There are several ups and downs to student teaching in kindergarten. On one hand, you’ve got the cutest kids saying the cutest things. On the other hand, it takes a lot of effort to supervise more than 20 5-year-old children every day and make sure they are all progressing academically. This is the first blog of a five part series that provides you with tips that I have learned about teaching kindergarten. These tips have helped me as I prepare for student teaching this January in yes…Kindergarten! If you work with kinders or are interested in learning about supporting the needs of the whole child in an early learning setting, I hope this blog series helps you too!
Tip #1: Support Kinders with Fine Motor Skill Development
Writing, creating art, and using scissors are just a few of the tasks that call for fine motor skills in kindergarten. Children who struggle with these tasks can become irritated when they lack the muscle power or coordination necessary for them to succeed. Like any other skill, these developmental skills need to be acquired via practice.
Did you know that kids can use tongs to perform activities that help them gain the strength and coordination in the tiny hand muscles that they need to write, hold a pencil, and use scissors?
Fine motor development can be fun. Try some hands-on experiments to help your little ones build those muscles that increase hand eye coordination and can ultimately support literacy skills for the future. Here are some links to show you some fun ways you can use tongs for play and at the same time…. develop fine motor skills:
Use tongs to put pom poms in a water bottle. Use salad tongs to transfer marbles from one bowl to another ( from Mama OT)
Use salad tongs to put ping pong balls in a repurposed container (from Mama OT)
Feed a big mouthed frog (from Therapy Fun Zone)
Use tongs with candy and suction cups (from Havin’ Fun Yet?)
Use tongs to put beads on suction cups (from PreKinders)
Use tongs or tweezers to put pom poms in an ice cube tray ( from PreKinders)
Use tongs or tweezers to place marbles on an upside down bath mat (from Play Based Learning)
Use salad tongs to put bath toys in a bucket ( from i’m going to make it (after all)
Happy Teaching!