Tear & Paste

There is so much that I don't know about little kid development.

What I do know?  

Gross and fine motor skills are a huge part of learning.  

If they weren't, we would have 3rd graders who can't tie their own shoes or cut out a picture, etc

The other day I ran across a "Cut, Fold & Tear" book for preschoolers.  

 

I was intrigued.

Of course I didn't buy it because I didn't think the activities looked all that difficult to reproduce.

This morning we were talking about the letter Hh that Adelyn learned yesterday.

We were creating H and h with marshmallows and I realized that I could use the above concept with our Alphabet learning.  So I did a quick google images search for "Letter H worksheets".

I decided on THIS one because it was chunky enough to fill with more paper, but there were a million choices.

I printed 3 copies (so I could model/play too!)

Each of us chose a color of construction paper and got to tearing them into little pieces. It's quite soothing :) and I realized how difficult this was for Adelyn. It actually takes some fine motor capabilities for tearing and it was great for Charlotte too (it was easier, but not "easy" per say) 

Charlotte had the most patience (of course) and even used some patterns

An unforeseen benefit is that Charlotte got to practice using glue alone

Adelyn's patience ebbed and flowed, so she would work for a couple of minutes, then run around for a few minutes.  I completely expect this, but was really proud of her that she "finished" without much prompting.  It's obvious from her final product that she was more patient in the beginning, but she's 2.  Who cares?

 

Charlotte's finished product (left) and Adelyn's (right).  After Charlotte wrote her name at the bottom of hers, Adelyn decided to do some of her own writing :)