This week, Miss Zanna has provided some useful tips on how to develop your child’s fine motor skills utilising common household objects.
Pouring from a jug
What you need: Two small jugs and food colouring.
Method: Fill one jug with water and add a few drops of food colouring. Encourage your child to hold the handle of the jug in their dominant hand and use their other hand to support the jug under the lip as they pour. Invite your child to pour the water from one jug into the other.
Remember to pour from left to right. As an alternative to water, you could use rice, lentils, pasta etc.
Pouring through a funnel
What you need: Two small jugs and a funnel.
Method: Pour the water through the funnel into the other jug. Remember to pour from left to right.
Transferring water
What you need: Two bowls, water and either a pipette, small syringe or turkey baster.
Method: Encourage your child to hold the pipette or syringe in their dominant hand to draw up the water and transfer it from one dish to the other. Remember to transfer from left to right.
Transferring pulses
What you need: Two bowls, either a spoon, tweezers or tongs and contents to move between the bowls i.e pasta or rice.
Method: Using one of the tools above, pick-up the contents from one bowl and transfer it into the second bowl. Remember to transfer from left to right.
Threading
What you need: A piece of string, ribbon or lace and either cotton reels, penne pasta or beads (please supervise).
Method: Invite your child to thread any of the above onto the string, ribbon or lace. When they have finished encourage them to count how many they have threaded.
Making bubbles!
What you need: A small whisk, bowl, water and liquid soap.
Method: Fill the bowl with water and add some soap. Holding the whisk in their dominant hand, encourage your child to whisk the water to create bubbles!
Assorted bottles
What you need: Any assorted small plastic bottles or pots, please ensure that they are empty and clean.
Method: Encourage your child to unscrew and screw on the lids of the bottles and pots.
Activities for Messy Play
Shaving foam
What you need: Shaving foam and either a tabletop or a tray.
Method: Explore the foam using fingers or a paintbrush. Invite your child to form letters and numbers in the foam, write their name, make lines, zigzags, circles etc
Jelly
What you need: A bowl of jelly, spoons, yoghurt pots or other containers.
Method: Encourage your child to explore the jelly with their fingers. Can they describe how it feels? Use the spoons to transfer the jelly into the pots etc
Cornflour
What you need: A packet of cornflour, spoons, yoghurt pots or other containers.
Method: Mix the cornflour with some water. Encourage your child to explore the cornflour mixture with their fingers. Can they describe how it feels? Use the spoons to transfer the mixture into the pots.
Spaghetti
What you need: A packet of spaghetti and a pair of children’s scissors.
Method: Prepare the spaghetti away from your child due to the use of hot water.
Place the dry pasta in a tray. Boil some water and then pour it over the pasta. Leave the pasta for just a few minutes, it needs to remain quite hard so that your child can cut it. Carefully drain the water and leave the spaghetti to cool down. Either place the cooled spaghetti on a tabletop or in a tray for your child to explore. Feel free to add a little sparkle with some glitter! Your child can then use a pair of children’s scissors to cut the spaghetti into pieces.