• Read below to find out what motor skills are and how you can help your child develop fine and gross motor skills at home.
     
    What are motor skills?
    Motor skills are actions that involve movent of muscles in the body.
     
    What are fine motor skills?
    Fine motor skills generally refer to the small movements of the hands, wrists, fingers, feet, toes, lips, and tongue. Developing fine motor skills is important to aid children in handwriting. 
     
    What are gross motor skills?
    Gross motor skills are the abilities required to control the large muscles of the body for walking, running, sitting, crawling, and other activities. The muscles required to perform gross motor skills are generally found in the arms, legs, back, abdomen, and torso.
     
    How do Buder kindergarten teachers integrate the use of motor skills into lessons and activities in the classroom?
    We integrate the use of motor skills throughout the day in kindergarten. Below you will find some examples of ways we help children learn content as they develop their fine motor skills.
     
    1
    Children can read CVC words and match the two puzzle pieces together.
     
    4
    Children can identify numbers, count the dots, and place clothespins on the number cards.
     
    5
    Children can use play do mats to read and build sight words.
     
     
    8
    Children can use play do mats to count the dots and form the number.
     
     
    6
    Children can identify letters and form them with Wikki Stix.
     
     
    5
    Children can build CVC words with magnet letters.
     
     
    3
    Children can identify pictures, name the beginning sound, and place a clothespin on the card.
     
     
    2
    Children can create patterns using pony beads.
     
    The following ideas are fun ways to help your child develop fine motor skills at home:
    • Snipping at paper, cutting curvy or straight lines on paper, or practicing cutting smaller objects will help build hand muscles. You can find printable cutting pages at http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/miscellaneous/scissor_skills.htm or many other places online.
    • Finger painting
    • Macaroni Stringing - You can use pasta and yarn to make necklaces.
    • Putting together puzzles
    • Jewelry Making - Use beads (the size depends on your child's skill level) to create bracelets and necklaces!
    • Playing with modeling clay or Play-Doh