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Hi Everyone,We hope you all had a lovely Easter and were all able to make the most of the good weather. We are thinking of you all especially as the restrictions continue. We continue to miss all the children from The Wrens classes and are counting down the minutes until we can meet again. This week our focus is going to be on Fine motor skills. Now is a great time to put all of the skills that have been worked on in school into real life contexts. There is no better learning for our children than “doing” in real life. All students also love to learn through play based activities!! So let’s have some fun while we keep on learning!Each activity involves some sort of squeezing or pincer grip (index finger and thumb) that strengthens the hands and fingers, getting them ready for writing.?We start working on strengthening?fine motor?skills from a very early age. You know those puzzles with the knobs? And play dough? Yep, that’s a start! But even as they get older, their hands and fingers continue to need strengthening. Along with the fine motor skills, many cognitive happenings are taking place as well, such as:Investigationobservationproblem solvingcause and effectcuriosity and imaginationlearning about volume, measurement, propertiesunderstanding is gained through reasoning and logical thinkingSome of the children might get frustrated when given writing tools. That is because their little hands and fingers need to be strengthened. Good news! We have a collection of squeezing activities that can do just that.We hope you find some of these activities useful, we have thought about the interests of each of the children while compiling the list of this week’s skill. Set up a couple of the activities and let your child choose which one interests them more and then that could be the one you work one to one with to try and develop skill, focus and concentration, the others can be a more unstructured free play resource.Best of luck and warm wishes,Bernie and Kelly. Play-Doh – rolling / pulling / squeezing / pinching We love these types of activities because the children are figuring out where to put the dough, how to squeeze the dough, and discovering what happens afterwards. As fingers get stronger,?squeeze water using pipettes.It might not come natural at first. We show our preschoolers how to dip the pipette into the water. This activity is also strengthens hand-eye coordination. (A syringe for calpol could also be used) Building towers with large or small bricks – using different colour bricks to encourage choice making and colour recognition A good skill to work on would be to try and stack 9 blocks high as this is a target for toddlers. Using tongs to pick up objects such as cotton wool / small stones – (Operation is a great game to play while developing this skill) Working with tongs is the perfect toddler activity for?developing?fine motor skills, hand/eye coordination and building hand strength. I have also read that mastering the skills of using tongs is necessary before moving on to scissors – the action is fairly similar.? Hanging up clothes – helping to hang the clothes out on the line is a great way to practise squeezing (here is a simple activity to make also – just take the peg off the card and post both into slots) Sponges – squeezing to wring out water is great for strengthening hands and forearms. Children can help to wash the dishes or clean the sinks / baths While standing at the water or sand table a child is using his/her finger, hands, arms and trunk while maintaining balance and coordination of the body. Lacing – pasta, beads or circular breakfast cereal (Cheerios) onto shoelaces or spaghetti.We have been practising this at school but some children may need help with co-ordination. It is a fantastic skill to keep trying as children’s hand eye co-ordination will improve the more they try it. If pasta is too brittle to work with you can try threading beads onto a stick or pipe cleaners. (As shown below) If the above activities are proving to be too difficult for your child that is no problem, everyone develops at different stages. Here are some examples of some fine motor activities with more robust materials that are just as beneficial and will support your child in developing their hand eye co-ordination, pincer grip, concentration and investigation skills.Posting beads or small toys through a tube or into a water bottle. Posting coins, tokens, small balls, connect 4 pieces etc into slots.(Cut the shape to the same side as the object. You could also use coins and a money box or existing toys which are similar that you have at home) Completing puzzles or matching objects to correct colour(Stabilisation of pieces as demonstrated below is a good way to help your child focus and understand what their task is)Progression of skills learned.If you would like to complete a project with your child to transfer the skills they have learned, here is a simple activity. Just a note to remember, – make sure to glue the lid shut or cover it with duct tape so your child can’t open it and make a mess.SENSORY BOTTLESFor a younger child, these?glitter jars?make a great sensory toy. Kids get enthralled watching the glitter swirl around. If your children are a little older, the bottles can be used in conjunction with a time out or cooling off period. The child simply shakes the bottle up and watches all of the glitter fall to the bottom. This takes approximately 2 1/2 minutes to occur. Have fun everyone (“,) ................
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