19
Jan

Here are some more suggestions for developing fine motor skills that are all included as part of your child’s programme to get ready for school:

Cutting
Matching and pasting
Self-care Skills
Tracing and colouring
Pre-writing patterns
Dot-to-dots
Finger tracing and painting

(Nursery & School Guide Edinburgh 06/07)

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Cutting

Scissorcraft has plenty of cutting activities for preschoolers, including pumpkins, snowflakes and dragons!

Matching and Pasting

Why not take some close up (head and torso) photos of family members. Cut the photos at the neck and mix them up. Get your child to match the heads with the bodies and stick onto a piece of card. Make it more difficult by cutting into several different body parts.

Self-Care Skills

Practise doing daily activities indepndently, like brushing teeth and washing hands. Try buying a book on the different aspects of self-care.

Tracing and Colouring

There are loads of websites where you can print off pictures to colour in. Here is a good place to start.

Pre-writing Patterns

You can buy workbooks for this, but it’s just as easy to draw patterns, shapes and letters yourself and have your preschooler copy them.

Dot-to-Dots

An activity book is probably the best option.

Finger Tracing and Painting

Finger painting is great fun, make your own paint, it’s safe if they decide to put their fingers in their mouths.

Photo by flickr user fudgecookie18

One Response to “Fine Motor Skills (Part 2): Preparing For School”

For a book to use to educate children on hand washing, try Impatient Pamela Learns About Germs by Sarah Overland. Illustrated by Aaron Conway, it is a captivating picture book awarded the Seal of Approval by The National Parenting Center (United States), saying it is “. . . an entertaining book that children enjoyed reading together with their parents.” It has a Foreword written by an international public health expert and includes simple drawings on the correct way to wash hands. It works! It can be found on Amazon.com or by contacting the Trellis Publishing - 541-404-2657 or by fax at 541-756-6316.

January 23rd, 2007