Our preschoolers turned our classroom into Santa’s Workshop today as we turned red licorice and white yarn into a candy cane! This is no ordinary candy cane….it’s a number nine candy cane! In order to make this yummy creation, the children had to follow step-by-step directions, use their fine motor skills to twist, and use number recognition to create the number nine. It was a quite a treat to work on so many skills in one fun activity!
Sparkles anyone?! Activities with sequins, or anything sparkly for that matter, are always exciting. Digging through to find the exact color and shape that you want is excellent fine motor practice. Using the tips of their fingers, each child grasped and place sequins to trace his/her name. As we outlined the names in glue, the children were also able to practice tracing their names. Each child was very focused as they paid close attention to their sequin details!
‘Tis the season for gingerbread! Ms. Courtney spiced up our fine motor skills by having the children cut out their own gingerbread houses. The children worked on following lines while holding the paper with the other hand. There was more fine motor practice when the children were eager to color their very own houses!
As we round out our farm month, Ms. Lori took the opportunity to have the children create the letter H using pieces of corn. With Ms. Lori’s help the children dotted glue along the letter, and used their fine motor skills to place the corn on the dot of glue. Starting from top to bottom and working from left to right, the children created their own H masterpieces!
As we usher our way back from a restful holiday break, we got back into the swing of things by practicing our rhyming skills and matching upper and lowercase letters. When rhyming, the children discovered that it does not matter what the first letter is, as long as the ending of the words sound the same. When we found words that matched, the puzzle pieces fit together. As the children matched the capital and lowercase letters, they had to find the picture that began with that particular letter. If the letters match, the puzzle pieces fit! The children did an excellent job exploring the letters.
What is on your Thanksgiving plate? Mr. Turkey! Today, Ms. Lori worked on fine motor with the boys and girls as each child painted his/her own turkey. Using water color paint, the children did an excellent job of dictating where the paint should go with a very tiny brush. They made quite the array of Thanksgiving masterpieces!
The children kept themselves very busy in small groups today with droppers and paint! We put our fine motor skills to the test with pinching the tops and dropping the paint in just the right spot. The children were very focused and worked hard to use a steady hand. Practicing the pinching, letting go, then pinching again, became easier and easier each time. Once this process was established, the boys and girls were able to focus on how much paint they wanted to suck up in the dropper. Water color paint can be runny on paper, but the children got an excellent fine muscle work out with this process.
Today, the children got in touch with their creative sides using a cob of corn to roll out some art! Using different textures sparked curiosity and interest. The children had the opportunity to explore the corn a little more in our sensory tub. The corn can be manipulated and plucked off of the cob to follow up this creative art activity. The United States is, by far, the largest corn producer in the world. Here’s to home grown food made in the USA!
Cutting with scissors is a skill that takes time to develop. Since the beginning of the year, the children have learned how to safely hold scissors when not using them, how to properly hold scissors when cutting, and how a line can be followed to help guide your cutting. We are still working on the latter. Today, the children did an excellent job trying to follow the lines while cutting out a barn. Following lines to cut out specific pictures or shapes gives the children purpose for cutting. When they finished, they glued the barn onto red paper, and then practiced tracing their names.
Working on more fine motor skills, Ms. Lori had the children make (adorable!) cotton ball sheep! The children used their fingertips to pull the cotton apart and glue it onto the sheep. Manipulating objects with fingertips is an excellent way to build fine motor muscles. These sheep are being used as classroom decoration.
We practiced using our scissors today! This helps the child with their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.
Creative Tots has specialized in the private education of both toddlers and preschool age children for over 15 years. We began in the heart of Madeira and now also have a new Mason location. We are specifically designed to focus on early childhood development for children ages 18 months to 5 years.
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