Last month, I shared with you some ways to introduce fine motor drawers to your students so that they can practice fine-tuning their fine motor skills! This month, I'm going to show you the activities I've placed into the drawers to engage my students as we move into fall.
First up, my students will develop pinching and grasping skills as they string the Harvest Bead Assortment on Chenille Stems. Several students created patterns as they slid these cute foam beads onto Chenille Stems and others wanted to have their beads in a random pattern. The holes are just the right size for sliding onto a Chenille Stem and the fuzzy texture of the Chenille Stems provide that little bit of extra work their fingertips need to hone their fine motor skills!
I placed some of the mini erasers I had in my classroom into the Mini "Witch's Potion" Tubs of Slime that I poured into a larger container. My students used tweezers to find the erasers and pull them out, practicing pinching and squeezing skills. The laughs and giggles that came from this group of children let me know that it was a hit! They loved pulling the erasers out of the slime and watching the slime pull away from the erasers! Perfect fall fun!
Next, my students used some seasonally colored tweezers and matching Acrylic Glitter Pom-Poms to help them work on their pinching and squeezing skills. My students picked up one Acrylic Glitter Pom-Pom at a time and moved it to the bucket labeled with the corresponding color. Not only are we working on sorting by color and fine motor skills, but recognizing color words as well! My students used the Halloween Double-Sided Stampers to practice stamping patterns and other designs. They practiced pushing down and squeezing the Halloween Double-Sided Stampers down with just the right amount of pressure to get a good image to create some strips of paper that were the perfect size to make into bracelets! I save all the strips of paper I cut off at the paper cutter because they are perfect for activities like this one!
The Halloween Maze Puzzles were a little tricky for my students to master at first, but once they did, Halloween Maze Puzzle competitions ensued! My students were on the edge of their seats as they tried to be the first one to have their marble make it to the end of the maze! They worked on holding the Halloween Maze Puzzles just the right way with their fingers so they could help their marble get to where it needed to go next.
The Trick-or-Treat Mini Puzzles were so much fun to put together! I noticed my students initially had some problems identifying which puzzle they found in the box, so I put together each puzzle and took a picture of it. I then printed out the pictures in 4 by 6 size so it would be almost the same size as the actual puzzle. My students have the option to lay their puzzle pieces on top of the picture to help them in putting the puzzle together. Anyway they choose to put the puzzles together, they will improve their pushing and pinching skills as they complete them.
Ahoy Mateys! This fun treasure chest station helps my students work on pinching and grasping skills as they sort the Shiny Gold Coins into the Black Pirate Chests. The chests and Shiny Gold Coins are labeled with the upper and lower case letters that my students get most confused. I used a sliver permanent marker to label the Black Pirate Chests and a black permanent marker to label the coins. My students will pick a Shiny Gold Coin and place it into the Black Pirate Chest with the corresponding letter.
The Jumping Spiders were a huge hit as well! Using pushing skills, my students helped the Jumping Spiders land in the shape that had the same color as the spider. I quickly made several mats with shapes in different colors and sizes that my students can use to help aim their Jumping Spiders in the right direction. I made several of the shapes longer and skinnier to make landing a Jumping Spider in them a little more difficult. My students cheered each other on as they landed several Jumping Spiders in a shape!
My students can't ever seem to get enough practice with scissors, so again this month, I have my students using the beginning scissors to practice cutting the Neon Dynamite Dough. The opening and closing skills they learn while completing this activity help them use scissors on paper later and help to fine tune their grasping skills for writing. Most of my students choose to roll the Neon Dynamite Dough into a snake before cutting it. I showed several of them how to make marks in the dough before cutting it similar to lines on a paper so that they could follow them as they cut. This helped them to keep the dough pieces to a more uniform size.
This activity is a simple activity that helps my students to practice sorting skills. My students pick up a Jumping Spider and place it in the same colored Halloween Shaped Serving Trays. I gave some students the option to try to "jump" the spider into the same colored Halloween Shaped Seving Tray to make it a little more difficult. This activity helped them to continue to practice pinching and grabbing skills.
Finally, using some more Halloween themed mini-erasers, I used the numbered buckets from last months' post and placed some small kitchen tongs (similar tongs here) with them into the drawer. My students will use the tongs to move one eraser at a time into the buckets until each bucket has the correct number of mini erasers in it.
