“Scribble Scrabble” by Amanda Shackelford (widely known online as ThatKinderMama) is an early childhood educational framework and picture book designed to teach toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarteners how purposeful scribbling lays the groundwork for writing. Rather than viewing early drawings as “just messes,” this curriculum treats scribbling as an essential developmental milestone that builds fine motor control, pencil grip, and spatial awareness. Key Components of the Framework
The Scribble Scrabble universe consists of a mentor picture book, an accompanying structured curriculum unit, and a hands-on workbook:
The Children’s Picture Book: Scribble Scrabble (Growing Writers) is a playful, rhyming story beautifully illustrated by Leslie Warner. It helps young children overcome the anxiety of “not knowing how to draw” by celebrating raw, imaginative shapes like zigzags, loops, squiggles, and swirls.
The 4-Week Scribbling Unit: A comprehensive, 25-lesson classroom program available on Teachers Pay Teachers. It uses daily slides, anchor charts, and lesson plans to teach children different line orientations (up/down, side-to-side, circular) and how to construct visual stories.
The Scribble Workbook: A physical and digital activity workbook containing over 100 pages of interactive “finish the scene” pages (e.g., adding scribbles to complete an apple, a snowman, a lion’s mane, or a rocket’s blast) and line tracing. Developmental Benefits Focus
The primary purpose of the book and its accompanying activities is to turn mark-making into a bridge toward formal writing:
Hand Muscle Strength: Builds the core hand coordination and pincer grasp required to firmly hold a pencil.
Intentionality: Teaches children to shift from random, automatic strokes to controlled, directional movements.
Narrative Skill: Encourages young learners to dictate and design their own stories based entirely on the abstract lines they produce.
Watch this video demonstration of the curriculum to see how educators and parents introduce purposeful lines and shapes to early writers:
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