Upper Pre-school have been making the most of the windy weather!  The children really enjoy practising making their ribbons create the ‘sssssss snake’ and using them to ‘curl around the caterpillar’ for ‘c’.

It is crucial that children build their gross motor skills by using the large muscles in their arms, legs and torso.  Children rely on gross motor skills for lots of different activities, including mark making and writing.  These gross motor skills can be more complex than you think because they also involve the neurological system.  Here at the Ark, we ensure children have regular access to climbing and balancing equipment, plus a wealth of gross motor activities as these skills form the foundations for early writing.

We aim to use large scale movement to cross the imaginary line down the body (this is known as crossing the mid-line).  This hand-eye coordination is so important for ensuring that children in our care have a strong foundation for good co-ordination, stability and writing.

Things to try at home:

  • Streamers or ribbons (think Olympic gymnast and add jumps/twirls!)
  • Create your own assault course (use tunnels to climb through & different ways of moving)
  • Construction blocks – creating structures and balancing towers
  • Threading beads – can they make a repeating pattern of colours / shapes?
  • Percussion instruments – especially xylophones or instruments that require one hand to hold the instrument & the other hand to beat a rhythm/tap a beat
  • Craft activities (stickers, folding, cutting and gluing)
  • Twister! Create your own outside using chalks!

http://www.gonoodle.com is a great (free!) online resource with short clips to help children explore ways of moving to music.  There is a lovely section on mindfulness too, which mixes elements of breathing and moving at the same time.

I hope this has been useful!

Emma

Early Years Teacher

Windy Weather for Writing

Whoosh!