Tag Archives: Classroom

Reindeer Fine Motor Craft {Photo Friday}

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Welcome to Photo Friday, a place where I share photos of therapeutic tools and ideas that can help boost your child’s development. Please give me feedback on my ideas — I love hearing how they go over with other kids!

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fine motor

For preschoolers and Kindergarteners who need to work on cutting and fine motor skills, try this simple reindeer craft. Since the body and head are oval-shaped, they serve as a nice transition from learning to cut straight lines to learning to cut circles (since two of the sides are relatively flat). You can pre-cut the antlers if you know your student will struggle so much with them that it will cause extreme frustration. You can also draw a small circle on white paper for the child to color first (coloring smaller shapes requires more fine motor precision), then cut, then glue on as a nose. They can even cut out or draw on a face if they want.

Ask questions about all the different body parts needed (yes, even a neck!), ask about what the body parts are for (be prepared for some funny answers), and then you can even sing the “Mat Man” song from Handwriting Without Tears after each set of body parts has been glued on with the glue stick. Just replace the name “Mat Man” with “Rudolph” and you’re good to go! I also did this with the Santa fine motor craft from last week and it served as a great bridge to review what the students had learned previously (Mat Man) and apply it to a new context (different character). If you’re not sure what the Mat Man song is, it’s a great tool for teaching body awareness and spatial orientation necessary for pre-writing skills. Check it out by clicking here.

Have fun creating reindeer crafts!

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3 tricks to help kids learn to hold their pencil correctly

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how to hold a pencil

Pencil grip is one of those things that is really hard to re-teach if kids initially learn it incorrectly. Though every child will end up settling on a pencil grip that works best for him or her, introducing the standard “tripod” grasp (pinching with thumb and index finger while resting on middle finger) is a good place to start. However, this can seem virtually impossible when you’re dealing with five- and six-year-olds who don’t even know their left from right, let alone how to divide up their fingers into different positions.

Given the tricky nature of pencil holding — and its impact on kids’ handwriting skills — I thought I’d share a few OT-based tricks so you can help kids learn how to hold their pencil correctly.

Trick #1: Use shorter pencils.
how to hold a pencilA shorter pencil means less space for cramming in unnecessary fingers. It basically forces kids to pinch with thumb and index finger. This is why the popular curriculum Handwriting Without Tears uses their own brand of short pencils, however, golf pencils work just fine, too. It’s also why occupational therapists often have kids use crayons that have been broken in half if they are having trouble using an age-appropriate grasp. Click here to read more about why kids should use shorter crayons.

Trick #2: Teach them the “pinch and flip”.

If shorter pencils don’t do the trick for your little writer, then teach them the “pinch and flip”. Simply have them pinch the sharpened end of the pencil and then flip it around until it gently rests in the “webspace” (that soft skin between your thumb and index finger) in the ready position. Watch the video below for a less-than-one-minute demonstration and explanation of this trick.


Trick #3: Have them hide something under their last two fingers.
how to hold a pencilIf shorter pencils and the “pinch and flip” don’t work, then try having students hide something under their pinky and ring fingers. These two fingers are supposed to bend toward the palm while the thumb, index, and middle fingers do all the work. However, sometimes kids have a hard time with this because they can’t yet “separate” the two sides of their hand (the pinky side and the thumb side). This trick will take care of that. It really doesn’t matter what they hide under their last two fingers, as long as they can comfortably do so without their fingers bulging out from their hand because the item is too big, or having to squeeze too tightly because it’s too small. Try using a small ball of playdough, cotton ball, marble, bead, crumpled piece of tissue paper, or tiny rubbery toy.

What other tricks have you discovered to help kids hold their pencil correctly?

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