One
specific skill that we develop early on in kindergarten is letter
formation. Each child has a handwriting
book where we practice formation together as a group to ensure careful and
focused letter writing. One thing that
is hard to remember is that children are still developing fine motor
muscles at this age. It is not
developmentally appropriate to require children to have perfect handwriting
when their hands are not fully developed.
This is why in early education classrooms, we use many activities that
help strengthen fine motor skills at the start of the year to build strong
handwriting by the end of kindergarten.
In the
beginning of the year students handwriting, in most cases, is quite poor but
this is very typical and should not be concerning. It is important to guide children in holding their
pencil correctly. Once children create a
habit in doing something incorrectly it takes a lot of time and effort to
correct it, so it is best to nip that in the bud as quickly as possible. Parents can help with this effort at
home. Practice at school is great and
definitely has a lot to do with progression but at-home practice is what really
makes the difference in fine motor development.
Here is a list of some things that can be done at home to help strengthen
these muscles.
* Working with Playdough
* Have children sort pompoms with tweezers or clothespin
* Let children use a squirt bottle (to make it more fun put
food coloring in it and have them spray paper towels or coffee filters)
* Stress Balls
* Small Legos
* Sticker Books
* Squeeze water with a turkey baster
* Hole punches
Here is a good source for more information on improving fine
motor skills http://www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com/pencil-grasp-development.html
Lakeshore Learning as some great activities as well...
Here is a glimpse of our past week:
Hope you found this post helpful! Have a wonderful weekend!
