Glue Sticks!

New post over on the FlannelBoardFun.com blog!  Click below to read all about glue in your art area...

More Simple Art Tools for Fine Motor Fun!

In the continuing saga of fine motor art fun...  Click that cutie to read more!

Simple Art Tools for Fine Motor Development

Need a refresher on why simple is best?  

Here's a quick post on simple tools for your 

preschool art area (at school or at home!)

Fine Motor Fun for Gross Motor Kids

Here's a post about a simple activity that just might lure those gross motor loving kids over to the scissors for a little fine motor fun :)

Building Math Skills through Play

Math is everywhere!  Check out my flannelboardfun.com blog post about building your preschoolers' math skills simply by playing with them...

Tips for Choosing Fine Motor Toys

Looking for simple materials to use in the classroom or at home to ensure preschoolers' fine motor development? 

 Click below to check out my flannelboardfun.com blog post!

Making Beads

Here's a nice little activity that extends over several days, builds lots of skills (such as fine motor, creativity, and cause and effect!) and is just plain fun :)

We used the awesome book Mudworks by Mary Ann Kohl to create a batch of dough for making beads...

Once our dough was just right, we rolled it into various small shapes.

We poked holes into the dough shapes with the ends of thin paintbrushes:

We had to wait several days for the dough beads to dry, but when they were finally ready, we painted them.  Then, when the paint was dry we strung our beads onto string and made bracelets and necklaces!

  

  

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Fine Motor Activity: Plant a Flower!

I had been using flannel boards in my classroom to share stories, songs and games for quite a while before I started making actual felt sets for the kids to use.  For some reason with the sets I made for the kids, I had limited myself to scanning my story sets, printing them out on card stock, laminating them, and attaching Velcro.  

I guess it was probably quicker and easier that way--but those sets were quite limited in that the pieces couldn't be layered, and the kids didn't get to experience the feel of felt, or the problem solving that happens when felt snags slightly on a dry finger, or needs to be pressed a little more firmly to stay on the board...

But finally I realized the error of my ways, and began to make what I call DIY sets for the kids.  These sets are kind of amazing in all the skills they enhance--and all simply through play!  

Math skills like color sorting, shape naming, counting, one to one correspondence... 

Early literacy skills like vocabulary building and labeling happen naturally--and I include a list of awesome books to read as well as several rhymes and songs to use with the kids.  

Fine motor skills grow of course, as they pinch and grasp and place/remove/replace the pieces.  

And then there's creativity and imagination, as children decide whether to decorate a butterfly's wings with circles or tear drop shapes; to put 1 or 10 leaves on a flower stem; to turn a lady bug into the center of a flower...  

The ideas they come up with always make me realize just how limited my own imagination has become!

Do you use felt sets in the classroom, beyond the circle time stories and games you might have?  If not, I encourage it!  If you're crafty, felt is inexpensive and you can create all kinds of sets around a zillion different topics.  

If you're not crafty, come buy some from me ;)  

Early Literacy in the Dramatic Play Area

Reading books with children is certainly one perfect way to enhance early literacy skills, and I love, love, love children's books!  But there are a zillion other ways to provide early literacy opportunities in the classroom (or at home).  Today I'm sharing just a couple of ideas for your Dramatic Play area.

A well-equipped Dramatic Play area has child sized furniture and accessories for pretend play endeavors and escapades.  Think dress up clothes, baby dolls, play food and dishes.  There might be doctor's kits and stuffed animals to take care of; toy or real cameras and phones; accessories like watches, bracelets and sunglasses; purses and bags for imaginary trips to the moon or the beach.  Among other benefits, these props encourage creativity and socialization--which in and of themselves also enhance early literacy by building vocabulary and conversation skills.

To add an even more direct early literacy element, you only need a few extra props!  My favorites are a can or cup of thick, stubby pencils, a container of notepads and loose paper, and old computer keyboards.  Place them on shelves (labeled with pictures so they can be put back at clean up time--another early literacy tool!) and let the children play.

What I love about simply providing these tools, rather than doing some sort of teacher-led, potentially developmentally-inappropriate activity, is that the children can use them in open-ended, self-directed ways.  This naturally leads them to learn more, because they are engaged in something they have chosen to do themselves.  Aside from the obvious letter recognition that may occur with the keyboards (especially as you interact with the children during play), simply providing them with these tools is exposing them to the idea that written communication is important and a needed part of life.  This is enforced even more as you ask them to take your order at a restaurant, or write out a prescription for you at a doctor's office, or write down directions on where to meet them at the beach trip...  And of course as they play with these tools on a regular basis, they learn how to manipulate them, their fingers gain strength, and they learn to love writing even before they are capable of doing it!

What are your favorite ways to sneak early literacy into your classroom?  Do you have pencils and paper in various areas of the room?  I'd love to hear your ideas--drop them in the comments below!

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Cutting Rainbows

Do you have kids who struggle to cut with scissors?  It's so tricky!  It can be really frustrating for some children, and the more they are shown the "correct" way to hold them, the more frustrated they become.  Sometimes their little fingers just aren't ready for this difficult task.

I think it's really important to ease children into activities like cutting with scissors.  One of the easiest ways to do this is to provide opportunities to use safe scissors in a variety of ways, with little or no pressure on showing them the right way to hold and use them.  Let children become familiar with the feel of scissors in their hands, encouraging them to hold them however they want to so that when they are ready to be shown the traditional grip, they already love scissors and won't feel intimidated.

One of the ways I've done this in my classroom is to cut "rainbows".  This is a fun and appealing way to get children familiar with scissors.  They don't have to coordinate two hands at once since they don't have to hold the paper, and they can try various methods to get that snipping just right!

Eventually, with practice like the rainbow cutting above, as well as other low-pressure opportunities, children will be ready for gentle guidance on holding and using scissors with one hand.  Your Open Art table (or writing center, or cutting table, or whatever you may call it) will be full of children independently cutting to their heart's content.  Save your scraps--you'll need them for all those capable cutters!

What methods have you used to help kids who struggle with scissors?  How do you introduce kids to challenging tools?  I'd love to read your comments and ideas--leave them below!

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Painting with Tiny Tools

What is it about tiny things that is so appealing to kids (and me!)?  All those coins, acorns and rocks that end up in their pockets are definitely proof of this obsession.  So let's go with their interests! 

Painting with tiny tools builds strength in the fingers--children have to grasp these little items and try to keep a hold of them as they dip them into paint, and then concentrate as they make various marks on the paper.  Challenge them to try lines, squiggles and dots!  Watch as they come up with ideas you hadn't even thought of!

I like to use tiny (or at least small) trays, papers, and paint holders when I'm setting up this activity.  I've gone much smaller than the paper you see pictured above.  Sometimes a little loop of tape to hold down the paper is helpful.  Try small papers in different shapes to mix things up even more.  Painting on pennant and triangles can be particularly challenging (and fun!) with this activity.

Need ideas of tiny tools to use?  A short list might include:

cotton swabs

corks

marker lids

film canisters

makeup sponges

small blocks

mini shampoo bottles

golf tees

What are your favorite small things to paint with ?  Have you done this in your classroom?  I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments below!

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Open Ended Play Dough Tools

The play dough table is often one of the most-used spaces in the classroom.  I switch up the color and smell of the dough every couple of weeks.  Depending on how much use it's getting it can sometimes last a bit longer, but usually it's getting a bit crumbly by day 10.

There are SO many things you can do with play dough.  If you have nothing to add to it, kids love pinching, pulling and poking the dough.  Rolling and stacking and smooshing are also popular!  Over the years I collected as many gadgets and gizmos as I could find.  I avoided cookie cutters as much as possible since they aren't exactly open-ended, though I found simple shapes like stars and circles could really add to the imaginative side of playing with dough.

(A tray that encourages the children to sort items by type as they put things away is a great way to sneak math into your day!)

 Hardware stores are your best friend when it comes to play dough tools!  That's a caster cup pictured above, and it pokes a million tiny holes into the dough.  Peeling it off is so fun, and if dough gets stuck in between those pokey parts, oh the joy of digging it out!

 Simple little cups with snap on lids (I found mine at the dollar store) are so fun for the kids to fill with tiny pieces they've cut or pinched off a big lump.  They love to stack them, fill them, take the lids on and off...

 Mini PVC pipes!  YES!!!

I always liked to have something to cut with at the play dough table, whether it was plastic scissors or knives.  These (Discount School Supply, of course) plastic scissors are great because you don't have to have a teacher hovering at the table--these can go out even at the start of the school year with 2 or 3 year olds.

What do you like to put at your play dough table?  Have you thought about the open-ended qualities of your tools?  Do you have  a favorite scent or color of dough?  Leave your comments below!

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