Christmas Fine Motor #2

Christmas is in the air today!  We had a lot of fun practicing our skills with some Christmas activities.  It is also pecan season here, so we made a sensory box from our recent harvest.

First, we did some scooping, and then moved into sorting.

 Adeline really enjoyed playing with the pecans.  I think she could have explored them for hours.  So we decided to put the nuts into the trays after sorting.  We worked on putting the nuts in and out of  the trays.  Pulling the nut out really works the pincher grasp.

Next, I pulled out a box that I had wrapped up to look like a present.  You can't see it but there is a little hole cut in the middle where we put the nuts "in".  For some reason Adeline kept wanting to put her eye right on the hole.  She is suppose to wear glasses which are very hard for us to keep on her, so I put them on to see of that would help.

On the other side of the box I cut some slits going different directions to give Adeline a little challenge.  I always save my milk caps so we put caps "in".  This did  make Adeline stop and think a bit.

Later we colored on sandpaper Christmas trees just to give a new sensory experience.

Christmas Fine Motor

We have been doing  more Christmas themed tasks.  I have been trying to introduce some Christmas symbols to Adeline as we complete each activity.  For this task we used a simple soda bottle cut off and put our bells "in".  Adeline had fun ringing the bells too.

Next,  we worked on a stringing project.  I had found these gingerbread men at the Dollar Tree so I cut a little slit and cut out some circles to serve as ornaments.  I added a button to a ribbon and we strung gingerbread men and ornaments.  Stringing beads is a little hard for Adeline yet so I thought this would be a little simpler.  This project could be used with patterning as well.

    

Waving Some Christmas Cheer

Adeline is finally starting to walk almost full time.  This has been a process that has taken a lot of time and patience, but we have almost arrived.  Yeahhhh!  I have been trying to think of activities to have her work on her balance and encourage her to be on her feet so we made some ribbon wavers. She thought this was pretty fun.  I just used a wood hoop and tied some ribbon to it.  They would be fun with some bells added but I didn't have any.

My box of ribbons continues to be the best sensory box in our house.

Later we worked on some fine motor activities.

 The snowman template is from  http://www.childcareland.com/

We worked on blowing cotton balls across the floor.

A Reason For Our Play

Children learn best through play.  Today we played and got messy but there was a reason for it all and that was to build our fine motor skills and have some sensory experiences.  Adeline enjoys getting her hands into things so  usually these experiences are pretty easy.

We started a project for Christmas using corn on the rather than brushes.  We rolled the corn across  the paper to create a textured effect.  We will finish this soon, we first need to let the paint dry.   

Scooping is an important skill to help a child get ready for writing.  The movement and development of the wrist is important.  This is also helpful for eye hand coordination.  Today, we scooped cooked pasta.  This is more difficult than something hard but it was fun.  We started and then my daughter just needed to add color.

Later we made a jungle for our animals.