Fine Motor Activity

Fine Motor Activity

Activities to work on fine motor skills.  This is an activity that I had put together for my art center.  I pre-drew designs on smaller pieces of card stock and left out colored hard corn and glue for the students to use.  The items the students are gluing could be modified to fit the theme or season.  The students them use the glue bottle to trace the design with the glue and then one by one place the corn onto the glue.  This activity works the fine motor skills the students will need when learning to write.  Here is a picture of the supplies needed.

Listening Blocks

This is an awesome toy/game/activity that I came across when I was doing lab hours for a class in a Montessori classroom.  The idea of the activity is that the students listen to the noise created inside the listening tubes that are red and then try to match the blue tubes to the same matching sound they make.  This is a great first activity for students in phonics.  It makes the child listen for small differences in the sounds and they practice their listen skills for learning letter sounds.  The students all loved this game and I would definitely have this in a non Montessori classroom.  GREAT Activity.

Reading Journals

 

Reading Journals

 

 

Reading Journals are a create way to get children reading and writing.  To start out a journal with younger children have the first posts be pictures they draw.  Each time they draw in their journal it should have a theme, such as, my favorite thing to do with a friend is.... and then have the child draw a picture of what that is.  After a week have the children walk around the room and try to draw some of the objects or things that they see.  Once the children feel comfortable with that and they are starting to write have them write letters, number, or their name on a page.  Graduate to looking for letters and numbers around the room, then actual words around the room, etc.  This activity should be part of their daily routine and will foster their growth of reading and writing.  Each child should have their own journal and only be checked for doing the lesson, not if it is correct or not.  Here is an example of a journal from a Kindergarten classroom.

 





Classroom Turkey

 

Our Classroom Turkey

 

 



Great Classroom project to encourage thankfulness and working together for any class.  Each child picks out a piece of colored construction paper and cuts out a large feather shape, a stencil can be used.  Then each student must think of something they are thankful for.  They teacher or student writes out the message and then the child draws a picture depicting the message.  

Once everyone's is completed the students add their feather to the classes turkey to make a large turkey.  The students share with the class what they are thankful for before it is placed on the turkey.  This turkey should be displayed in the hallway for everyone to see.





 

The Word Wall

The Word Wall

 

 

The benefits and use of a word wall in the classroom.

 

- support the teaching of key words and subject-specific terminology.

- promote independence in reading and writing by building vocabulary.

- provide visual clues and reference for language learners.

- help students remember connections between words and concepts

Word Walls are so important to a new reader.  Try using 2 in your classroom.  Have one for the teacher to add to and then have one at students level that they can add to, they can bring words from home too.



Developmental Theories of Children

My Thoughts on Developmental Theories of Children.

            In reading the Developmental theories of Erik Erickson, Jean Piaget, and Sigmond Freud I found them all to in some way relate to each other.  They all theorize of a building upon each stage or a scaffolding of stages and development.  A person has to pass/move through one stage to get to the next.  A person can get stuck in a stage or have a stage they favored and would like to stay at, but most move from one to the next coming out as the adult they have developed to be.  All the theories as a whole complete the whole of a human.  Erikson’s theory relate to a human’s social and emotional development, Piaget’s theory relates to Cognitive and Logical development, and Freud’s theory related to physical and sexual development.  Each alone has its own points, but if you take them in correlation with each other the picture is much more rounded.  Just as a human has many different aspects so should the developmental theories that make up its ideal adult.  As a teacher of children passing through all of these developmental stages it is our job to look at all of the theories and take the best ideas from each of them, make them our own, and find a way to educate children as they go through these stages.  If we can match our teaching with the developmental stage the child is at their learning will be the most efficient it can be.  The child will hopefully benefit greatly and become the ideal adult in the future.  We are responsible for building strong foundations.

           

Importance of Processed Art

                                          

Process Art vs. Product Art

Besides the parent a teacher is a great asset for fostering that creative thinking.  The first and easiest way to start fostering creativity is to develop an activity that is more about the process the children are going through and the problem solving and critical thinking they are using to work through the activity verses the end result of the activity.  Think about an art activity that a child can do.  If a teacher says please draw a picture of yourself.  The teacher gives the children white paper, crayons, and a mirror.  Now granted not all the pictures will look exactly the same, but they will be relatively similar and there was not a lot of critical thinking used to complete the activity.  Let’s do the same activity, but let the children use what ever supplies they choose to use.  The teacher has a large array of supplies from paints, crayons to yarn, sequins, etc.  In this activity not only do the children have to think about what they look like, but they also have to figure out what to use, how to use it, and how to make it look like them.  I can guarantee you that not only will they be all elaborate self portraits, but they will all be completely different.  By just changing a few things the activity has challenged them to use a higher order of thinking and creativity.  This is a prime example of process art verses product art.  The process of the art activity compared to get to the end result of the art activity.