Keeping Preschoolers Busy: Hands On Activities To Build Hand-Eye Coordination
Keeping preschoolers busy is the key to a successful day with little ones. When their curiosity is peaked, young children will investigate, explore and create within the world around them. Having a few hands on activities prepared ahead of time will help the day run more smoothly.
Creating Spider Webs
To give children a chance at working with scissors and yarn, you can make a spider web creation with the young ones in your care. For supplies, you will need paper plates, yarn, some fake spiders and scissors. Have the children cut along the edges of the plate, making a cut roughly every inch or so. Once the plate is cut along the entire edge of the circle, it's time to make the spider web. Tie a knot at one end of a piece of yarn. Slip the yarn through one of the cuts in the plate, using the knot as an anchor to hold the yarn in place on the plate. Have the child wind the yarn through cuts in the plate, creating a web design.
Once the web is made, have the child place one of the fake spiders in the web for a fun, decorative art creation.
Dream Catchers are Another Similar Activity
If creating a spider web isn't interesting to your little ones, it's possible that they would be interested in making a dream catcher instead. Using the same techniques, have the child wrap the yarn around the plate in a web. Attach more yarn at the bottom of the plate, so that there are a few pieces hanging down to tie or glue items to. Bring out some craft feathers and let your little ones decorate their dream catchers any way that they choose. Once the dream catcher is dry, attach a string to the top so that the dream catcher can be hung somewhere in the classroom or at home.
It's also possible to simply have a craft and create station set up for preschoolers, that contains a combination of tactile materials they can use to make up their own craft. A montessori education, such as taught at schools like North End Montessori School, is one of exploration and creativity, so by providing the materials without having a craft project to recreate can spark the imagination of young preschoolers. With a good variety of colored paper, old magazines, glue sticks, scissors, feathers and markers, children will come up with all kinds of craft projects that enhance their hand-eye coordination.