Tray Tasking: Activities that Promote Reading and Writing Readiness

Tray Tasking teaches parents and educators how to engage children in activities that promote whole body preparation for reading and writing skills while having fun. Children use common household items in new ways that lead to strengthened eye and hand coordination for future reading and writing success. A child manipulates the items organized on a tray using movements that require them to engage their eyes, arms and hands in left-to-right and top-to-bottom directions-the same directions used for reading and writing. The tray arrangements promote respect for materials and orderliness in a child's world, and they reinforces that there is a place for everything and everything should be in its place. Teachers will value the opportunities tray tasks provide for authentically assessing children, and they'll find the Tray Task Chart useful in tracking children's progress. This book guides parents and teachers in involving children in activities that promote whole body preparation for reading and writing skills while having fun.