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FINE MOTOR: ACTIVITIES/CUTTING PRACTICE STAGE: FRINGING
Parents
love being invited into the classroom each month to see what the children have
done for the bulletin board. I usually send a note home at the beginning
of the year telling them my plan for having a bulletin board throughout the year
that is totally child-created.Other November Fine Motor options for free choice:
*If you're focusing
on the shape of a triangle this month, you could provide paper ones for children
to fringe the edges
*If one of your letters of the month is Ff, put
out the game "Fiddlestix" that week if you have it available
*If one
of your letters of the month is Gg, put out the game of "Gears"
that week if you have it available
*If one of your letters of the month is
Ff, have children practice "flicking" their fingers. (This
involves a thumb and a finger -- flicking the finger off the thumb.) Practice
with each finger. You can even add a little music to "flick" by which
can involve the skill of keeping a rhythm pattern.
Here's
an idea that combines one of my own activities with an activity from one of my
internet friends, Lorene, from Utah:
Fall
Gourd Garden: To provide "fringing" practice and to celebrate
the letters Ff and Gg, have children fringe paper strips to create grass
for bordering the bulletin board (use green paper for Gg, or have them
fringe brown grocery bag strips for a fall-ish "dried grass" look). Then,
after showing them various pictures and/or real samples of gourds, let them review
their "tearing" skills by tearing their own gourd shapes from paper for placing
inside the border along with colorful magazine pictures of gourds. Children
could tear out leaf shapes too for adding that Fall look to the
bulletin board.
Here's
another great bulletin board idea for inside your fringed borders, from Kristen
Cook, in Payson, Utah:
Teacher Created Classroom
Turkey: During Free Choice Playtime, or when it's convenient (and before November),
trace around the hands (or hand) of each child in the class on various colors
of construction paper (with fingers open and spread apart). (Don't
forget to print names on the back -- a common mistake!) You,
the teacher, then cuts the hands out (probably too difficult for the children).
Find or draw a picture of a turkey body without feathers, front or side view,
and 2-3 ft tall -- depending on the number of children in your class. Color
or paint your turkey body brown (or use construction paper). Add a beak,
wattle, ......you get the idea. Then staple him to the bulletin board and
staple the children's hand prints behind his body in a circular shape forming
the turkey feathers. Make the handprints overlap somewhat and mix the various
colors around. At the end of November, send the children's handprints home
with them. (Save the turkey body for
next year!)
From
Vera: Here's a tip for those early "scissors" days:
Big Fringes: Tape the edge of a piece of paper to the edge of a table,
letting the rest of the paper fall to the floor. A child sits on the floor
and is asked to cut the paper up towards the table top. This position encourages
the child to use the proper holding position for cutting -- which is "thumb up!"
Eventually you can add lines to the paper for the child to practice cutting on.
When the cutting is finished, we use them as skirts for dramatic play.
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Reminder
from Stormie: If you would like to begin collecting ALL my current classroom
ideas (each on a 4 x 6" index card), as well as new ones that I create, you
can do so by ordering my "Activity Cards." Click here
to check them out.
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