Hi Sunflower parents!
Last week, your 3-5 year old made tissue paper flowers with me. While not a strictly "practical life" activity, I had noticed with the sewing project that those little pincer fingers needed more opportunity to flex their muscles. This project was perfect for that. It also was a good experience to talk about frustration. I know a week has gone by already, but you might ask your Sunflower if they remember talking about frustration as they worked on their project. It was difficult for most of the children to learn to wrap the squares of tissue paper around the end of a pencil eraser- it combined some serious fine motor skills in one movement- and it took some practice. But I am happy to report that every child was able to get the movement down by the end of the lesson. We talked at length about how oftentimes when learning something new we have to push through a period of feeling frustrated before it comes easily.
This week, we made "sparklers." This involved learning to tie ribbons onto small wooden dowels- no small feat! If you would like to reinforce this lesson at home, here are the directions detailing my approach:
1. Lay the dowel on top of the ribbon to make a letter "t".
2. Gently cross the ends of the ribbon over the dowel, making a letter "x" with the ribbon.
3. Ask which piece of the ribbon lies beneath the other at the crossing point. That piece we called the "snake," and we picked up the snake's head and slithered him into the "hole" above the "x" and out the bottom.
4. Find both ends and pull tight.
5. One tie will not hold, two ties make a *knot*.
We talked peripherally about the holiday and the fact that the colors we were using traditionally represent our country.
Happy Fourth! Stay cool.
Ms. Melodie
No comments:
Post a Comment