FINE MOTOR LEARNING CENTER

Item 1In a Fine Motor Learning Center there should be 4 categories present. These different categories should have 3-5 different materials available for the students at all times. There should be no fewer than 15 for 5 children.

CategoriesArt

ManipulativesSmall Building Toys

Puzzles

ART

Materials that should be present:Crayons, markers, paper, scissors, paints, and pencils. For younger children, fat crayons will be available. For children with disabilities adaptive writing utensils will be available.

Manipulatives

Materials that should be provided: Interlocking beads (not for infants or toddlers as they can be a choking hazard), therapy putty for hiding small toys, peg boards, button/lacing boards, and activity blocks for infants/toddlers. Rattles, different textured and sized teething toys, and grasping toys.

Small Building Toys

Materials provided will include building clocks such as Legos. Larger legos will be available for younger children or children with fine motor disabilities, and smaller Legos will be provided for older children, Lincoln Logs, Cardboard blocks, and small wooden blocks.

Puzzles

Materials available will include puzzles of different difficulty for different ages and abilities. Puzzles will include peg puzzles, shape puzzles, and picture puzzles.

All the materials in the Fine Motor Learning Center will be rotated at least monthly to keep the children interested. The materials will be kept well-organized and separated.

Item 2To help promote diversity within the Fine Motor Center, the materials will have meaningful labels. The labels will contain a picture of the item, the item printed in English and the item also printed in Spanish. If there are also other languages spoken in the class, those will be represented as well, to include Sign Language.

Item 3Fine Motor Skills are all about using the small muscles in the hands and fingers. Developing these skills in a learning center will help children to:• Learn how to write• Develop hand-eye coordination• Learn to tie shoes• Learn to maneuver buttons and snaps• Learn how to cutThese are all tasks that are self-help skills and promote positive self-esteem and independence.

Item 4The teacher’s role in facilitating learning with these materials is to help promote self-help skills and increase hand-eye coordination.

EXAMPLES:

Encouraging kids to draw, which helps develop the holding grip.

Having a child put together a puzzle, which helps develop hand-eye coordination.

Item 5- MilestonesDomain: Physical Development and HealthStrand 2: Fine Motor Development B9. Show beginning control of writing, drawing, and art tools. (Pg. 127)

Strategies:• Modeling writing, drawing, and the use of art tools, including

pencils, markers, chalk, paint brushes, and various types of technology.

• Engaging child in writing letters and stories for friends or family.

Domain: Physical Development and HealthStrand 2: Fine Motor DevelopmentB10. Persist in accomplishing more difficult fine motor tasks. (Pg. 127)

Strategies:• Involving child in activities using fine motor skills (e.g., setting a

table, preparing food, sorting buttons).

• Providing blocks for construction.

Domain: Language and LiteracyStrand 5: Early WritingE1. Begin to show interest in exploring writing tools. (Pg. 80)

Strategies:

• Supervising child’s exploration of child-safe writing tools.

Domain: Approaches to LearningStrand 3: Creativity and Inventiveness. (Pg. 63)C6. Approach tasks experimentally, adapting as the activity evolves.

Strategies:

• Providing age-appropriate learning centers comprised of many varied and open-ended materials.

• Providing opportunities for child to experiment with safe art materials and create simple art projects.