17. January 2012 by admin.

Please visit my new blog (only have time for 1) ….. for lots of coupon codes, free stuff and interesting discussions.

http://www.Tools4PreschoolandKindergarten.blogspot.com 

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26. January 2011 by admin.

The preschool years are a very important time in the development of fine motor (hand based) skills. The lack of including appropriate activities can impede the future development of independent living. This is particularly true with individuals that suffer from diagnoses including autism, cerebral palsy or any neurodevelopmental disorder.

The exploration of activities can become overwhelming and expensive, but it does not need to be either. If you are a caregiver to an individual needing additional fine motor based activities and not certain what to do. STOP and look to your kitchen for some basic items. Do you have flour? Do you have sugar? Salt? If the answer is Yes …. then you are ready to begin.

Does your special person have any textural concerns? This activity is great for exposure to various tactile items as well. Use a cookie sheet or pan with a lip if wanting to keep the mess isolated to a certain space. Place approximately one cup of flour or salt or sugar on the pan and have the student smooth the powder out over the pan. Now have the student draw in the powder. You may need to do the activity first to set an example of what you would like to see happen. If the pan does not stay in place while the student is working and you have a dedicated therapy area, there is an easy remedy. Place a piece of hook tape onto the underside of the pan and place the loop tape onto the table to stabilize the pan while the student is working.

Additional ingredients in the cupboards that make excellent workable items include cornmeal, corn starch and baking soda. All have different textural qualities and are not considered dangerous unless inhaled inadvertently or allergy identified.

A variation to this activity would be a hide and seek game. If drawing at this time is not an option for the student, then place one of the items in a bowl. The bowl and quantity of the textured ingredient needs to be large enough to bury safe treasures in it. Once you have decided on the bowl (with lid), add about 3 – 4 inches of the tactile ingredient. The lid is necessary not only for storage purposes but so the ‘treasures’ can be shaken and buried. Suggested treasures would be plastic alphabet letters, mini plastic animals ….. anything that is considered safe for your student and would intrigue them enough to want to locate the treasures. Now have the student locate the hidden items. If you happen to be using cornstarch, you could add the activity of ‘cleaning’ each treasure as it is being removed since cornstarch tends to adhere to everything.

The suggestions are certainly expandable. Just remember that safety should be considered the primary concern when working with any object that is small enough to be placed in the student’s mouth.

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21. January 2011 by admin.

Incorporating everyday tasks into your therapeutic setting is an important part of growing the fine motor skills of any individual with delays or difficulties.

If your child or client has the ability to even attempt the tasks below – go for it! Every effort made is not one wasted!

* Zipping a Jacket and unzipping

* tie shoes and untie

* buckle and unbuckle a belt or bag strap

* do puzzles (any level)

* working with Legos or other snap together blocks – be sure to take apart too

* buttoning and snapping

* using scissors (with appropriate monitoring – of course)

 *painting (be sure to utilize several different angles – use a 90 degree then the next time use the 180 degree – just an example)

More suggestions coming – here are some sample pages from the Fine Motor Fun for Everyone Download Membership – I hope these help to get you started.

http://www.justgiant.com/finemotor/block.pdf

http://www.justgiant.com/finemotor/papcount.pdf

http://www.justgiant.com/finemotor/mffc.pdf

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21. October 2010 by admin.

This is such a fun way to get the kids moving …. and they want to do it!

First you will need to make some dice – use 2 - larger square boxes for this. You will need to decide appropriate exercises for your group of students – older kids can do considerably more activities than younger preschoolers. Whether you are choosing jumping jacks and running in place or doing an obstacle course as an option – choose carefully so that every person in your class can accomplish the task.

You will need 6 activities – Options could be windmills, toe touches, knee bends, knee hugs, arm circles…. even rolling on the floor. For younger students – words printed on the die may not be sufficient – create a picture of the activity – either print a picture off of the internet or use your great skill to ‘draw’ it (I personally am not a great artist – give me simple any day!) Paste the drawings onto the sides of the box.

The other box will need numbers printed on the sides – for older students – use numbers counted by 2 or 5 – but for the younger students that may lose interest quickly or have the need for ‘counting’ practice – number it 1 – 6.

Now you are ready to choose a student to be the first to roll the dice – example if the top sides says 3 and jumping jacks – then the students will need to do 3 jumping jacks. Have the students take turn rolling the exercise.

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21. October 2010 by admin.

Okay, I am never one to encourage indoor throwing of items – but this game can be played inside or outside – and it is relatively safe for anyone to play.

Give each of the students an equal amount of quarter sheet paper scraps (newspaper works well too and is inexpensive). Have the students wad up each of the sheets into nice ’soft’ balls.

Separate the students into two opposite sides. Ideally the ‘teams’ should be a minimum of 20 feet apart – indoors this may not be possible (it will also depend on the age of the students – preschoolers could be separated by as little as 3 – 5 feet). The space between the teams is considered to be a ‘no entry’ zone.

Set up a timer or use music – begin the music and have the students throw the soft balls across to each other ….. while the music or timer is still running – the students can pick up all of the balls that have landed on their side and throw back to the opposite side.

When the timer has went off (or the music) – have each team count how many paper balls have landed on their side.

The game can stop at this point …. or a score can be kept …. and the side with the least amount of balls wins. Older kids may want to play that the team that reaches 100 or even 500 first - loses.

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21. October 2010 by admin.

You played it when you were a kid …. but this is a new variation of the same game.

You need something to play fun music (if able to create a collage of styles – it is even more fun – Use music with varying rhythms – slow to super fast)

Play the music and have the students do silly dances and movements – when you stop the music they need to freeze in place ….. remember this game now?

The variation is that you will take pictures of the students immediately when the music stops.

After playing and photographing this game for a little while ….. have a review of the photos and discuss the pics. (Make sure you have taken an equal amount of photos for each student – of course).

The students love this game and if you can print off a picture (in black and white – more affordable) of each of the student’s funniest pose as a surprise for the parents (or guardians) – the parents and students can have a great memento for the day and this can inspire further discussion of the activity at home.

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16. October 2010 by admin.

Have a special day every week. Children (like adults) love to have something to look forward to doing.

The special days can be something as simple as Bubble Day ….. Set up a bubble table and have the children see how many bubbles they can fill up the room with (while blowing several bubble sticks – everyone at the same time).

Another would be ‘Plane’ Day – Make paper airplanes and fly them around the room or outdoors. Have contests to see which will fly the farthest or the fastest.

Have a book party – everyone bring their favorite short read – provide a special snack and take turns reading. Another option would be to read a book that has a coordinating movie – read the book first – then watch the movie during rest time and discuss it afterwards.

Backwards Day is always popular – wear your clothes backwards, come to school in pajamas, eat dessert first, have rest time before lunch – anything that gets the kids giggling.

Favorite Toy Day – Let everyone bring their favorite toy to play with during free time.

There are so many options – you could have a different special day every week for the entire year without repeating the event.

Some additional suggestions:

Camping Day

Carnival

Beach Party

Art Fair

Grown-up Day

Do something Special Day

Song Day

Fashion Show

Hat Day

Favorite Cartoon Day

Circus Day

Luau Day

Pajama Party

Puppet Day

and so many more!

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14. October 2010 by admin.

Have the students sit in a circle – Provide a bag with 

lots of funny clothing items in it.  Play some music 

and have the students pass the bag around the circle.  

Stop the music – the person with the bag must reach 

into the bag (without looking) and pull out an article 

of clothing and put it on over their other clothing.  Then 

begin the music again and pass the bag… repeat the 

process until the bag is empty.  

When everything has been put on – discuss which 

person looks the funniest with the wacky clothes or 

which person has the most pieces on …… 

This game is a lot of fun especially in Phys. Ed.

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14. October 2010 by admin.

This is a great pretend game to get the imagination flowing.

Provide a hat, cape, jacket …. or any item that can be worn safely. Tell the students that it is magic and will let them pretend to be anything they would like to be. Have a student put the item on and pretend to be something or someone different …. have the other students in the room take turns guessing what that student is. After everyone has had a turn or the student identifies what they are … it is then the next student’s turn.

This is a fun game and can be theme directed even. Example – The theme is ’safety’ – the students can be a fire hydrant, police person, fire person or even an emergency vehicle! Have Fun with it.

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14. October 2010 by admin.

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