The following lesson is a printing lesson that uses koosh balls to print chicks for a spring lesson. You can find koosh balls at any dollar store in the children's section. This lesson is appropriate for children as young as two and uses tempera paint.
Vocabulary to Introduce:
printing tempera
Materials:
-paper plates
-yellow, blue, black, and orange tempera paint
-koosh ball
Preparation:
Water down blue tempera paint and mix well. You can place this on the table for the children to start with. Place yellow paint on plates with koosh balls in the center. You could place the orange and black on a plate by themselves off to the side until needed.
This video continues the series of fine motor activity videos we are starting. Fine motor activities are extremely important with preschool age children. Such important functions such as writing, cutting, and more require the coordination and a certain amount of strength in the small muscles of the hands and fingers. In addition, fine motor activities require intention and concentration. In particular, using lessons that require passing objects through a slot works on developing wrist movement as the child tries to orient it into the container as well as serving as a practice for hand eye coordination. In this video I used a three finger grip which was encouraged by the Montessori school I worked previously. This lesson can easily be adapted for other themes/seasons by changing the shape/type of the objects being used to put into the can. In addition instead of using a baby formula can, I have seen other educators use chip cans as well. I also laminated the shamrocks for added durability with my two year old class. Materials: -can -scissors -cut out objects (shamrocks)
One last winter lesson before we welcome spring in the next few weeks. This is a sorting lesson using plastic cups and plastic snowflakes that can easily be found in stores such as Dollar Tree, Walmart, or Michael's. The snowflakes can be switched out for other seasonal items you think of. Stickers or cut out items work just as well.
Sorting is an important activity that begins in the preschool years. Activities such as these can encourage young children to recognize things that are the same and different building the skills for classification.
This lesson can be appropriate for children as young as two. I am currently a two year old teacher and even my youngest students can accomplish this once I have worked with them for a couple weeks. If you wish to make the activity easier start with two different types of items to sort. Materials Needed: -plastic cups -seasonal items for sorting -hot glue or tape to place an example on the front or bottom of the cup Preparation: The only preparation for this lesson would be to either glue or tape an example of which item goes in each cup if you wish. Our YouTube Video demonstrating the process:
This is the first in a series of fine motor activity videos we are starting. Fine motor activities are extremely important with preschool age children. Such important functions such as writing, cutting, and more require the coordination and a certain amount of strength in the small muscles of the hands and fingers. In addition, fine motor activities require intention and concentration. The fine motor activities we will post can be modified to make them easier or harder depending on the age and skill of the child. While I currently teach a two year old class, the majority of my students, aside from those who have just turned two, can tweeze (although my class uses plastic, round-tipped tweezers and pom poms). This lesson is appropriate for children three and older. If you have questions about how you can change this lesson for your unique situation please comment or write us! In the following lesson, students will tweeze letters out of an ice tray as a fine motor activity. Fine motor activities often serve the dual purpose of developing strength and coordination while building concentration skills.
Materials:
ice tray (Valentine's heart ice tray was purchased at the dollar store)
tweezers
paper
red marker
laminator, contact paper, or tape (if you wish to protect the letters)
Preparation:
Cut rectangles that are small enough to fit into each shape of the ice tray and that leave room to maneuver the tweezers in. Draw a small "V" so that the rectangles resemble the back of a letter. When placing the lesson out, make sure each heart has a letter in it and place a container (small bowl or condiment cup) to collect the letters as they tweeze them out.
Our YouTube Video demonstrating the process:
For Younger Children:
You can make it easier for them by using pom poms and plastic tweezers (can be purchased at a discount school supply store). Here is an example of the easy grip type we use in my class with two to three year olds:
This is a winter potato printing lesson. I do currently teach a two to three year old class. My children completed this lesson with amazing results, although we limited it to one penguin. Some variations of this you could do depending on the level of difficulty your children may need would be to include a background (snow/water).
Vocabulary to Introduce:
printing acyrlic
Materials:
paper plates
school glue
potatoes
acrylic paint (black, white, and orange)
google eyes
Preparation:
Slice potatoes in half and pair them on plates making sure that one is smaller than the other to fit inside the body for a white belly. Put white and black paint on the plates, spreading them to correct size with the potato intended for each. Either place the orange on separate plates or save until the children begin to finish with their penguins.
This lesson was developed for a 2's/3's class. Printing is an excellent fine motor practice for children of this age group. With this lesson a sponge and stencil brushes are used to create ladybugs in grass with dandelions. Vocabulary to Introduce:
printing
Materials:
-white paper
-tempera paint (red, black, green, yellow)
-sponge (cut into a circle)
-stencil sponges
-paint brush
Preparation:
Beforehand hot glue or glue the details of the dandelion petals on the circular cut sponge and allow to dry completely. Place the green and yellow paint on separate plates. Red and black paint because of the small volume can be used on the same plate.
Modifications for Older Students:
If you know the skill level of the students that you work with, you can allow them to paint the grass with a paint brush themselves. In addition, details can be added to the ladybugs such as legs.
The following lesson is inspired by Dr. Seuss' story "The Lorax." With Earth Day and Arbor Day both in April I thought this would be an appropriate story to base a lesson on. Using koosh balls that you can find at any dollar store, children will enjoy the novelty of painting a scene from a familiar and well-loved story. Vocabulary to Introduce:
-koosh balls (one for each color if you don't want to have to wash in between colors)
-paint brush
Preparation:
Give each child a sheet of blue paper for their background, a half sheet of green and half sheet of white. Place each paint color on a plate with a koosh but don't forget to include a plate that shares a small amount of black and white for the tree trunks.
For Older Children:
You can make the picture more complicated by using found twigs for tree trunks painted with white and black paint and using small pieces of bright colored yarn.
