Messy Art

I was going back through some pictures and realized I had missed some of the great messy art activities we had done over the past few months.  I think it is really important that children have the chance to get messy/dirty/sticky sometimes when creating art.  It can be something as simple as painting their hands for a guided activity (like the spider and turkey above) or fine motor development by adding glue sticks and sequins to a Christmas stocking (I've removed the names the children printed).

 

But sometimes, the best part of getting messy is the chance to extend that experience into another sensory realm - from the sense of touch to the sense of taste.  These were the birthday cupcakes we made together and then decorated individually to celebrate the birthday of one of the children in care.

Nuts For Squirrels

I decided to change the way I do thematic planning this year.  Instead of picking a specific theme (say...bugs) I'm going to plan around a certain author or type of book.  I'm hoping that by doing this, I can integrate more literature rich activities into my planning, and incorporate learning opportunities that fit the wide spectrum of ages and abilities.  So to start out the new year, the author I picked was Melanie Watt, with a specific focus on her Scaredy Squirrel series (though we did spend time with the rest of her phenomenal books).

Scaredy Squirrel gave me some great opportunities to incorporate open ended crafts and natural resources.

This is the children working on their squirrel mural.  I didn't anticipate how much they would enjoy this crafting experience, but we spent an entire afternoon immersed in this creative opportunity.

I decided to broaden the activity for the younger children by working on some fine motor skills - I let them experiment with scissor cutting.  To do this, I sat one-on-one with each child in turn, and let them choose to cut their picture as they wished (after some modelling and guidance).  They were so focused, and handled the scissors with great care.  It was a huge success!

In the end, the murals turned out more beautiful than I could have ever imagined!

Fine Motor Fun

We've been focusing more lately on developing fine-motor skills, and I wanted to show case some of the activities we've participated in:

 

Stickers are an easy way to get young children to work on their pincer grasp - they are inviting, appealing and inexpensive.  Plus, they are easy to remove from walls or tables should they wander away from the crafting station.  I find it easiest to just lay a dozen different sheets across the table with colored paper and crayons and let the children explore.  Even the one year old in my care will peel the stickers off the sheet (though he prefers to squish them, instead of sticking them to paper - I let him, its still good use of the pincer grasp).

 

Open ended sticker craft:  We did this for Halloween.  I didn't direct the children on how to construct the pumpkins.  I just let them explore.

The results were beautiful!

I also found this puzzle at a local store - it has a variety of doors held closed by latches and chains and other simple hardware.  My toddlers LOVE dabbling with this, opening and closing each one.  The perfect instant fine motor activity!

Coloring is also a useful fine motor activity.  With older children, encourage proper pencil holding techniques.  And put out a variety of books to choose between.

For school age children, this is a good activity:  Put coloring pages behind tracing paper, and have the children trace the lines with fine point markers.  Then removed the coloring page and let them finish their masterpiece.

Tree Hugging

With spring, the children have been pointing out all the changes they've observed on the trees and plants in our neighborhood, asking really good questions about buds and sprouts, and helping get the garden ready to plant.  With this current curiosity, I decided it was a good time to do a tree/plant unit.

First we made a mural to decorate our space.  At first I intended to make leaves or collect leaves to add later, but one of the kids suggested painting hands and making prints.  It was a hit, and turned out really cute!  (It's fun to notice the difference in the areas the 'big' kids painted and the ones the 'little' kids painted!)

After that, I decided to explore some open ended crafting.  I gave the kids an outline of a tree on some sticky tack, and some assorted supplies, and let them decorate.

 They turned out really cute!

Next it was time to get our hands dirty - literally.  We painted small clay pots, stuffed them with dirt, sprinkled grass seed, and watched and watered each day.

This is science and fine-motor rolled up into one, because the spray bottles are intriguing, but employ lots of hand and arm muscles.

They had so much fun 'spraying' their plants, that we took the bottles on a nature walk to a local forested area.  They could have stayed out there spraying all day.

If we're going to do a forest unit, we have to go where there are trees.  No complaints from these naturalists!

After two weeks, our grass looked more like this:  Time to give these Hairy Harry's a hair cut (more fine motor skills!  Yay!).  The kids got so into this, their plants were basically bald when they were done.  Great thing about grass - it grows back!

Next I think we'll get some hair clips, and let them snap them in the 'hair'.

Mom's the Word

I just realized I totally forgot to post about Mother's Day!

So I decided that instead of just making the mom's cookies and cards this year, we would try something different.  I decided to have the kids make their mom's some homemade bath salts, using this very basic recipe:

1 cup Epsom salt
1/2 cup coarse sea salt (not the cooking kind)
5 drops food coloring
2 drops lavender essential oil

What I loved about this activity was all the measuring, scooping, stirring and mixing the little hands got involved in - especially since we are working so hard to develop our fine motor skills.  The boys got right into this too!  I let them choose whatever color/combinations they wanted for their mom, and surprisingly they went with just the simple 'primary colors' as one pointed out - one red, one yellow, one blue.

The final product looked beautiful and smelled even more so.

And of course we also made the cards!

Colors of the Rainbow

The pre-school play blog did this rainbow activity, and I loved it. Since we are currently playing with a color theme, I decided to replicate it.

I found some old paint color swatches, cut them up into squares (which make a good fine motor activity), made some simple rainbow templates and let the children create.

I never told the children how to make their rainbow, I just let them come up with the order and scheme on their own. The result was beautiful!

Fine Motor Colander

Need a new sensory fine motor activity? It's a simple as pulling out items on hand - the children played with this activity for about two hours this morning. They would weave and create, and go find other materials to extend their play.

Some of them inverted the colander to weave or build from the other side. Some set the pipe cleaner sticking straight out and wore it on their heads like a hat!

There is nothing like creative inspiration from materials we adults see as everyday or ordinary!

Shape Theme

The boys have decided that blocks are all the rage recently. Combine that with a fabulous new book find (that post will come later), and you've got yourself a shape theme!

I forgot all about the math shape blocks I have in storage until I started planning this theme. I pulled them out to let the kids play, and it was very interesting to see the results. Some children built up, some designed out, and some relied fully on the tangram templates. These toys have no 'small' pieces, so even the toddlers got in on the fun.

I also pulled out my magnet center, which has come shape file folder games. I was surprised how focused the kids were for this activity.

And nothing celebrates shapes like a building challenge. For dramatic play, we pulled out the shape tent. The boys and I conversed on the type of shape they wanted to construct - they decided square with a triangle on top - and then got to work piecing the balls and rods together.

When it was finished, we draped it with sheets and they promptly pulled in the kitchen center and got to work 'cooking' in their new 'castle restaurant'.

Fine Motor Cookies

The boys found some books after Christmas at the library that were all about space and stars and rocket ships. So we decided to do a Space Theme. I don't usually give the kids any sugary foods, but I've been trying to work on fine motor skills, and thought it would be fun to make 'star cookies' that they could ice and decorate, to work on that pincer grasp.

The really great thing about this type of activity is that it gets the kids working with a butter knife to spread icing, which is appealing to them (as anyone who's ever let a preschooler help make a PB&J sandwich can attest). The sprinkles are fine so they really have to concentrate while they pick them up between their fingers and spread them over the surface of the cookie. I used three different colors of sprinkles so they had some options as well.

And then, because the cookies were so cute, and the boys too, I let them each have one. The rest I packaged up and sent home to share with their families!

Puzzles

The kids are really into puzzles this month, which gives us a good time to work on their fine motor skills, and their critical thinking problem solving skills.

What sort of activities do you do to help kids develop these skills?