Pincer Grasp Workouts - Nuts and Bolts

Pincer Grasp Workout Number 6

Nuts and Bolts
I could only find these two nuts and bolts in my husband's toolbox. The Activity Mom shows what I would really want to do with the nuts and bolts - to make a size matching activity.
Nevertheless, even if you can only find one nut and one bolt,
the pincer grasp will get refined.
It is actually quite challenging and Bear is still working on mastering it.

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What Bear is Reading

We always read so many books, but Bear seems to have weekly favorites that she wants reread thousands of times (or so it seems!).

This week's favorites were:

A Crocodile's Tale - A Philippine Folk Story
by Jose and Ariane Aruego

This is a story of a boy who saves a crocodile's life. The crocodile, instead of showing gratitude, wants to eat the boy. I like how the story explains gratitude (or lack of it) through two other little examples ( a hat and a basket that got thrown away due to the ingratitude of humans) and how the boy displays gratitude to the monkey who saves him from the crocodile.
However, because the crocodile wants to eat the boy this book may not be a good choice for sensitive souls!

The Big Brown Bear
by Georges Duplaix

Cute story about a bear whose wife asks him to go get fish for supper, but warns him to avoid the dead tree where the bees are. Of course he doesn't listen and has to deal with the consequences! Bear (who got her nickname because she used to grunt like a bear as an infant) has asked for this book everyday this week. My favorite part were these two sentences, "He was so happy to be home that he gave his wife a great big bear hug and kissed her on both ears. His wife was quite surprised by such a greeting and guessed right away that he had done something wrong." I chuckle every time I read it.
Again, not really for the sensitive soul - the Bear gets chased and stung by bees. His nose swells up too.

To see what others are reading, visit Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

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Pincer Grasp Workouts - Pin Pricking Shapes

Pincer Grasp Workout Number 5

Pin Pricking

Pin pricking shapes, letters, or numbers is a great pincer grasp workout.

We used a toothpick to pin prick shapes and lines.

I didn't feel comfortable having her pin prick letters or numbers because Bear isn't interested in tracing letters and numbers in the conventional direction and I would prefer if she did it correctly so that she doesn't get confused when she is ready to start writing.

It was fun to look through the pin pricks at the light coming through.

On black paper,
you could pin prick
a constellation
and it would be like the stars shining in the sky. This would go well with a space unit or theme.


Stay tuned for Pincer Grasp Workout Number 6.

More fine motor skills activity.
(Scroll down past the ones you've already just read.)

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Corn

Behind our house there is a lot of corn growing.
Yesterday, we took a walk through the corn and the man who owns the corn offered to give us some.
We brought it home.
Bear counted it (there were 8).
She husked it (well, Mommy did most of it).
She carried it inside (it was heavy).
Then she washed it
and she put it in the pot,
which I then put on the stove.
And since two of the ears of corn weren't ready for eating,
we painted them
and rolled them
to make an interesting print
and incredibly yellow hands!

To see other wonderful learning projects see My Family My Forever and The Ramblings of a Crazy Woman.

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Toys My Child Will Actually Play With

Fisher Price Little People

Another toy my daughter loves is the Little People by Fisher Price.
I like that they are open ended and encourage story telling.
Actually, I consider them only partly open ended because each character is dressed a particular way, holding a particular item or object.
This limits them in my mind; however, Bear doesn't really pay attention to those things in her play.

Her favorite item is this dollhouse. I bought this new on Craigslist for a really good deal. I don't actually think this model is available anymore.

I like that these toys encourage her pretend play, but I wish they didn't make sounds. When the batteries run out, I won't be replacing them.

To see more toy reviews, visit My Bilingual Boys.

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stART - Elmer

Elmer is such a cute little elephant and when we saw David McKee's series in Spanish, my husband and I couldn't help but buy a couple of them for Bear.

Our project is similar to this one by Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.
We used watered down white glue and tissue paper on regular printer paper, just like we did in the butterfly project.
After the whole thing had dried and I had cut it out, Bear rubbed vegetable oil all over the project to give it a translucent effect (see bottom two photos).

These make great sun catchers in our window.
I made the bird one.
(I felt that if I made an elephant one too it would hinder Bear's creative process and she might feel like she had to make hers look like mine.)


To see other stART projects, see A Mommy's Adventure

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Open Ended Art - Pumpkins

I seriously wasn't going to do a pumpkin project, as we don't even have pumpkins in Costa Rica.
However, I saw this post this morning and was inspired.

I showed Bear some photos of pumpkin patches on the internet.

Then I cut out some orange tissue paper circles, some green strips of tissue paper, and some leaf shapes.

Bear placed her pumpkins, leaves, and vines on the contact paper to make a pretty stained glass-ish pumpkin patch.

An abstract kind of pumpkin patch.
Here is more pumpkin related open ended art.

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Pincer Grasp Workouts - Cutting Straws

Pincer Grasp Workout Number 4

Cutting Straws
Cutting is a fine motor skill that strengthens the wrist and fingers to ready a child for writing.
Cutting paper strips is challenging enough for the beginner, but sometimes needs a little spicing up.
So cut straws.

Use a Sharpie to make lines on the straw
and then show your child how to hold the straw in one hand.
Demonstrate the correct use of scissors
and encourage your child to hold their scissors the same way.


After all that cutting,
have your child thread the straw pieces
onto a pipe cleaner, shoe lace,
or spaghetti noodle stuck in a blob of play dough.

For background information for this post visit here.

Stay tuned for more Pincer Grasp Workouts

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Tree Hugging Tot

We don't have pumpkins in Costa Rica. Well, one grocery store sells them at 16 dollars per pumpkin. Needless to say we didn't buy one!

I still wanted to link up because this morning we went back to the garden we love at Hotel Bougainvillea. If you are ever in Costa Rica and want to see beautiful flowers, this is one place you must visit.

Bear hugged a lot of trees and enjoyed sitting in them.

So, no pumpkins,
but I do have
one
tree hugging tot!



To see what others did with the pumpkin theme, visit Mommies Wise Little Bookworms.

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Pincer Grasp Workouts - Alphabet Clothespins

Pincer Grasp Workout Number 3

Alphabet Clothespins


I have seen many activities to work on spelling in the blogosphere.
Why not add some pincer grasp practice at the same time?
All you need are wooden clothespins and a Sharpie
...and somewhere to clip your clothespins.
(The lip of a cookie sheet works well.)

I will soon be making word cards on which Bear can clip her alphabet clothespins, similar to a See and Spell, but using clothespins as opposed to magnetic letters.

Note: Pencil Grasp Workout Number One has the background information to this post.

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Pouring to a Line

Strengthening the wrist is an important fine motor skill.

One activity that accomplishes this is pouring.

There are many types of pouring activities.
I recommend starting with pouring dry ingredients, such as beans,
then progressing to rice and flour.

Bear first practiced pouring water without a line on her glass.
I set it up so that there was only enough water in the creamer that it couldn't overflow the container she was pouring into.
I recommend doing this on a tray in case of spills.

Now that her wrist is stronger, she has more control over the creamer.
After a pouring accident in which she poured just a little too much milk into her cereal, I decided it was time to teach her how to stop pouring even if liquid remained in the container she was pouring from.

I used painters tape to mark the line on her glass and made sure the creamer had more water than was necessary to reach the line. After she pours to the line, she pours the water back into the creamer and starts over.

She did this for a good fifteen minutes!

I know Montessorians would say that the creamer should be on the left to encourage prereading skills, but it just doesn't make sense to me when her pouring wrist is her right one.

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Pincer Grasp Workouts - Broken Crayons

Please see Pincer Grasp Workout Number One for the background information for this post.

Pincer Grasp Workout Number 2

Broken Crayons
Broken crayons are just too small to hold any other way than with a tripod grasp.



Stay tuned for Pincer Grasp Workout Number 3

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Pincer Grasp Workouts - Post it notes

Pincer Grasp Workout Number 1

Post it Notes

Specifically those Post it Note tabs for marking places in a book.
Pretty much the only way to get them out is by pulling with your thumb and index.

As mentioned in this article (which I already linked to in this post),
the most common thing occupational therapists work at with children is correcting incorrect pencil grips

Giving your child a pencil to color with before she is ready can be detrimental to her pencil grip.

In my weekly wrap up I gave lots of ideas for working on fine motor skills, specifically those that help strengthen the pincer grasp.

The pincer grasp is the one needed to hold your pencil in the correct dynamic tripod position
(pencil between thumb and index, resting on middle finger).

Stay tuned for more Pincer Grasp Workouts.

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What Bear is Reading

Although we read many books this week, I wanted to mention one in particular called The Empty Pot.


This is a delightful story, set in China, of an Emperor who needs to find a successor. He gives all the children in the land seeds to plant and tells them he will choose the child with the most beautiful flower in a year's time. I won't ruin the story for anyone who wants to read it, but it is a tale of honesty and courage. I highly recommend it.

To see what others are reading, see Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

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Tot School and Learning Through Love

and

I will be linking to both Tot School and Learning Through Love this week. Susana has a wonderful blog at My Family, My Forever and I am happy to be able to join in on her MckLinky as well as in Carisa's Tot School.

Because I am extremely tired today, I am posting these photo collages. I know they are tiny, but if you click on the photo collage, it will open up bigger and then you can scrutinize each activity to your delight. I will also describe each activity from top left and across so you can follow along more easily.

There was definitely a focus on fine motor skills this week, mostly because of an article I read here.

• sorting shapes from an old mobile
• knobbed puzzles matched to their outlines
• button practice
• clothespin color naming (recycled parts of the clothespin color game - the new presentation made it fun for Bear)
• popsicle sticks through a slot in a yogurt container
• using tweezers to sort buttons of different shapes
• using wooden tongs to sort pompoms
• a button snake
• cutting play dough snakes
• using a plastic knife to cut play dough "baguette"

• The tweezer activity again
• using felt shapes to make pictures (she didn't like this at all, though I thought it would be enjoyable)
• taking the handles of the plastic popsicle molds and rearranging them so the colors wouldn't match (loves this activity)
• sifting through rice using a slotted spoon to find letters
• sorting nocturnal and diurnal animals
• seeing peacocks at the Zoo Ave
• tracing letters with her Do a Dots
• playing some grid games
• teaching her baby brother animal names (It is SO cute to hear her say them to him. Of course, she doesn't quite hold them so he can actually see the cards, and she also snatches them away pretty quickly so I don't think he gets to see anything, but it's darn cute)
• Bear found a game I have from when I taught third grade and insisted on playing it. It involves matching fractions. However, I found a way for her to play it with my scaffolding such that we count the picture items and match them to the numerator part of the fraction. She is counting the eggs in the last picture in the photo collage.
  
• using pre-writing tracing cards of which I plan to post later in more detail.

I feel worn out and blogged down (yes I meant to write it that way) and may be taking a break next week from daily posts unless my energy returns.

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Boca Beth CD Giveaway Winner

Congratulations sbswtp of The ramblings and adventures of a SAHM.
You won the Boca Beth giveaway!

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Toys My Child Will Actually Play With

Last week, I mentioned that Bear's favorite playthings are not actually real toys.

However,
Bear does have real toys she loves.

One of these is her Duplo by Lego.
She loves to build towers.

I love that we can practice patterning with them.

Pros

• The quality is terrific. I much prefer Duplo to Megablocks.

• They are a wonderful open ended toy. The possibilities for building are endless (though limited by how many building blocks you own)

• You can do things like practice patterning with the blocks.

• Because the blocks interlock, your creation can't be demolished as easily as with wooden building blocks.

Cons

• Some of the Duplo sets do come with too many animals or people and not enough building blocks.

• If you don't own enough blocks, it limits what you can build.

For more toy ideas check out Adriana's MckLinky.

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Don't forget!

The Boca Beth cd and maracca giveaway ends tonight. (Well, technically, any comment in my inbox when I wake up tomorrow morning will be eligible as well.)

Go here to enter.

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Pumpkin Cookie Cutter Prints

You'll need:
styrofoam trays, well washed,
a pumpkin cookie cutter (or any other shape you want)
tempera paint
a paint brush

First, press your cookie cutter into the styrofoam.
You just need to make an indentation, not cut through the whole tray.

Next, brush paint onto the styrofoam.

It took a little experimentation to figure out just how much paint was the right amount.

Lay your paper on top of the painted tray and rub it down.
When you lift your paper, you'll have a nice pumpkin outline.
You can repeat the process with the same paper using different colors on the tray to create more depth to the color.

We mounted ours on black to hang on the wall.

Thank you 4 Crazy Kings for the idea to use cookie cutters on styrofoam.

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stART - Swimmy

First, we read Pilotin, the French copy of Swimmy, by Leo Lionni.

Next, Bear rolled blue paint onto her white paper.

She dabbed turquoise do a dot marker and sponged green paint to make seaweed. (I showed her the illustrations in the book before she started and also demonstrated how to use the sponge so that it would look like seaweed.)

Then, Bear sponged fish all over.
This was her favorite part.
She made two paintings.

Number one
and number 2.

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Allen Keys

Allen Keys remind me of Montessori knobbed cylinders.
Great fine motor activity.
Lots of size sorting involved -
the keys vary in length and diameter, as do the knobbed cylinders.
So get out those Allen Keys
(but do supervise while your tot or preschooler plays with these!)

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Open Ended Art - Black and White

I love teaching Bear art techniques and then letting her use those techniques any way she wants.

In the past year I have shown her how to use various tools for painting.

With this art project using black tempera on white paper,
I decided to showcase some of the tools I have introduced to her.

I gave her a large piece of white construction paper
and put out the following tools:

snail sponge
fork
water bottle lid
some sponges cut in various shapes
an old toothbrush
a cotton swab
a paint roller

She was really only interested in the fish sponge and used the other things sparingly or not at all.


To see what others are doing in Open Ended Art, see here.

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Our Backyard - I Wish!

We headed down to our favorite garden last week and had a wonderful picnic snack.

We swung on a rope swing, found leaves, found something that looked like a mouse (but wasn't), went on a color hunt, and investigated an ant hill.

When we got home I tried to get Bear to do some leaf rubbings, but she wasn't too interested.


See what more tree hugging tots have done over at Mommies Wise Little Bookworm

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Nocturnal vs Diurnal Sorting Activity

As I was laying with Bear, waiting for her to fall asleep, she started talking.

Bear - Aminals sleeping now.

Me - Some animals are sleeping now. But some animals sleep during the day.
Five minutes elapse. I am almost asleep, thinking Bear is almost asleep too.
Bear - Some aminals sleep day.

Me- Yes, they are called nocturnal animals, Bear. Like bats and owls, and well, I'd have to look the other ones up.

Bear - On compooter.

Me - (chuckling at the fact that my 2 year old knows that we can look stuff up on a computer) Yes.

Bear - Aminal cutting activity?

And so the following activity was born.

I found these animal pictures, saved them to my computer and put them in a Word document so they'd be larger. I printed this out.

I took a yellow piece of construction paper and glued a black piece of construction paper over half the yellow one.

Voila! A nocturnal vs diurnal sorting activity.
I would have cut the animal cards apart, but Bear really wanted an "aminal cutting activity." I was actually very impressed at how well she cut and how she painstakingly lined up all the little cards to glue them.

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Tot School

Bear is 26 months

My mom was here this week so Bear got a lot of French practice.
I am kind of in a rut.
Didn't plan anything new this week.
Same old, same old.

Alphabet/Literacy

The Great Sort was continued.
We read a lot of books as usual.


Numbers/Math Concepts

Playing grid games (thanks Teach Mama)
Doing one-to-one correspondence cards

Sorting by Size


Fine Motor Skills

Puzzles

Drawing lines from one object to another
Cutting

Clothespin matching activity


Gross Motor Skills

I totally lack in this area and could probably use some clever ideas.

Anyone reading this have any?

Art

Snail Prints
Potato Prints
Coffee Filter Leaves

Nature

To see what others are doing in Tot School, see 1+1+1=1

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