How We Build Fine and Gross Motor Development in Preschool

Each Monday afternoon, we have a staff meeting at Village. Some meetings are used for professional development, and sometimes we use the time for planning or sharing what is going on in our classrooms. It's a gift to teachers, really, to have a set time each week where we know we will meet with our coworkers and spend time talking about what we do each day. This past Monday, we spent time during our staff meeting talking about gross (large) and fine (small) motor development in preschoolers. The four year old class will begin Movement is Fun this coming week with Ms. Joy, and we learned about that curriculum and what the children will be doing during this time. Some of the large motor skills that the children work on in movement are moving in nonlocomotor ways (anchored movements like bending, twisting, rocking, swinging arms), and moving in locomotor ways (nonanchored movements like running, jumping, hopping, skipping, etc.) The children will have sensory activities, and will work on moving with objects and acting upon movement directions.


Later, we heard from Jill Kirkland, who teaches in room 101, about a webinar she took on fine motor skills. We talked at length about the things we already do in our classrooms to help develop these fine motor skills, and also about what we could be doing better. We wanted to share with you some of the key points about fine motor development in preschool aged children. 

·      Fine motor development zone is from 3-6 years old

·      A mature, tripod grasp will naturally occur if precision muscles are properly developed.

·      Play is critical to hand skill development

-In previous years, children used more hand skills in their play - 

-cutting out and playing with paper dolls (versus the magnetic ones used today)

 -board games were played more often

 -Barbie dolls were more popular- changing their clothes and putting on those tiny shoes worked hand skills

 -forts were built and needed to be secured with clothespins or knots

 -outdoor play was unlimited

                        -Today, play is less hands-on and more sedentary

                        -Passive, technology based play such as IPads and increased TV time give     children less opportunities to develop hand skills  

The following ideas were things we thought could be implemented easily into what we are already doing for furthering fine motor development in the classroom: 

-Vary opportunities for ways to write vertically- standing, kneeling, sitting

-Tummy writing with clipboards or small white boards

-Use Ziploc slider bags- they encourage the same O shaped pattern needed for pencil grasp

-Keep in mind short tools provide more control for children than long tools (Pip Squeak Markers, short colored pencils, golf pencils, etc). If children are fisting a writing tool, try a shorter option. Fisting indicates they aren’t yet ready for that length of tool.

 

The following are some photos taken this week that show the different ways that we sneak fine motor development into the classroom in fun ways. We'd guess that your children don't even know how many skills they're working on, and how many muscles they're building through their play. Enjoy! 

drawing UNDER the table? ok!

painting with watercolors

mixing paint

using tools with playdough

scooping and pouring water to and from different cups

drawing with smaller markers vertically at the easel

drawing vertically on the white board

using scissors to cut tape

using our hands to pull, stretch, and stick tape

 

this week we had the children unzip these baggies to pick out an item to use during check in. then, they had to zip the bag back up before handing it to the next person. SO many fine motor skills disguised as fun!