4th of July Crafts and Fine Motor Work : A Perfect Pair
Happy 4th of July Everyone! I know we are thoroughly excited at my house. I posted a last minute craft idea Last Minute 4th of July Craft on Friday.
Let me remind you that we aren’t typically crafty people, but after some success early last week we have tried a few other things. This post is about some of the other craft type activities. I am trying to incorporate more crafts (even for my soon to be middle school age son) because they are so good for fine motor skills (and other skills needed for handwriting).
I highly suggest checking out OT mom learning activities for more ideas on what the skills for handwriting are and how to strengthen them.
We painted candlesticks. That may seem like no big deal, but for me it was a very big deal. It took several (4-5) coats of paint and everyone wanted to help from toddler up. I wanted to poke my eye out I found it challenging to manage at times, but my kids were really proud of themselves.
We worked on holding a brush and strengthening those muscles in the hand. I always forget how much kids love to paint and then see their paintings or artwork in use. We painted these candlesticks white and then put in the candles. They aren’t perfect according to designer standards, but they are perfect to me (as a recovering perfectionist, I’m always trying to improve in this area).
We made colored rice and did flower arranging. This is similar to what I saved on pinterest. I had to change my coloring a little because I was out of red!
Instead of red, we used maroon and orange and it made a nice rust. The additiona of a few drops of black to the blue to make it darker. I don’t understand how I could have maroon, orange, and black, but no red either. In my defense, the other weird colors came in a fall box of food coloring.
I am thrilled with how cute they turned out. This was a great task for working on motor planning, spatial perception, organization skills, and many others that can impact handwriting.
The last thing we did used tissue paper and is similar to crafts I did when I was in school. I loved it when I was a kid and my kids seemed to enjoy it, too.
This is a project that can take a little while, but is totally worth it. We let them dry and then sewed them onto a burlap canvas. They are sitting on our mantle now. I love their sweetness!
Our Teachable moments
There were many, but the top three things were:
- hand eye coordination
- fine motor practice
- a lively discussion on the meaning of three D
I am very encouraged by the things I have done with the kids over the last week. I hope that we can continue so my learners are not so easily fatigued when writing in the fall, plus now I have beautiful arts & crafts to display. You might like to check out my pinterest board for handwriting. What do you do to help your older kids with their handwriting skills?
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