During a TAC (Team around the Child) meeting a few weeks ago, I was asked by a professional to provide additional writing homework for a 4 year old child after we discussed that writing was difficult for him. Through working with the child I had established that he had not developed good fine motor skills to this point, and had spent time with the class team looking at activities that we could do to strengthen the small muscles in his hands and fingers so that he could improve his dexterity. While painting and mark making, the child chose a palmer grasp, meaning that most of the movement was coming from his shoulder. I spoke with the professionals and his family about this, and said that in my opinion, activites to work on his fine motor development, rather than writing worksheets would be more ideal. I have a feeling that I am not alone in this, and so I wanted to share some activity suggestions with you- if you have any, get in touch!
- Washing up bowl with flour to make marks.
- Painting pasta and when dry threading to make a necklace.
- First letter of name on paper, a single hole punch, punching the letter out.
- Golf tees in foam, balance marbles on top.
- Pushing as many pom poms as you can into a bottle.
- Pegging out the washing (or baby’s washing).
- Cover a toy car in shaving foam and using a spray bottle wash it off.
- Make tiny holes in the fingers of a rubber glove, fill with water and the child has to squeeze the fingers to get the water out.
- Put paper on the bottom of the kitchen table, child lay on their back with lots of pens and mark make.
- Fill washing up bowl with rice and magnetic letters. Child to find their name.
Happy Teaching- Kate
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