Did you know that all the preschool small group classrooms in the Children's Village program have been collaborating this year in an effort to increase fine motor skills?
When we talk about fine motor skills we really just mean the children are using their fingers and hands to manipulate small objects. This is so very important as children begin to learn to draw and write!
All of the following activities help the children develop the fine motor control needed for writing eventually! (and, of course, the kids just think the activities are great fun :)
The pictures above shows our current sensory table. We have added cotton balls, smaller pom poms, clothespins, tongs, scoops, buckets and baskets. When we first began, none of the children were able to successfully squeeze and clip a clothespin to a basket or use the clothespin or tongs to pick up the cotton balls. Now we have two children who are VERY successful with clothespins! In fact, that is why I couldn't get a good photo of this little girl clipping the clothespins on the basket...she's too darn quick!
This is one of the children's current favorite fine motor activities: Putting pipe cleaners into the small holes of a Parmesan cheese container! Some of us think they look like birthday candles when they are all sticking up and we must sing Happy Birthday! Some of us insist that none of them can stick up and some of us must fill each and EVERY hole!
Stringing beads is another EXCELLENT fine motor activity! Some of us work with larger beads, since we aren't quite ready for the small beads. But some of us are quite the expert with beads!
These are two fine motor toys that are favorites. The top toy works on fine motor control as well as sequencing the weights of the small inserts. The child removes all the tiny inserts, then judges where each goes by the weight as well as the length of each. It's quite tricky for us! The bottom toy is our lock box, which the children love to open and fill with small toys...then lock back up!
Pushing pom poms is another classroom favorite! We set up the "game" by putting pom poms halfway through the holes in the basket. The child then needs to push each pom pom with his/her index finger through the hole! When they are all pushed through, we usually collect all of them and begin again!
We are just beginning to work on weaving. This is a challenging activity for most of us! A few children have really enjoyed working on this challenge though!
Miss Pam
(Some of these activities involve small objects which can be choking hazards. We always provide direct supervision when any child is doing a fine motor activity that involves small parts)
When we talk about fine motor skills we really just mean the children are using their fingers and hands to manipulate small objects. This is so very important as children begin to learn to draw and write!
All of the following activities help the children develop the fine motor control needed for writing eventually! (and, of course, the kids just think the activities are great fun :)
Stringing beads is another EXCELLENT fine motor activity! Some of us work with larger beads, since we aren't quite ready for the small beads. But some of us are quite the expert with beads!
Pushing pom poms is another classroom favorite! We set up the "game" by putting pom poms halfway through the holes in the basket. The child then needs to push each pom pom with his/her index finger through the hole! When they are all pushed through, we usually collect all of them and begin again!
We are just beginning to work on weaving. This is a challenging activity for most of us! A few children have really enjoyed working on this challenge though!
Miss Pam
(Some of these activities involve small objects which can be choking hazards. We always provide direct supervision when any child is doing a fine motor activity that involves small parts)
