To help practice those fine motor skills, this activity was designed so that the only real intention, or outcome, that I was looking for was for her to practice working within tight confines. Staying in the lines!
As children work toward developing those early literacy skills and start to move towards writing letters and words, working with some order and within some confines can be very helpful in developing the fine motor skills that they will require in order to be able to write.
On a long piece of paper I drew a very simple flower garden with thick, black permanent marker
I provided a fine paintbrush and some glitter glue/paint along with the instructions that we were only working inside the lines today
I chose the glitter glue/paint as it is see-through so that you could always see the lines even when the paint was on them
She enjoyed this activity and it kept her concentrating and focused for quite some time
Handy tips:
- I used a garden so that it could have lots of tight lines and small spaces to work within but obviously you could draw anything that would take your child's fancy
- Extend this activity by letting your child draw the design first and then paint within it's confines
- Simplify this activity by drawing larger spaces for your child to work within
- Repeat this activity with different designs etc and using different sizes of brushes and different paints etc
- Stay near your child while they do this so you can give them gentle reminders about their purpose
Happy playing,
Debs :)
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