20+ Simple Hands-On Activities That Help Build Fine Motor Skills - with fine motor skills going missing at preschool, try some of these hands-on invitations to help strengthen fine motor skills | you clever monkey
Use hands-on and engaging activities with math manipulatives to reinforce one-to-one correspondence skills, number formation, counting and more!
Free Hands-On Math Printables for learning symmetry! Students LOVE these symmetry pattern block printables, great for preschool math learning centers.
These animal adaptation centers are the perfect activity to give your students hands-on experiences with science. Students absolutely LOVE these activities. These science learning centers get the students fully engaged and immersed in their learning. They have a blast learning about different animal adaptations. I even had one student tell me, "I can not wait for science time to work on our animal adaptation centers, and this is the first time I've ever liked science!" *INCLUDED* 10 science learning center ideas for animal adaptations Teacher directions for setting up the 10 pre-made centers Materials lists Student Directions Powerpoint to use to show the students what they will do at each center with pictures Student direction cards to place at each center Pictures of all 10 centers in action Printable booklet for students to record responses about each center EDITABLE PowerPoint if you would like to change or modify any of the centers You can edit the student direction cards and the answer booklet. If you don't have time to set up all the centers for students to complete with partners or small groups, you can also set them up for whole class experiments and activities! These learning centers give students hands-on experiences with the information they are learning about animal adaptations. This makes the information easily understandable and more meaningful for the students! 10 Pre-made centers focus on: Bird Beaks Camouflage Live Animal Cameras Online Animal Games Thumbs Webbed Feet Thorns & Spikes Claws Bird Feathers Camouflage Check out the preview to see the directions for the 10 pre-made centers that you can use in your classroom today! ✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧ ✧✧✧Connect with Giving Grace Teaching✧✧✧ ⭐ Follow me for notifications of new products that are offered for 50% off for the first 48 hours! ⭐Stay in the know about FLASH FREEBIES, new products, and sales! Facebook Instagram Email ✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧ Check out some of my other products you might be interested in: IXL Tic Tac Toe Boards for Math and Language in 2nd, 3rd, & 4th Grade 3rd Grade Multiplication Centers Multiplication and Division Sorts Identifying Fractions Boom Cards Student Binder Covers Girls and Boys EDITABLE
Help kindergarteners compare length & use appropriate vocabulary with this FREE "Shorter and Longer" activity. Great hands on practice for comparing length.
As the weather gets nicer outside and summer approaches, as teachers we have to keep our students engaged and excited about their learning. We all know that our students love hands on-activities and these geoboard activities are perfect for a math or literacy center to provide your students with meaningful and exciting activities. If you don't have geoboards for your classroom yet, you can find the set that I used here: Geoboards (affiliate link) These geoboard activities are simple, yet challenge your students by allowing them to construct pictures out of shapes and identify the shapes they find. They are perfect for tactile learners and will challenge students to extend their thinking. We have been having so much fun working with spring geoboard pictures (these are all free at the end of the post) . Your students will love creating these spring themed pictures on geoboards. Included are two different levels of pictures, an easier and a more difficult, a great way to differentiate for students. Once they create the picture, on their recording sheet they can then label the picture (a great way to tie in literacy) and identify the shapes they found in their picture. This is a great way to extend their thinking about shapes. Included are 10 different pictures for students to create, each with 2 different levels of difficulty. If your students enjoy these, I also have geoboard sets available for all holidays and all seasons as a bundle that you can grab at discount price. Your students will love the hands on aspect of them and great to rotate themes throughout the year as a math or literacy center.Each set contains both small cards and large cards with 10 different pictures and 2 different levels for each picture. You can grab the spring pictures as a freebie here. I hope that you and your students enjoy this freebie and you have a great end of your school year!
Do you reinvent the wheel every single week when it comes to centers, word work, stations.....whatever you happen to call them? Yeah, me too! I know better, I swear I do but it just never fails. I am here today to tell you that there IS A BETTER WAY! Let me begin by saying I am a big fan of Daily 5. I run my room about as closely to the Daily 5 model as possible but this is one area I just never could give in on. The sisters suggest having out materials for students to build words, write words, and work with words during this choice. It is that simple. It is called word work after all right? I have always felt the need for my work work choices to be very specific so that students could be working on what I wanted them to be working on. Wait a minute.....that's the opposite of Daily 5 philosophy. It's all about CHOICE and becoming a BETTER READER so why am I making all of the choices? So here is what I did. I put as many random materials as I could find in my classroom and made them available to students. THAT'S IT! Along with a sight word list to use as a reference and one fun morning of showing them what it was all about and I haven't looked back since. They are working SO HARD during our word work time because they are truly using materials they love and making good choices to become better readers and writers. It has been amazing! Here are a few simple, simple examples. Again...simple! I did not go out of my way for any of these! #1 Magnets I have a couple of really organized sets of magnets and then these just thrown in a clear shoe box. Guess which one gets picked the most? You guessed it! Maybe it's the bright colors or maybe kids are just drawn to chaos. Either way it's a win! #2 Wiki Sticks I lied. I did go out of my way for this one just because I've always wanted to use them. My students think they are really fun! One of my kiddos who struggles the most during word work time (and refuses to use a sight word list) spelled out "tatr tot" last week using these. He was pretty impressed with himself and I was too! I got these from Amazon. You can see them through my affiliate link HERE. #3 Pom poms I've used these for fine motor before but I've never just included them in word work. They get picked every round! I didn't originally tell them to use a cookie sheet to build on but I like how it keeps everything in one space. They came up with that idea. #4 Beads I had these from the Dollar Tree for my fine motor bins too so I just included them in word work for now. They are REALLY interesting to build with because you have to pick up each bead and set it on its side so it won't roll away. The cookie sheet came in really handy for this one. #5 Plain OLD white boards I have really old yucky white boards. Guess what? They don't care! I set them all on the shelf and they pick one, a marker, and a sock (they are baby socks) and write their sight words. Marker dry? DON'T COME GET ME! Just throw it out and get a new one! I put an old assortment of markers in here so we could weed out the bad ones. TIP! Put your sight word list in a sheet protector and students can cross off words as they write them. My students figured out that organization tip too. I love when they help me figure things out! #6 Letter Tiles These came with our Reading Street materials and they are really fun for building CVC words because there are so many vowels included. I encouraged them to work on sight words but I noticed one student building CVC words, blending them together, and then sorting them into real words and make believe words.You better believe I had him share out at the end of word work to show his classmates and now everyone is doing it too. Instant center.....no prep! #7 Scrabble Tiles Seriously though. I have been collecting these forever and I NEVER use them because well.....honestly I didn't know what to do with them. It bothered me a little that they were all capitals but guess what? My kids don't care! They love using the little stand to build words with and it does not matter one little bit that they are all capitals. #8 Letter Stamps I had these already and they are always a part of our word work so this was a station that just stayed the same. I do like that they have to focus on our new words of the week for this one. I have to be in a (little) bit of control sometimes! But my 2nd grade colleague just has blank paper at this station and they stamp any word they want. I'm sure my kiddos would love that too! I might switch it out and have them do that next week. You can get the STAMPS HERE and the STAMP PAD HERE. These are affiliate links which means I get a small amount if purchase through the link at no additional cost to you. Seriously love these though and they have lasted a long time! #9 Paper Centers Yes....I still need a little bit of control and my theory is that some kids will totally love using all of the hands on stuff but some kids still want to complete a paper like a cut and glue, word search, or write the room. I didn't do away with all centers, I just added all of the fun word work centers into what we already had going. BUT! This has already saved me a ton of time in the planning department. I put out 4 papers for the week and that's it. All my centers are planned for! You can see the centers I have available that are aligned with Reading Street stories HERE. This week our story is The Little Engine That Could. You can see the four paper choices on top and then all of the materials stored below. I love these containers from Walmart because the handles on the sides lock the lids down tight and keep beads, wiki sticks, tiles, and pom poms from flying everywhere. I have reflected a little bit on whether these were just working so well because my students are UBER independent right now or because this is just a great fit. I mean really, they are almost 1st graders after all! But I think that these would have worked great at the beginning of the year with some alphabet options just as nicely as they are working now. I put out similar items at the beginning of the year anyway, this would just be some added options. Would I overwhelm my students with all of this in one day. NO WAY! My students have been exposed to all of these items in one way or another (through fine motor stations, word work, or in small group with me) except for the wiki sticks. Those were brand new. I waited a couple of days to add those in to make a BIG deal about them. If this was the beginning of the year I would put out 2 choices until we were really solid with those choices and then add more in. Get the sight word list shown in the pictures that aligns with Reading Street Kindergarten words HERE. These types of centers work great with these Rainbow Word Sight Word lists too! Want to save this post for later? Pin it here! P.S. Get a FREE ALPHABET ACTIVITY when you sign up for my newsletter HERE!
Support your students' fact fluency by grabbing these FREE subitizing dominoes!
Etymology, which is the study of the historical word orgins and their meanings, is a powerful tool for improving vocabulary.
Sunglasses addition puzzle are the PERFECT addition to your math centers! Hands-on math fun for PreK, Kindergarten, or First grade students.
Hands-on math activities for children who love blocks! You can use these printable counting and addition games with your favourite unit blocks to build math towers, supporting early math and fine motor skills. Math towers – block addition activity printables Watch this video to see how you can teach addition to your children: […]
Explore different materials and their properties with this engaging unit. Activities and printables for the Foundation and Prep Year chemistry strand.
Combining sight words and word families is the perfect way to start a child's reading journey. Download free printable worksheets and centers!
Beginning Letter Sounds Alphabet Mats | you clever monkey
I have been on a math kick lately. I think it is because my kids are strugglingggg with basic math concepts lately and it’s killin’ me! We have been learning addition strategies and practicing addition within 20 for two weeks now and my class has just started to pick up their momentum. They are […]
Looking for a fun way to use LEGOS? These LEGO pattern cards are perfect for your little mathematician or building engineer!
Are you looking for hands on back to school math and literacy centers for preschool and kindergarten? Then you will love our Back to School Unit for Preschool. This unit is great for Preschool anytime throughout the year and kindergarten for the first few months.
Playing with snap cubes can provide hours of entertainment for young ones. They will love using these mats to
Use these fun hands-on subitizing clip cards and worksheets to build number sense and subitizing skills with your kindergarten students.
What's the one activity that always brings a smile.......Play-doh! Who doesn't love play dough? I've never been able to resist grabbing some and giving it a squish. Kids are no different. They just love play doh and who could blame them? Play dough is my "go-to" activity for the first few weeks of the year. When we have "meet the teacher" or open house, I always have a small container on each desk so the kids can start playing while I chat with the parents. It's a true lifesaver. So let's use this strong attraction to sneak in a little learning. At the beginning of the year, I love using these fun cards. I can easily differentiate for all my levels. I use the simple "practice" cards for those kids who need a little extra support. Click here for a free set of my practice cards Using the play-doh helps build finger strength and dexterity skills. These skills are so important as our kids learn to write, draw, and use scissors. I can let the kids explore letters, numbers, and shapes. I love using these because at the beginning of the year my kids need a lot of time exploring materials and at the same time I need them to become familiar with the expectations of center time. Play dough is the perfect way to transition into a more academic center. (Just what my boss is looking for). So I make sure I add a "student objective" sheet so my intentions and goals are clear. Let's face it, play-doh looks beautiful the first week, but you let the kids have freedom with playdoh and it won't be long before the play-doh is one big grayish-greenish mixed-up mess. And although I have no problem with them mixing the colors, there is nothing like bright vibrant clay. So my answer is, make it yourself. I have tried lots of play-doh recipes but I've discovered the secret ingredient ....... Cream of Tartar. No, you won't find it on your fish sticks! You'll find this perfect little item in the spice aisle. If you are a baker, you might know Cream of Tartar if you've ever made an Angle Food cake. But there is something about this magic little ingredient that keeps the play dough smooth and the consistency just right. If you'd like a copy of my favorite play-doh recipe and a set of play-doh practice cards click here. I hope you are having a great back-to-school season. Remember to take care of yourself. Teaching little humans is hard work! So treat yourself to take-out pizza Friday night so you can relax. You can see more about this center here.
Measurement concepts benefit from hands-on learning! Help your K-3 learn non-standard units of measure & how to use a ruler. Get 20 ideas for measurement today!
Hello There! It’s been a while since I have written a blog post but I’m back and will be posting more freebies regularly. I’ve been working on a TON of ha
PRIMARY SCIENCE UNIT 1 - THE HUMAN BODY We are so excited to dig into Unit 1 in our science sequence! We kick off science this year with My Body and My Five Senses . It is the perfect place to start science with our primary kiddos. This year we are going to explore and learn about the
Use this Kindness Cookies Kind or Unkind Sort to help students determine what is kind and what is not during this sel center activity.
Students benefit from hands-on activities to help boost their conceptual understanding of math. This focuses on measuring liquid volume.
Hello There! It’s been a while since I have written a blog post but I’m back and will be posting more freebies regularly. I’ve been working on a TON of ha
WHAT IS SUBITIZING? Subitizing is not a term that we use often, but it is an important mathematical concept that can greatly benefit student
Looking for Kindergarten career activities for your elementary school counseling lessons? You'll love these hands-on center activities!
Help your students become multiplication masters.
Read about activities, lessons, and centers you can implement to help teach numbers. Download 6 free activities for your students.
Practice comparing coins with this fun money war game.
This post is part 1 in my inquiry series. To learn more about inquiry click through to see my many other posts about inquiry. If you are new to my blog,
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Fine motor activities are the perfect way to engage your students with interactive and educational activities. As a teacher we are always looking for fun and hands on ways to enhance your kindergarten students' fine motor skills and it's a bonus when you can also incorporate math. Spring Fine Motor Activities Pattern Block Mats Spring Pattern Blocks are an excellent tool for developing fine motor skills and teaching math concepts such as shapes, symmetry, and fractions. In this activity, children can use pattern blocks to create pictures and included are different ability levels. Students can build the pictures, identify the shapes and count how many of each shape is used in the picture. A great way to incorporate math and fine motor activities. Also included are small easy to store task cards that work well for morning work or early finishers. And also a design your own version, which can challenge your students and beneficial to your visual spacial leaners. I love these more opened ended tasks which are so great for differentiation. Students are able to come up with so many different ways to make the same picture. Snap Cube Activities Spring Snap Cube Activities are another hands on and engaging resource for teaching math concepts and developing fine motor skills in your classroom. In this activity, children can create different pictures using snap cubes, sort by color and count how many of each color. This does require counting up to 20 and is a great way to reinforce that kindergarten standard. You will also fine simple to build mats that are to scale for students and a great fine motor activity and does not involve counting. As well as small task cards and can really challenge students and are great to help develop visual spacial awareness. These are small and easy to store and a great activity to keep for morning bins or early finishers. Geoboard Activities Spring Geoboards are also a great tool for developing fine motor skills and teaching math concepts such as symmetry, shapes, and patterns. In this activity, children can use geoboards to create different spring shapes like butterflies, flowers, and and birdhouses. As an extension activity, students to practice identifying shapes they may see in a picture and record on the mats. Each picture includes both and simple and more difficult version with 10 different pictures included. The small geoboard task cards are included as a freebie at the end of this blog post. Spring Building Brick Activities Spring Building Bricks are another fun and engaging fine motor activities to use in your classroom. Your students will love using Legos or other building bricks to create spring themed pictures such as rainbows, ladybugs, butterflies and bird houses. Included are 10 different spring themed pictures with both small easy to store task cards as well as large to scale cards where students can simply build on the mat You can all of these activities in Spring Fine Motor Bundle which includes a variety of templates for Snap Cubes, Pattern Blocks, Building Bricks, Geoboard Boards, and Pom Poms at a 40% discount. Each set contains 10 different spring themed picture for your students to create. You can fine the Free Spring Geoboard Task Cards here
These fine motor activities use various materials for hands-on and engaging learning for your kindergarten students.
Pre-K and TK Activities: Back to School. Letter Recognition, Number Recognition, Counting, Colors, Patterns, Fine Motor Skills, and more!
Help your students become multiplication masters.
Discover fun Balance Scale Activities for Preschoolers! Learn how to use everyday items for teaching weight concepts through engaging balance scale experiments. Ideal for educators and parents eager
Fun ideas for teaching adjectives and descriptive writing that are just right for October and Halloween week in the primary classroom.
Looking for a fun Weather Centers for kids? Check out these 8 Hands-On Weather activities for Preschool or Kindergarten.
These fun and engaging hands on measurement activities will help teachers plan and implement lessons on length, capacity and mass. Includes a FREEBIE!
