We are yet to bring our children to their first fishing trip. If this play experience is anything to go by, I think they will be more determined than their mother to have some nice fish for dinner.

Materials

Large tub of water (we used our old baby bath)
Water beads
Small sieve with handle
Towels to line the immediate play area if playing indoors

How We Played

When water beads are placed in water they are very hard to see.

Swish, swish, swish. Time to scoop and catch some water beads.

Using a scoop is a fine motor skill that is easily incorporated into many types of daily play. It’s great for using both hands together; and building up the strength and stability of hands, fingers, shoulders, elbows and wrists.

Water beads are as slippery as fish and E managed to grab  some with his bare hands.

Now what does a tot do with something as squishy as water beads? Squish them of course.

 Yes, if this play experience is anything to go by, I think we’ll have some nice fish for dinner.

E: 1 year, 11 months
May 2012

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When play dough is all the rage in your household, here is a good fine motor activity for introducing the letter [s]. The more fine motor skill activities we provide for our children, the better we equip them to overcome handwriting difficulties, which may stumble them as writers.

We made some playdough stars by rolling up a ball of playdough, flattening it slightly with our palm, then pinching the edges to make a star shape. Describe the pinching like a bird pecking food to reinforce the pincer grasp.

To complement our stars, we also did some rainbow writing of the letter [s].

We consolidated the introduction to the letter [s] by placing all of our stars on our piece of paper and used our finger to trace of the letter [s].

Here are some ideas to further build upon the alphabetic principle of [s]

• Show children a written lower case [s]
• Model the mouth movement and sound [s]
• Visually connect the picture/word “stars” with the letter sound [s]
• Kinaestehtically open and shut your hands, simulating twinkling stars.

 N & M: 3 years, 11 months
May 2012

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One day I walked into the art and craft store. The store assistant asked what I was after and I asked for some florist’s oasis. She asked what I needed them for and I told her, “So my kids can hammer golf tees into them”. “Hmmm,” she said. The sort of hmmm that was a polite way of saying, “You’re nuts lady”. After some explanation of the play I had in mind, she said, “Oh – we’ve got a hammer and cork board play set for that!”. Well, I think I’d just fallen in love that that store even more. I better not walk within 100 metres of that shop for the next few months.

 Materials
Hammer
Corkboard
Thumbnails
Predrilled pieces of wood

How We Played

Using one hand, stabilise the thumbnail into the board.
Using the other hand (usually the dominant hand), hammer  the nail into the board.

To start, we just hammered thumbnails into the board.

As N & M grew more confident with the tools, they hammered small wooden pieces to the cork board and created various pictures by putting different pieces together.

Ways to Extend the Play

Have races with each other – first to nail a set number of pieces to the board, etc.
Create patterns with the wood to be copied.
Mark places for the wood to be nailed to, aiming to improve accuracy.

Check out our other fine motor skill activities.

Be sure to follow along via our Facebook page (Lessons Learnt Journal) or Lessons Learnt Journal Pinterest Boards. We have many fun ideas to share.

N&M: 3 years, 11 months.
May 2012

The post Hammering by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

Materials

2 clean empty mini yoghurt tubs
glue (I used my hot glue gun)
offcuts of scrapbook paper (to wrap around the yoghurt containers)
velcro
knife
scissors
counters

Method

Glue paper around the yoghurt tubs.
Making sure your slots are large enough for your counters to fit into them: cut a horizontal slot into one of the tubs and cut a vertical slot into the other.
Stick velcro onto the tops of the tubs so the two containers can stick to each other.

How we played

Pick up counters and post them into the box, navigating both the horizontal and vertical slots.

Continue posting all the counters till there isn’t any left.
Then open up your postbox to empty out the counters so you can play again.
(Opening and closing the postbox proved just as entertaining as posting the counters).

You could extend the activity by having races with each other, (more than one counter postbox is required for this), or post the counters with your eyes shut.

E: 1 year, 9 months

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