fine motor tree fun

The lovely Za gifted me this whimsical tree last year thinking I could surely use it for something (and it was in MY colors). I had wanted this tree but could not justify purchasing it because I had no idea what I would do with it. Skip forward a month or two when the tree arrived and I happened across a pack of mini hair clips from the Dollar Tree. Serendipity struck!

The clips matched the colors on the tree perfectly and all I had to do was pop the whole shebang onto one of my favorite trays (a plate really) and let the kiddos explore.

Mastering the tiny clips was not an easy task for my littles. It took a little practice to strengthen up those pincer fingers so that they could open the clips long enough to clip to the tree.

Matching the clips to the colors was an added bonus for the kiddos that needed a push to attempt something a little harder. It's a given that we big people can do something like this but the littles are still learning about the world around them. To try this at home without the fancy store bought tree you can use small sticks and branches from outside. Pop the branch into a vase and add hair clips or perhaps use small sticks that the kiddos paint up first. Once dry pile the sticks onto a tray with hair clips in a small dish alongside and see what magic may happen. Don't have access to sticks? Try pipecleaners!  Have older kiddos that can use more of a challenge? Have them wrap the pipecleaners with embroidery floss or yarn. There all sorts of ways you can incorporate this activity at home. Have fun and share what you come up with!

pom poms & golf tees {working those fine motors}

Through my years of working with kiddos I have found that they absolutely LOVE poking things. What better investigation to set up than golf tees and styrofoam. Play dough is great too but lacks the satisfying punch that styrofoam gives. These foam pieces were scrounged from a local electronics store, it never hurts to ask your local shops for cast off items such as cardboard tubes, boxes, and/or styrofoam. Years ago I would set this up with small hammers but the kiddos would get so hammer-happy that the poor golf tees would splinter to pieces. Now we use pom poms to entice the kiddos to poke the tees into the foam and carefully balance a pom on top.

Set up is so ridiculously easy you can do this at home...place a neutral colored tray or basket next to the foam piece and add a collection of poms and tees. I absolutely adore these square malamine plates from Target. The colors are so happy that you will not need to explain anything to the kiddos, they will get right to it working those fine motor skills.

An added bonus to using the brightly colored tees is the color matching that can happen which I did not even think about until one of my students showed me her hard work. I was blown away! You gotta love what they come up with. If you do not have foam you can use play dough or sand and if you do not have pom poms you can try marbles, flat backed jewels (which most dollar and craft stores carry for a buck or two) like these or beans even. Have fun!

diy beaded caterpillars

The children had a blast creating these easy-peasy bead and pipe cleaner caterpillars. I was actually a little surprised at how much they enjoyed this activity. They were quite proud of their critters and a few of the children even decided to bring them to their rest mats.

The set up was really easy, the children chose their favorite colors of the day and sorted their beads into their small bowls (I do love that set of bowls). When they were all ready, they chose one color to be the head of their Very Hungry Caterpillar and threaded it onto their pipe cleaner enough to bend the top of the stem around their bead thus anchoring it in place. Vocabulary we used included, pipe cleaner, chenille stem, top, tip, anchor, thread, and bead both as a noun and a verb. We also took advantage of this activity to work on our patterning. Some of the children added beads then removed all of them and then began all over again.

Such an easy and simple activity that encourages fine motor practice and patterning. There was a lot of discussion at the table between the children so add socialization to the list as well as spatial recognition (how many beads is too many beads), color recognition, vocabulary, and counting! I am looking forward to presenting this activity next year to my soon-to-be new class!

fine motor rainbow play

This was one of the magical ideas that came to me as I was running out the door to sub a preschool class last summer. Back then I used a couple of oh-so-lovely toilet paper tubes which only kinda worked as the bands were to springy and powerful the tubes got quite a bit wonky. This time I grabbed a cylinder block and set it up at our fine motor table to see what would happen.

I teach threes and this was a tricky project for them to tackle. I need to find a way to give the cylinder some staying power...maybe I should glue it to a board. The slipperyness of the cylinder caused a lot of frustration for my students. Some tried once and then abandoned it after the third hair holder flew across the room. That in itself was super delightful to the kiddos. Some gathered up all the holders and stretched them over their own arms to create bracelets. One of them, this one, worked and worked and worked, exclaiming when it got tricky (her words not mine) but persevering until she got one of each color carefully placed around the cylinder. 

 

I love the look of this project and how it creates an activity to use those fine motors and to problem solve. I will definitely do this again next year. 

scissors work inspired by Going on a Bear Hunt

The children really love cutting things. Scissors work is a favorite activity and so I thought I would change it up for our week of We're Going on a Bear Hunt. Usually, we cut paper but we have also cut yarn, play dough, and straws. This time around, I set up a station for cutting the tall, wavy grass with daylily leaves as the grass, scissors, and an empty powdered cheese shaker. Some children cut the grass and dropped it into the shaker, others used their grass on their landscapes and some decided not to cut at all and simply fed the grass into the shaker. All kinds of fine motor skills happening here!

make a beaded garland

Here is another fun project using beads of all sorts. You can get all developmental and work on patternng with your child or you can hand them a tray full of fun and a shoelace and let them get to work while you answer emails, cook dinner, chat with a friend. Make sure your kiddo is old enough to know not to eat the beads before you begin! The DIY can be found at scrumdillydilly. Thank you! 

Boredom Busters-index cards to the rescue!

Howdy all! Here's a quick boredom buster for your wee ones seven and older though some of the younger kidlets may totally be up to this. Remember, YOU know your kidlet best so if these following projects are too much or too little for your kidlets, feel free to adapt them as you will.

Project One: Crazy Creatures

What you need:
*index cards, any size, though the bigger, the better (4 for each creature)
*markers, colored pencils or crayons

scrumdilly-do it!

Each creature should have three or four parts. We used four parts last week but you can easily omit the legs card and turn it into legs and feet. Have your kidlet draw a head on the first card, as centered as they can. The next card gets the torso drawn on, including arms. Card number three is for the legs (or legs and feet if you are only using three cards) and the final card gets feet.Create at least four different creatures so that the mixing up part has more options. On the back of the cards, write out which body part they represent. For example; head, body, legs and feet. Place cards face down on the table top mixing them up. build a creature by randomly drawing 1 of each body part. Flip the cards over to see what you made. For added fun, create a story for each creature with a one or two line sentence for each body part (This is Martin. Martin is afraid of ice cream, He loves to roller skate, his favorite food is toy cars). Place those cards face down, with the body part written on the back and select one from each section. Flip your cards right side up next to the corresponding creature part and read your creature's story out loud. Each time you play, you can create a new story for your creature.

We started with ball point pen but moved on to markers so that the colors would pop. Sometimes we would flip all the cards over and try to rebuild the original creature. I added additional feet and bodies to mix it up a bit. We didn't write our stories down but we did create super powers for them. There are oodles of variations you could do. Try making each creature a specific color and then play a memory version of the game. The first person to create the original monster ends the game. This activity acts as an imagination booster. It includes sequencing skills, small motor skills, hand to eye coordination, memory skills and reading and writing practice. It is also portable! Throw all the cards in a small fabric bag, envelope, tin box, etc and you have a creature lab wherever you go. Add some blank cards and markers and your wee ones can add to the set while you are waiting for an appointment, out to eat or at a friends not-so-kid-friendly home. Have fun!

Following the Leader....

or rather, the lines...
It's not often I will include a project that is so direction oriented, seriously, all my other posts are meant to inspire. However, this is a simple project geared for your three year olds out there but I am sure your older kidlets will wanna play along also. We're gonna make some hearts! Don't you remember the a-ha moment when you learned how to cut out a "perfect" heart? This set up will help your wee ones who are just getting used to scissors; develop those fine motor skills and some awesome coordination!

What you need:
*paper (any kind will do really)
*kid friendly scissors
*fat markers or crayonsscrumdilly-do it:

Gather up your paper and cut into an assortment of sizes. Keep the sheets large for your smaller kidlets and make the sheets smaller to challenge your scissor pros. Fold each sheet in half.Next up, draw your half a heart template onto one side of each paper. Keep in mind which hand your kidlet is most comfortable using and draw your heart-half out towards the other hand. This will better enable them to cut out the paper along the line. If they are left handed, the fold should be on the left and vice versa. Using a fat tipped marker will help alleviate trauma to those wee ones that are perfectionists, there will be a lot of line for them to cut on and the line will be all the more visible. If you have older kidlets, ask them to help teach their smaller siblings the fine art of heart making. It will make the older kids feel proud and give them an excuse to do something they may think is too young for them to do. I however believe you are never too young to cut out hearts!Ask your kidlets to cut along the line and then show them the magic they had made! If you have an especially scissor happy kidlet, have them practice on an old magazine. What better way to recycle than to turn it into art.Set out glue and larger sheets of paper, folders, paper plates or what have you and have your wee ones make a collage. Or, you can ask each kidlet to write down or recite words of love and encouragement for your family and put them in a glass jar to be read on Valentine's Day. Let's share the love, shall we? Have fun!