How the eyes and hands work together as a team. This is essential for tasks where movement is guided by vision, like catching a ball, cutting on a line, or staying within the lines when coloring.
Put a piece of styrofoam sheet or block on the floor or on a slanted surface and have the child push the toothpicks into the styrofoam.
If the styrofoam is on the floor have the child lay prone and weight bear on the elbows.
Give the child a shape, a letter, or a pattern to trace over in order to develop visual-motor skills.
For this activity, you will need a brown construction paper, yellow construction paper, and an orange construction paper. If you don’t have any colored construction paper, you can use a piece of cardboard (an empty cereal box or any other dry food box can be used) and white paper.
On the brown construction paper or cardboard, draw half a circle. This will be the turkey’s body.
Use the orange construction paper and draw a circle big enough to be used as the turkey’s head.
On the yellow construction paper draw a small triangle, to use as the turkey’s beak. If using a white piece of paper, draw a circle and a triangle, and let the child color these shapes orange and yellow.
Ask the child to cut the brown half of a circle, the orange circle, and the triangle.
Have the child glue the orange circle in the middle of the half-circle. Then, provide the child with red tempera or finger paint, ask him to dip his pointer finger in the paint, and then stamp it in the middle of the orange circle. This will be the turkey’s wobble.
Next, use the glue to glue the yellow triangle on the top part of the wobble. Use the marker or crayon to draw the turkey’s eyes. You can also use googly eyes.
Using the clothespins, instruct the child to pick one clothespin at a time, pinch it, and place it on the curved part of the half-circle, stabilizing the paper (turkey’s body) with the non-dominant hand. Cover the turkey’s body with as many clothespins you can. These are the turkey’s feathers.
You can use specific colors of clothespins, draw matching dots of colors on the turkey’s body, and have the child match the color of the clothespin with the colored dot.
For this activity, you will need to use flour, salt, and water to add to the puffy paint.
In a mixing bowl mix an equal amount of flour, salt, and water.
Add the paint and mix well.
Fill the squeeze bottle with the paint mixture and let the child squeeze the puffy paint onto cardboard to create a picture.
When dry, the paint becomes hard and shiny.
To work on visual motor skills you can have the child imitate or copy different strokes, shapes or letters.
Hand the child a xeroxed page of a holiday design (with multiple items to color) or draw a picture on the paper/construction paper.
Use the ruler to draw horizontal and vertical lines for the child to cut (number of pieces depends on the child’s age and skills).
You can also draw curved or wiggly lines depending on your child’s cutting abilities.
Have the child follow directions based on skill level.
Start with simple directions and progress to harder instructions if appropriate.
Once all items are colored, have the child cut across the lines.
Once cut, the child should reassemble the puzzle.
Place the pieces in a ziplock bag to take home if desired.
Take one of your clothespins and paint it with colors. This will be the butterfly body.
To make the wings, take some colored construction paper and fold it in half.
Draw a pair of wings on the folded side of the paper, and cut around them using the scissors.
Unfold the wings and you will have two sets that are exactly the same.
Draw colorful lines and patterns over the wings.
Pinch open the clothes peg and glue the wings onto the top prong.
It is best to clip the clothes peg onto something so that it doesn’t get glued shut.
Decorate the body of the butterfly with your buttons and beads, and stick the googly eyes onto the top of the peg.
