Skill: Eye-Hand Coordination

The way the eyes guide the hands to do a task. This helps your child catch a ball, write on a line, or stack blocks without knocking them over.

Multi Step Shamrock

Print and cut the provided picture below of a shamrock (about 7 inch in size). You will use this as your stencil.

Provide the child with a green or white page of construction paper.

Ask the child to trace the shamrock on his paper using the stencil you made.

Instruct the child to cut out the shamrock.

Allow the child to spread some glue over the shamrock he cut. You may use a paint brush or a craft stick if the child avoids sticky materials.

Place the different manipulatives in front of the child inside a shallow container or a paper plate.

Instruct the child to glue the different objects on the shamrock transferring the objects from the container to his paper using the tweezers or the tongs.

The child may also use his fingers to reinforce pincer grasp and in-hand manipulation skills.

You may also have the child crumble pieces of tissue paper into small ball to work on dexterity and strengthening of the small muscles in your child’s hands.

Lunch Box

A five-year-old child uses safety scissors to cut out construction paper handles for a DIY paper lunch box craft on a wooden table.

Let the child pick a color of construction paper (paper size should be A4).

Draw a line in the middle of the construction paper and ask the child to fold the paper accurately on the line. This works on his fine manual control skills.

On a separate construction paper, draw 2 handle shapes and ask the child to cut it along the lines. These handle shapes will be used as the lunch box handles.

Ask the child to glue the handles to the top ends of the folded paper (the child should be able to open/close the folded paper as a lunch bag).

Have the child draw what they had or brought for lunch on the inside of the folded construction paper or have the child cut and glue pictures of food items from newspapers/magazines.

Allow the child to decorate the outside “lunch box” using the crayons, markers, and colored pencils.

Line Em Up

On a thick piece of paper, draw a line.

Give your child a bowl of beans, beads, buttons, or large seeds.

Ask the child to place them one after the other on the line you drew.

For grading, you can make the task a little more difficult with a circle, or any other shape. In addition, you could ask the child to use tweezers to pick up and line up the items on the line.

Potato Counter

For this activity you could use different types of fruit and vegetables. If the child has difficulty completing the activity with potatoes, you can use a softer fruit like bananas.

Cover a strip of thick cardboard or card, and draw boxes like those shown in the picture.

Cut small potatoes into halves and quarters so that they can stand without rocking or tipping.

Place one potato wedge on every box and number each box.

Now your child can stick in the right number of toothpicks into each potato.

For grading: Use random numbers instead of numbers in a sequence.

Paper Turkey

On a brown construction paper, trace the child’s hand or have the child trace his own hand using the pen/markers/crayons.

Make sure the thumb is extended and the fingers are spread apart while tracing the hand.

Let the child cut the traced hand. This will be the turkey’s body.

Glue the traced hand in the middle of the paper plate.

Use one bean as the turkey’s eye and glue it on the traced thumb. On the rest of the fingers, let the child glue feathers.

Take a piece of orange or red tissue paper and let the child crumble it. Glue the crumbled piece as the turkey’s wattle.

Using the markers or the crayon, let the child draw the turkey’s legs.