Motor Planning - Page 39 of 45

Acorn Stamper

Draw an acorn on the construction paper (see images for example) or you can let the child trace an acorn stencil to promote fine motor control and visual-motor skills.

Let the child cut the acorn shape using scissors.

Using a piece of small sponge instruct the child to pinch it and dip it into the paint then stamp and paint the bottom part of the acorn cut out. You can also use q-tips or cotton balls to paint.

Encourage the child to fill in the entire bottom part of the acorn.

Have the child spread glue on the top part of the acorn.

Provide the child with a few dry leaves. Instruct the child to crumble the leaves inside the palm of his hand and then spread them on the glue. This will promote finger strength and finger translation.

You may also use beans to cover the top area of the acorn.

Lacing Pictures

A four-year-old child practices fine motor skills by lacing a colorful string through holes punched in an index card at a kitchen table.

Use the hole puncher and the index cards to punch holes in different directions or create different shapes.

Give the child a lace and show him/her the proper sequence to lace these holes.

Have the child lace the picture without skipping any hole.

A Day at the Beach Obstacle Course

Place towels, sunscreen, hat, ball, bucket, and pail & shovel at one end of the room, or play area.

Place the beach bag/basket on the other end.

Using the tape, mark a trail from the items to the beach bag.

Place the chair, step stool, and pillows (covered with the blanket) along the trail you marked.

Ask the child to transfer one item at a time and place it in the beach bag, following the trail, by crawling under the chair, walking up and down the step-stool (you can also put more than one and have the child go up and down several times), and walking on the blanket-covered pillows.

Paper Roll Caterpillar

Using the pencil and the ruler, mark the toilet roll every 2 inches and draw around the tube. These will be cutting lines we will use to create the paper roll caterpillar body.

Take the scissors and cut around the marks you have made so that you are left with several short tubes.

Paint the tubes both on the inside and outside, it is more effective if you paint the outside a different color to the inside.

Glue the tubes to each other, end to end, putting one tube aside to use for the head later.

Glue the head tube on the top of the last tube in the chain.

Using the glue, stick the two wiggle eyes on the head.

Draw a mouth just below the wiggle eyes.

Using the felt or the pipe cleaners, cut two short pieces and stick onto the top of the head to make antenna.

Cut two more pieces for each body section the caterpillar has and stick these onto the bottom to create legs.

Capture the Marble

For this activity, you need 2 players (adult and child or two children).

Sit or stand across from each other at a table.

Each person should hold a plastic cup in one hand.

One person rolls a marble to the other person at a slow pace.

The second person places their cup on top of the marble trapping the marble under the cup.

Then they push their cup towards the first person sending the marble rolling to them at a moderate pace.

Then the first person captures the marble and this back and forth game continues on.

This activity can be graded by using a tennis ball or a ping-pong ball instead of the marble as well as using a large round container instead of the plastic cup.

In addition, you can be rolling the ball fast or slow, follow a path when passing the ball from one another, catching the ball as it rolls off the edge of the table, or using your hands instead of cups.