TOTSCHOOLING: April 2017

Friday 28 April 2017

Thumb printing and matching

Thumb Printing in strawberry

Matching (thinking skill activity)

Touch your head and wiggle

Children jump, dance, wiggle, enjoy and grow together. Doing gross motor development activities and learning parts of body in a fun way.

https://youtu.be/RT7l7ylvWHk

Thursday 27 April 2017

Matching look alike, finger tip printing, standing/sleeping line

MATCHING

In the matching look alike worksheet, the students were able to recognise the objects and match them with their identical ones. It enhanced their thinking skill. They also got a chance to work on the smart board.

Finger Tip Painting

SLEEPING AND STANDING LINE

TIPS FOR THE PARENTS:

Help your ward to practice the sleeping and standing lines.
Do colour filling with yellow/red colour in any bold picture at home.

Wednesday 26 April 2017

Celebrating Yellow Colour Day

Tiny tots of P.S Primus gleamed with hues of yellow colour. Mangoes readily available in the summer season was an added advantage today.

Yellow colour day was celebrated with children wearing Yellow T-Shirts, having mango party.

They enjoyed listening to the Yellow colour story.

Doing 'SHOW AND TELL' activity with yellow objects and making balls with yellow coloured play dough.

Standing line and ear bud painting

This transdisciplinary, pre writing activity of holding ear buds helps the children learn to make a firm grip on writing tools. Also, gives a clear idea of the part of the body 'eyes'.

STANDING LINES

Tuesday 25 April 2017

Sleeping Lines

Children learned to draw sleeping line in the direction left to right.

Colouring in the balloon as a part of developing pre writing skills.

Instructions given:

1. Make a thick boundary first.

2. Then colour in the figure by moving hand from left to right and right to left.

3. Do not leave any white space.

Monday 24 April 2017

Awarding Certificates

Children awarded certificates for making PLEDGE PLATES on Earth Day.

Scribbling and standing lines

Scribbling in a circle

Children were given a crayon to scribble within a defined area i.e the circle to bring about writing readiness.

Worksheet on standing line

The children moved their hand from top to bottom to make a standing line.

Writing Readiness Activities

Many kids struggle in the area of handwriting for various reasons. They don’t enjoy the process or they tire easily, fine motor skills are not developed like they should be for handwriting, and a variety of other reasons. Doing some fun handwriting warm up activities can help them to prepare for writing, not only mentally but physically.

Shoulder and finger handwriting warm up activities for kids.

I usually start warm up activities starting with the large muscles first and then working down to the smaller muscles. In therapy terms this is called distal (muscles farthest away from the ones you are focusing on) and proximal (muscles directly next to or close by the ones you are working on).

In the case of handwriting, the finger muscles are the ones you are primarily focusing on, but you want to start with the shoulder and arm muscles first for warm ups.

Shoulder Warm-Up Activities for Handwriting:

Chair And Desk Push-ups

Chair Push-Ups: Begin this by sitting straight in your chair and gripping the sides of the chair, thumbs facing towards the fingers and pressing against the underside of the chair. Using the arm muscles, push up from the bottom of the chair. The feet should should up slightly from the floor.

Desk Push-Ups: Start with your hands flat on the top of the desk with the tips of the thumbs and index finger facing each other to create a triangle. Bend your elbows to bring your nose towards the triangle in your fingers, then push up with the arms to straighten your elbows.

Shoulder Shrugs

Shoulder warm up activities prepare the arms for writing and may help to release tension in the neck and shoulder.

Shrug your shoulders up and down and then front to back. To describe this to your child you can tell them to lift their shoulders to touch their ears and then push them back down. For front to back it will feel like you are trying to push your scapula together in the back, much like a shoulder bench press when working out.

Crocodile Movement/Snaps

Raise your arms in the air with one above the other. Then snap your hands together like a crocodile snapping its jaw. Take turns having the left and right arm above each other for this activity.

Air Traffic Controller

Start with your elbows bent and your hands in a fist in front of each shoulder. Then straighten your elbows, moving one arm out from the body and the other arm to the side of your body. Alternate arms back and forth.

You can also use this to practice crossing midline by crossing the hands and arms while doing the movement.

Butterflies

Begin with your arms straightened in front of your body. Like your thumbs together to make an “X” and turn your hands facing out. Using the shoulders to move, make small circles with the hands, moving from left to right (remember to do this movement from the shoulders, not the fingers or hand).

Finger Warm Up Activities for Handwriting:

Now that the shoulders and neck are loosened and ready for writing, let’s move on to the hand and fingers!

Put On Imaginary Gloves

Pull on your “gloves” by applying firm pressure to the fingers and back of the each hand. This provides proprioceptive and tactile feedback and prepares the muscles for movement.

Finger Push-Ups

Place the tips of your fingers together and straighten the fingers while pushing the finger tips against each other.

Piano Fingers

Drum your fingers on the table or desk as if playing the piano. Make sure each finger touches the desk. You can also work on fast vs. slow movements with this. “How slowly can you play the piano?” “How fast can you play the piano?” “Can you use both hands together to play the piano?” (works on bilateral coordination skills).

Pencil Twirls

Get your pencils out and start to twirl them in the air like a baton, spinning them both horizontally and vertically in the air. This combines some shoulder and finger exercises together.

Inchworm

Make sure your child is holding the pencil with an appropriate grasp like the tripod or quadruped grasp. Move your fingers along the pencil from tip to tip, starting at the bottom and working towards the top. Then back down to the bottom of the pencil. Make sure you are only using your writing hand for this one, do not help out with the opposite hand.

Once your kids get the hang of these activities it should only take you 5-10 minutes at the most to complete them all. Then their muscles will be all warmed up and ready for handwriting!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5RUzkySseE