Today’s Daily Challenge is based on Mark-Making/Fine Motor activities:
1. Can you create your own textured paint brushes. You will need some different materials; cotton wool, tin foil, leaves, pom poms etc. Add this to the end of clothes pegs. Hold the clothes pegs and dip the end in paint to explore a range of different marks that you can make.
2. Can you create your own sensory playdough? Use 2 cups flour, 1 cup water and a drop of oil. Mix together well. Make into smaller batches and add different herbs/spices to each batch. Explore the textures and smells as you play. The children at nursery love to explore chocolate playdough (made with cocoa powder) or custard playdough (add custard powder). Playdough is great for exploring fine motor skills – pushing, squeezing, pressing, poking, stretching. You can add a series of resources to the playdough to make it more fun (make faces, animals, rolling pins and cutters, use scissors to cut the playdough into smaller pieces etc.)
3. This activity can be done down a slide or alternatively, make your own ramp with a piece of wood or even a long piece of cardboard rested on something. Add paper to your ramp and dip cars in paint, pushing them down to watch the marks they make. Can you add balls to the paint and roll them down?
4. Set up an ‘invitiation to paint’ activity by laying out paper on the floor outside or on a table. Add lots of different resources that can be used to make marks; old utensils, paintbrushes, sponges, cars, animals, sticks, leaves etc. And let your child explore the different marks they can make.
5. Stick a few pieces of spaghetti into a lump of playdough or blue tac. Encourage your child to thread cheerios/beads one at a time on to the spaghetti. This will encourage fine motor skills and counting. You could even add numbers next to each piece of spaghetti so they have to match the correct quantity to the number.
6. Pegs are great for building up the muscles in little hands! On a piece of cardboard (around the edges) colour in a series of coloured circles or circles with numbers/letters inside. Encourage your child to peg a clothes peg onto the correct place when asked. E.g “Can you find number 6?” “Can you find the red circle?”
7. Draw a series of lines on paper or on the pavement with chalk (straight, zigzag, wiggly, circles etc) Encourage your child to place buttons or stones carefully along each line to form the pattern.
Threading, posting and slotting toys are great for building up fine motor skills with children.
If you have any squirty bottles, these are also great for building up the muscles in hands. Fill with water and spray onto the pavement. You could make targets for the children to aim at. You can also introduce numbers/shapes/colours/letters to this activity for them to aim too.