Fine Motor 101

Fine motor is a skill that is very important but also very much overlooked.  In the younger grades, children need fine motor skills in order to write, cut, glue, and much more.

As a primary teacher, I am seeing more and more children coming in lacking in fine motor skills.  They have difficulty holding and manipulating a pencil or crayons.  They don't have the hand strength for something as simple as playing with playdoh.  We may have advanced our children more with technology, but at what price?  They can operate an Ipad or a smart phone, but they can't roll playdoh into a snake.  Really?

So often, when I child has poor fine motor the first suggestion is "just give them a pencil grip."  Pencil grips are great, don't get me wrong.  They are especially helpful for teaching kids the right grip.  But they do not help kids with muscle control. They don't help with small strokes.  They don't make kids use their wrist.  So how can you fix this?  Let me tell you.

Some of the first things that I do in the classroom is work to build my students' hand muscles.  You will have to blame my mom (the OT with Hand Therapy Certification) for this but it is so important!  Without strengthening their hands, they will not be able to use a pencil or even a crayon well.  You often see these kids are the ones that can't make the small strokes with a crayon, that they need in order to stay inside the lines.  These children will move their entire arm while coloring and writing.  They need to be retrained to only move their wrist. So how do you do that?  I am going to give you some ideas today that you can incorporate into the things that you already do so that it is not ONE MORE THING!  We want to blend it into our everyday lessons and hopefully just make you, as the teacher, more aware of developing these skills in your primary classroom.

 Welcome to Fine Motor 101!

Switch to golf pencils!  Little hands need little pencils.  Can you imagine writing with one of these bad boys?

No? That's because it is too big for your hand!  Your pencils should match the size of your hand.  Do you ever wonder why it is easier for a kid to color with a crayon than to write with a pencil?  Or why kids will try to sneak around and write in crayon rather than a pencil?  It is because it is more comfortable for them.  Crayons fit into their hands easier and they are able to control it by moving their wrist.  With fat pencils, kids are more likely to move their entire arm to write because it takes all of their hand muscles just to hold the thing.  To me, it just makes logical sense, but if you need research to back it up, check out Handwriting Without Tears.  They have so much great research on this subject.  They also sell little pencils if you want ones with erasers but I have found that golf pencils work just as well and are cheaper!

Don't always force them to sit, back straight, elbows up, feet on the floor.  When you write, do you sit like that?  Sometimes, I am not even sitting!  Not every kid is the same and not every writer is the same.  Some kids need to be standing to be good writers.  It gives them the ability to lean into the table and plant their elbow down so that they can manipulate just their wrist.  I teach these kids to slide their paper up as they write or to slide their elbow down.... whichever works for them.

Some kids do better as belly writers!  Babies do not get nearly enough belly time these days and when they come to Kindergarten it is evident!  Some kids do better with writing when they can support their core by laying on the floor.  It also forces them to keep their elbow still while manipulating their wrist.  This is perfect for a kid that likes to move their whole arm while writing.  Laying on their belly makes it impossible for them to move their whole arm.  They need to be able to support themselves up with that arm, while using their wrist to write!  Some of my kids with the best handwriting are belly writers!

Incorporate find motor skills into your learning centers.

I have some great centers that you can add to your literacy (or even math!) that will build fine motor while also building their early literacy skills!

These are some free resources that I found that I love! Click on the image to go to the link and pick up your copy.

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I have these laminated on card stock. I have the students place pom poms on the circles.  The trick is, they have to use clothespins!  Each student gets a clothespin.  They use their forefinger and their thumb to squeeze the clothespin for picking up the pom pom and placing it on the circle.  This is great for building hand muscle and it reviews letters at the same time! 

Kids that do not have a lot of muscle strength or coordination will complain about this activity at first.  But they will get better at it!

Again, this is another great freebie!

Students can use a q-tip for dotting the letters with paint.  Make sure that they don't try to draw lines, because they like to cheat!!  haha

I have also used a dotted font to spell out the student's names and sight words for this activity.  I use the Hello Zipper font from Hello Literacy.  If you make it very large, it works perfectly!  You can get it for free too!

Pokey pinning is a great exercise in fine motor.  My kids each get a push pin and use it to poke through each dot on the page.  We attach our paper to a piece of construction paper. Have students lay on their belly on a carpeted area to do this activity.  When it is finished, we hang our construction paper in the window so we can see the sunlight shine through.

You can find a bunch of these on TPT!

Playdoh is great for building hand muscles!  So many kids don't know how to play with Playdoh these days!  Use playdoh mats to have  students create letters, numbers, sight words, and more!  Just rolling out the playdogh builds muscle and coordination. 

Having students string letter beads onto pipe cleaners builds motor coordination.  You can have them create their name, CVC words, sight words, and more!

Combine Letter Beads and Playdoh!

Mix some letter beads into your playdoh tub.  Have students work through the playdoh to pick out all of the letter beads. You can have them place the beads on a mat.  You can get some free mats that I made by clicking on the pages below.

 

I hope you have found some great ideas and resources for incorporating fine motor in your classroom!


By the way, I am now at The Primary Treehouse instead of Hanging Out in First!

 

10 Literacy Applications for Google Apps

Google apps for the Classroom are THE thing for teachers right now, and why is that? Well, they're FREE, allow collaboration in real time, save automatically, allow instant sharing, and require little training. Today, in my post, I would like to share a few ways you might use these apps for literacy purposes.

Google Calendar

You may be scratching your head at how a calendar could be used for literacy instruction, but how about using it to map out your literacy instruction with colleagues. If you share your calendar or use the same calendar as a team, you can easily coordinate your resources, keep everyone on the same page for the grading period, and better plan your meetings. You can also use Calendar to manage library checkout/checkin for your classroom library. Simply have your students type in the title they're borrowing on the calendar. It may not ensure the book gets returned, but it may make tracking them easier. 

Google Forms

I LOVE Google Forms. You can do so many things with forms. For one, you can take anecdotal records by student and have all the data populate into a spreadsheet for you. That means you have an ongoing collection of all of your notes which we know is helpful in documentation growth.

You can also use forms for instruction with exit tickets, quick quizzes, to record answers to task cards you might use, to take class polls about reading materials, or to learn about your students' interests. Again, the data all goes into your spreadsheet for an easy place to see what your students know or don't know.

Many of us use reading logs to monitor independent reading. With Google Forms, you can have students complete a form each day to monitor their own progress. Need to do a spot check? Just print the spreadsheet and hold a conference.

Google Sites

You might be wondering how Google Sites could help you. It may even seem like that would be way to much to take on, but we know there is a great connection between reading and writing, right? How about creating a Google Site as your students are researching animals. Have them outline what they learn and add details as they read/learn. They can insert photos, and you can even share the link to the creation with parents later. Worried about confidentiality? No problem. You can set the privacy on the sites just like you can with blogger to allow viewing by the public or just those who have the URL.

Another option of Google Sites is to make a class portfolio. Each student can have a page where you insert photos of the work they've created. How neat would that be to show at conference time?

Google Slides

Google Slides works just like Powerpoint. You can easy to drop video clips into presentations, embed a Google form into it, and add links to materials in your Google drive. Google Slides doesn't have all the bells and whistles that Powerpoint has, but it is FREE. 

Google Docs

Certainly, one HUGE benefit to Google Docs is sharing. As a team, you can collaborate on plans and share ideas. It's easy to include links you want to use, materials your division has for you, Youtube links, and more. If you use Google Calendar, you can put the plan links into you calendar. Don't finish a lesson or find students need reteaching? No problem...just slide to the next day in your calendar.

One idea I've enjoyed is using a doc as a dialogue journals. Students can record their thoughts about their reading (quotes and their reflections), discuss with their literature circle without talking outloud, write quick writes on a a specific topic you're studying, and as teachers, we can easily work with students on revisions as we conference too. Add in Google Classroom, and it makes turning in and returning work easy too.

Google Sheets

Google sheets are perfect for RTI. We can track our students' data and easily print/share it with our administration. I love that you can color code your sheet to make it easy to see deficit areas too.

Google Hangout

Google Hangout works like Skype, so you could use it for guest presenters who may not be able to come to you. You might even use it discuss with colleagues in the next room or connect up with other classrooms to have virtual book clubs. Imagine how fun it'd be to have virtual pen pals in another classroom and actually SEE them receive your letters. Just use your imagination, and you're sure to come up with great ways to use this tool.

Google Classroom

Google Classroom pulls it all together. It is an integration tool, and I LOVE IT! I used it last year as a set up in my classroom. We have one-to-one laptops, and my kids just knew to log in and get started. As they began, it gave me time to work one-on-one with those who needed assistance. I also love that students can turn in their work and receive grades through Google Classroom.

Certainly, there are a lot of great posts out about Google Apps with more detail as well as tutorials offered through Google, but I hope this gives you a few literacy options to explore.

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Reading Wellness ~ How Is Your Reading Health?

It's summer, and I am excited to join my fellow Literacy Land friends as we journey into the book Reading Wellness by Jan Miller Burkins and Kim Yaris. I have seen that many of us have also been reading Who's Doing the Work? which is the book they wrote after this one. As a team, we will work to introduce you to this amazing book and help you and your students have "Reading Wellness"!

Greetings from Reading in Room 11

Hi!  My name is Jenn from Reading in Room 11 and I am thrilled to be joining The Adventures in Literacy Land.  Through this blog I hope to share some reading strategies for struggling readers as well as some quick and easy interventions.  I am about to start my 13th year of teaching as a K-5 Instructional Specialist in Reading, and 9 of those years were also spent as a Special Education teacher.

Teaching was not on my radar in any way, not even when I started college. As a kid, I always dreamed of being a veterinarian but when I realized I would have to give an animal a shot that was no longer a career path for me!   Through a random series of events I ended up as a 1:1 Aide for a student with special needs in a preschool and that was truly a life changing event.  From that moment on I knew that I had to be a Special Education teacher and so that is what I set out to do!  Along the way I also became an Instructional Specialist.

I have a quick teacher tip for you that is a fun way to keep students engaged in a whole/small group activity - Teacher vs. Students!  Groups ask to play this daily and it makes any activity much more fun. Spoiler Alert: the teacher never wins and that’s just how the kids like it!  Here are some ways that I use it with my groups:

1. Phonological Awareness Warm Up

When we start each group we practice phonological awareness.  Each student takes a turn blending or segmenting a word and if they get it right their team gets a point - if they get it wrong I get the point.  Since this is a task that can be tricky I am always generous with the points!

2. Letter Sounds/Sight Words/High Frequency Words/Phonetically Regular Words/any name you have for words on flashcards

Same concept as #1 - if they get the word right they get a point and if they don’t I get the point.  Depending on the student, I often offer a hint or give them another chance to read the word.  I’m sure you are beginning to see why I never win, but that’s ok because the smiles on their faces when they get a point and I don't is worth it!

3.Self-Monitoring

I’m sure that we have all encountered a reader that just blows through the text and butchers sentences without stopping if something doesn’t sound right or makes sense.  For this use of Teacher vs. Student each student in the reading group gets their own score card.  When I take turns listening to them read I give them a point if they stop when something doesn’t make sense and another point if they use a strategy to decode the word.  If I have to stop them to say they skipped a word/missed a word/read it incorrectly, I get the point.  The score is often a lot closer when we play this way, but it is a great way to get kids to slow down and think about what they are reading.

Game Over:

When the game is over the students are always happy with the win and sometimes that is enough!  Other times I let them get an extra sticker or let one of the students take the score card home.  Once in awhile I rip it up into hundreds of tiny pieces and throw it in the trash declaring that we will never play this silly game again because I never win!

Thank you so much for taking the time to learn about me and how you can help engage and motivate your students with this simple game.  Can you think of another way to use this game?  Let me know in the comments!

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Some Tech for your Tuesday

In January, I wrote about some of the apps I use in my kindergarten class.  A couple people asked for some more technology ideas, and I thought summer might be a great time for you to be able to try some out for yourself.

The first one isn't really literacy related, but my kiddos and families loved using SeeSaw this year!  I decided to give it a try in November after seeing it mentioned a few places.  It was great for accountability at center time as well as a great parent communication piece.  One of my families dubbed it "Facebook for 5 year olds".

My kids' favorite thing to post to their account was Reader's Theater or reading a book aloud.  I do not allow them to take my classroom library books home.  They get homework books (Reading A-Z) and we visit the school library weekly and our public library bookmobile bi-weekly so I keep classroom library books at school.  They love sharing their favorites with their families via SeeSaw now.  When presenting a Reader's Theater, I have a child in the back of the carpet area record the students and upload it to their accounts.  All items come to me for approval before being seen by families.  This is how I tie in the accountability at centers and assess work.  Families are also able to now download from SeeSaw, which is great for those who want a print copy of access longer than just the school year.  It was a very positive experience for us, and I can't wait to use it again next year!

WordFoto ($1.99) is something I used for back to school 2 years ago.  My kiddos took pictures of one another then had to "interview" each other to find out some of their favorite things.  You then type the words in the app and it covers your photo with the words.  These were hanging in our room for Open House, which we do about 4 weeks into the school year.  You can read a little more about our little project in a post I wrote at the time of the project.

One thing my students struggle with, especially at the beginning of the year, is mouse skills.  This impedes their ability to use certain websites, especially our district mandated iReady.  They love the games on Mini Mouse.  These games are fun for them, but help them practice moving the mouse to clip the objects that are part of the game.

I hope maybe this gives you an idea or two of something you can try in the coming school year.  I'd love to hear any ideas you have too!

6 Things To Do with Paint Chips

I can't help it.  There is something about those multi-hue swatches that is so appealing.  I used them when I taught a scrapbook class on colors.  AND I love the commercials from Sherman-Williams using animated paint chips.   (It's long, so just watch a few seconds.)

I can't help it.  There is something about those multi-hues that is so appealing.  I used them when I taught a scrapbook class on colors.  AND I love the commercials from Sherman-Williams using animated paint chips.   Here are a few ideas for using them in your classroom.

1. Vocabulary Gradients

I love this idea.  It's a play on "Said is dead!"  If you want your students to stop using "generic" adjectives like cold, hot, small, and big, give them other ideas.  True text gradients, show words on a scale...icy is colder than cold, but arctic is colder than icy.  However, using smaller or shortened paint chips, even kindergarten can use it to describe "small" as tiny, little, or itty-bitty.  Vocabulary gradients can be alternative adjectives.  Students can also be given a mentor text to hunt for words on the gradient.  In the book "Shiver Me Letters:  A Pirate ABC," students can work in pairs in a word hunt to find words for said and write them on the paint chips.  They can find roared, cried, yelled, questioned, and moaned.) Later, when they are writing you can encourage them to make their writing "colorful."

2. Word Family Fluency Flips

As a word family is introduced, this is fun way to practice changing the onset.  Write several words from a single family on a colored strip and secure them with a ring.  Providing the students with word family words on a ring can create a fluency activity for independent reading.  

3. Fill in the Blanks

I would suggest laminating these cards and allowing students to use a dry erase marker, but make sure they know they can't erase until someone checks their work.  You can even tell them to write it with dry erase first, then copy the strips to a piece of paper.  This could also be adapted for several math activities, including filling in the missing addend, counting by 2, 5, or 10's, multiplication facts, and patterns.

4. Compound Words

This is a "newfangled" (it's a word) paint chip is great for anything that needs to be constructed or deconstructed.  Again, laminate and use dry erase.  They set above is for compound words, but it could be used for prefixes, suffixes, contractions, and...who knows what else.  Again, this can be used for math with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts (to name a few).

5. Summary Bookmarks

This activity combines three of my favorite things:  The Magic Tree House, SWBSA, and paint chips. Providing students with a bookmark for their summary is the perfect way to create a reading response activity.  If you'd like a full description of the summary strategy Somebody, Wanted, But, So, And, CLICK HERE. These can also be laminated for extended use.

6. Classroom Fun

Finally, this is just a fun one.  I loved making these ornaments at our Winter Party.  

Want more?

Check out my Pinterest Board for Paint Chips.

Be Fair

Don't clean out any paint supply section.  Get what you need here and there...and laminate when you can. For those of you who don't have access to paint chips, I made a sample pack of things to do.  If you'd like the Paint Chip Samples, click the link.

SO this is my mini-obsession.  Do you use these differently? Although I posted this originally on my blog, Cathy Collier's The W.I.S.E. Owl, I thought it was definitely worth the re-post.  I hope you agree.