also a large classroom set of bingo cards so your whole class can play!
Free Printable St. Patrick's Day One More One Less Worksheet
This St. Patrick's Day one more, one less is a fun, no-prep way to practice simple addition and subtraction
Free Printable St. Patrick's Day Day Alphabet Matching Cards
Help your child practice the alphabet with these free printable ot of gold alphabet matching cards.
Free Printable Color St. Patrick's Day Dot Marker Pages
Kids love these colorful St. Pat's dot marker pages and adults love that they're no-prep!
Free Printable St. Patrick's Day Roll and Cover for Preschoolers
These free printable St. Patrick's Day roll and cover mats are preschooler-approved and come with free printable dice templates.
Free Printable St. Patrick's Day Complete the Pattern
These complete the pattern printables are a fantastic preschool math activity. Turn them into a file folder game or use them as a cut and paste activity!
Free Printable St. Patrick's Day Do a Dot Marker Pages
Do a dot marker pages are no-prep and always popular with toddlers and preschoolers. Make them no-mess by using round coding label stickers instead of markers!
Free Printable St Patrick's Day Count and Clip Cards
Help your little learner practice counting 1-12 with these free printable counting clip cards.
Free Printable St. Patrick's Day Count and Punch Cards
Count and punch cards are a fun way to practice counting and improve fine motor skills. They also make a great go-bag or quiet time activity.
10 Free St. Patrick's Day Maze Printables
There are easy, medium, and hard mazes for St. Patrick's Day in this collection of maze printables! Answer keys are included.
15+ Free Printable Four Leaf Clover & Shamrock Templates
These lucky four leaf clover templates come in all shapes and size! Grab four leaf clover outlines and patterns for St. Patrick's Day crafts here.
St. Patrick's Day Word Scramble
This free printable St. Patrick's Day word scramble comes with a colorful background or in ink-saving black and white. The answer key is included!
St Patrick's Day Word Search
Word searches are an easy, no-prep activity for kids (and they're educational!) Pick from a colorful shamrock background or ink-saving black and white. Answer key is included.
St. Patrick's Day Matching Game
This printable St. Patrick's Day memory game is fun for kids of all ages! Play them as a matching game for toddlers or face down as a memory game for older kids.
Lucky Printable Banner
Practice gratitude ith this free printable "Lucky" banner to help you count your blessings.
Free Printable Shamrock Templates (includes green shamrocks!)
Looking for classic Irish shamrocks? These pritnable shamrock templates are for you! Includes green shamrock printables.
7 Free Printable Pot of Gold Templates
These free printable pot of gold templates are perfect for St. Patrick's Day crafts and St. Patrick's Day writing activities.
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