Tag Archives: sewing

Fine Motor Fabulousness!

So many kindergarten skills involve fine motor…..and fine motor can be so tricky to develop and strengthen. It involves more than cutting with scissors or holding a pencil properly. I try to sprinkle fine motor activities into our everyday learning as much as I can. We use playdough. tweezers, stickers, hole punches, and pokey pins as much as possible to strengthen the littlest muscles!

Students working on a pokey pin activity.

 

Another GREAT fine motor activity is Perler beading. This group of kindergarteners LOVES making Perler bead creations. Students have the option of using their fingers or a small pair of tweezers to place the beads. Creating with Perler beads also helps build hand-eye coordination and fosters creativity.

We also spend quite a bit of our Friday Fun time sewing! So far this year, we have sewn pumpkins and coasters. Our first project was a minky fabric pumpkin. Students used a running stitch to sew around a circle of fabric we had prepared for them. I put a series of black dots circling the fabric so the students knew where to place the needle next. Look how cute these turned out!

Today, students sewed festive pumpkin coasters. This was a multi-step sewing project, and I was very impressed with the students’ enthusiasm and focus on completing the project.

The kindergarteners are so excited about sewing that they asked if I could include it as a Choice Time choice. Time to plan some new projects!

Friday Fun: Pumpkin Edition!

We had our first Friday Fun of the year that included parent volunteers. What a success it was! After our field trip to the pumpkin patch earlier this week, I wanted to find a recipe that used pumpkin. Pumpkin energy balls were the answer! The students had so much fun measuring and mixing the ingredients. Our aprons really helped keep the sticky mess off our uniforms!

Here is the recipe. I adjusted the amounts so that each group was able to make their own batch. All four batches combined made 24 energy balls.

For our craft activity, students sewed a mini pumpkin.

Look for a post on this activity early next week. Happy Fall!!

Adios Dionsaurs

We showed off our dinosaur knowledge this morning. Parents viewed dioramas, sculptures, student-made videos and custom dinosaur pillows! Take a look…

This process started back in February when students chose a dinosaur to research using a wonderful emergent researchers database called Pebblego! I created a packet with sentence frames for the students to use to guide their research.  Read more about this process here:

Dinosaur Mania!

 

In conjunction with art, students painted their chosen animal using the PopArt style of painting.  Remember these fantastic pieces?!

 

Next, students sculpted their dinosaur out of red clay.  They painted the habitat in which their dinosaur inhabited and added some 3D flair.

 

Students then took pictures of these items and organized them into an app called Shadow Puppet. They recorded themselves reading their research reports and created these final projects.

The dinosaur pillow project started back in March, when students illustrated a dinosaur using fabric markers, sewed, and stuffed their pillows.

Teaching to different learning styles using different modailities really offers students a deeper learning experience. They are now your resident dinosaur experts!

 

And now we dive into oceans!

Friday Fun-Dad Edition!

For Friday Fun today we had three dads running the center rotations. What fun they were! We made candy corn parfait, pipe cleaner spiders, and even sewed a squash!

Sewing is such a great way to build fine motor skills. Before beginning to sew, I gave students a tutorial on how to safely use the needle….because we used REAL sewing needles. I was very impressed with how carefully the students were with them and with the seriousness they displayed while sewing. I don’t think there was even one finger poke!

I just love how these turned out!

In the kitchen, students made candy corn parfait….a healthy snack, of course! The chopped pineapple, peeled Cuties, and added them in layers to a clear cup. A dab of whipped cream added a sweet touch to the top!

Yummy!

The final rotation was pipe cleaner spiders. Students added eyes and colorful beads to their spider’s legs. Another great fine motor building activity!

We love Friday Fun!

Friday Fun Recap

Fridays have been filled with fun dinosaur activities! Last week students used muslin fabric and fabric markers to draw a dinosaur. Some students chose to draw the dinosaur that they are studying. This was the first step in creating a dinosaur stuffy. Look how cute these are!

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So this week, students finished their stuffies, choosing a coordinating backing fabric, sewing it, and adding stuffing. Adorable!

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The children have been busy in the kitchen. Last week they made dinosaur pizzas. You should be proud of how many of your children eat olives and green bell peppers!! This recipe is a fast and easy dinner idea. Even more fun is that it is from a book called, of course, Dinosaur Pizza. Students enjoyed cutting the veggies and sprinkling the cheese.

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This week, students became paleontologists, digging up fossils. Armed with goggles and mini excavation tools, students were charged with digging out as many chocolate chips as possible from their cookie.

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