Showing posts with label fine motor skills for preschoolers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fine motor skills for preschoolers. Show all posts
Monday, February 13, 2012
My Little Pony Craft
I love re-using toilet paper holders. I know. I'm a giant nerd. Munchkin Girl has been really enjoying playing with her My Little Pony toy lately so we decided to make some of our own. We simply wrapped pink construction paper around the outside, then we got out our googly eyes, pipe cleaners, etc.
A few things really surprised me...Little Buddy isn't even two yet so I didn't think he would really enjoy this project, but I hate to leave him out so I told him he was making a monster and gave him a tube as well. I was really focusing on Munchkin Girl and it didn't look like he was doing much over there but he was quiet so I just let him do it thing. I figured he wasn't coordinated enough to really make anything.
When I finally went over to inspect his work, I was shocked to see this:
He was holding one of those tiny eyes in his hands and using the glue to put a tiny dot on the eye! Honestly I'm not even sure Munchkin Girl could hold that little googly eye herself. Then he was coordinated enough to actually glue it on! Look at all those eyes!!
I guess I don't give him enough credit sometimes. After he finished his monster, he kept yelling, "Grrrrrr" and was so proud of his creation. When Daddy came home, he yelled, "Loo ut I did!" (Translation: Look what I did)
The other thing that really surprised me was the stickers that Munchkin Girl put on the ponies. I had seen something on Pinterest that I tried to re-create. I know that putting stickers on a page is very good for fine motor skill, so I tried to draw a star and have her put star stickers all around it to work on fine motor. Putting stickers on a page is one thing, but to try to keep them in a straight line requires A TON of concentration. However, she wasn't at all interested in that. Some kids probably would have been, but Munchkin Girl just wasn't interested in it.
My friend and author Susan Case from Kindergarten for Teachers and Parents has explained that children learn best when doing something that is interesting and meangingful to them. This was really clear to me this day because she was suddenly interested in putting the stars in a straight line...as the mouth of her Little Pony! She worked hard and it took her all of about ten minutes, just to get the stickers on, but she finally did it and was so proud!
After we finished the first pony, she wanted to make a "baby pony" and we got to do it all over again!
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Monday, February 6, 2012
V-Day Playdough pretend "cookies"
She used a lot of fine motor and strength to manipulate all that Playdough into each heart shape and it took quite a bit of time (at least 30 minutes). We have been working on coming up with ways to make her fingers stronger since she still struggles a little with holding the pencil correctly.
When she was finished, she had to take it over to her "oven" for all the cookies to bake. Gotta love a little imagination time on top of fine motor skill!
Thursday, January 19, 2012
A Different Way to Practice Cutting
I visited a Montessori preschool last year and although it was too far to drive so we didn't end up going there, they had some really neat activities that I now do at home occasionally. One activity they did with the kids was a new way to cut. The teacher traced something onto a piece of paper and then the child used a push pin to make hundreds of tiny holes on the line. I watched a kid spend quite awhile working on his line and now my daughter does the same thing. We place the tracing on the carpet and then my daughter uses a large push pin. It's fun to watch because it takes a lot of concentration and fine motor skill and I can just see her getting stronger and smarter!!
Once there are enough holes (and when my daughter gets bored), I can take over and use the Push Pin to "cut out" the tracing. I just slide the Push Pin all around and the heart easily comes out and now my daughter is so proud that she "cut out" the hear using her Push Pin!
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