Today the preschoolers strengthened their fine motor muscles while using their pincher fingers. Practicing pinching clips is an important skill for the daily procedures of our classroom. We worked on recognizing numbers and counting clips to match the circles. We counted the clips one by one to check that we had the right amount to match the number on the circle. The preschoolers were very proud of their math skills!
Squeezing, squishing, and crumbling; a recipe for building strong fine motor muscles! Our Early 3’s worked their fine motor muscles hard today as they squeezed farm animals, squished play-doh, and crumbled paper cats!
The cold weather and rain couldn’t stop the early 3’s students from having a good time! We had a blast playing in a swimming pool filled with balls! Some of us dove, dug, and even took a little rest in the ball pit.
Today the Toddlers worked on their fine motor skills. One of our objectives this month is for the boys and girls to tear paper. Since it was a rainy day we decided to spice it up and fill a pool with streamers. The children loved tearing and pinching the different colored paper! Tearing paper helps refine small muscle movements that will later help with gripping writing utensils and holding scissors.
Working with your preschooler at home is an extremely positive step in the foundation of learning. Songs and videos are a great way to teach little ones new information and practice skills. They have fun interacting and the repetition helps instill knowledge.
Just click on the picture to enjoy these videos at home with your preschooler!
The Big and Small Letters Song
The Letter F Song
The Letter D Song
The Letter P Song
The Letter R Song
The Shapes Song
The Alphabet Song
One of the first words children learn to read and write is their name. Children hear their name all throughout the day. Names are personal, meaningful, and recognizable. Today we searched for the first letter in each child’s names. Some of the children held onto the letter throughout the day. They recognized it as “their” letter that stands for “their” name. We reviewed the letters with the boys and girls as well as went over color recognition with them as they dropped the letter in the bucket. Learning letters is something we work on with our Toddlers everyday. It build self confidence within the child and helps give them a sense of identity!
The preschoolers explored the difference between the uppercase and lowercase letters in their name today. First, we practiced how to spell our name by glueing the letters in order. Then we pointed to the first letter of our name and discussed that this is the uppercase letter, we talked about how the first letter of a name is always uppercase. Next we ran our fingers across the rest of the letters in our name. We discussed that these letters are lowercase. We chose a color for our uppercase letter and a color for our lowercase letters. We strengthened our fine motor muscles and practiced our crayon grip while coloring. Have fun exploring the difference between uppercase and lowercase letters with your preschooler!
The early 3’s are working on their pinching, but not in the way you might think! We are working on using our pincher fingers to build our fine motor muscles. Many self-help skills like buttoning and zipping require a tight pinch, using the thumb and first two fingers. We practiced using pincher fingers when we picked up cotton balls and glued them to our sheep!
We took our pinching a step farther when we pinched clothespins open to hang our farm animals up to dry!
Creative Tots has specialized in the private education of both toddlers and preschool age children for over 15 years. We began in the heart of Madeira and now also have a new Mason location. We are specifically designed to focus on early childhood development for children ages 18 months to 5 years.
Click below to learn more about our program offerings:
