Simple Scissor Practice

I bought this alphabet bulletin board border at Dollar Tree about a year ago.  They probably still have it or something similar in the teacher/school section though.  S likes to cut the letters apart.  It makes for a great tray activity and when he is finished, he has fun using the letters to build words. 

Modifying Activities

Good teachers modify their instruction to meet the individual needs of the students in their class. I realized the other day, I can start doing this more at home with the boys as well.

When S was about 18 months, I had made him this disk insert activity. I got it out for M to begin exploring and realized I could easily update it so that S could still learn from it as well. I simply added numbers to each disk so that they needed to be inserted in order.  Now both boys can benefit from the same activity! 

Themes are also a great way to organize your activities so that children of multiple ages can benefit. 

Sticker Word Matching

Here's a new tray activity that both S and I love...

Step 1:  Get a sheet of stickers (I cut this one in half because it repeated the same animals).
Step 2:  Write the words for the sticker pictures on a sheet of paper (I used the back side of recycled fliers to save paper).
Step 3:  Let your child match the sticker with the word.

I like this because it's so fast and easy, but it also develops good literacy skills because S has to use a variety of strategies to determine sticker placement (beginning letter sound, final letter sound, decoding, pictorial context clues, elimination, guessing).

I think this would also be easy to prepare several in advance for a flight or road trip.

Our New Church "Busy Bag"

I know some readers may disagree with children working on activities during church services, but in our family S is allowed to work on quiet religious activities (though that doesn't always keep him quiet).  Here's our new church bag...

Decorated canvas bag with Crayola Fabric Markers (I bought ours at Hobby Lobby for $5.)  I LOVE that S is now drawing our family!  Daddy is holding a heart :)

Lacing cards made from craft foam and shoelaces (Noah's Ark and a cross)

Simple puzzle printed on cardstock and cut (or you could use religious greeting cards)

Coloring books, a small children's bible, religious stickers (Dollar Tree and Christian bookstores) 

I plan to swap some things out and add some vinyl cling, felt, or magnetic biblical scenes...can't decide. 

Cutting Skills

S has had a fascination with scissors for quite a long time now.  We began learning with strips of construction paper and straws so that he could get the hang of one snip.  He has just gotten the hang of cutting across a page independently, so I am introducing some more structured cutting practice.  I plan to begin with straight lines, then zig zags, then wavy lines. After S has mastered cutting this way across a page, I will move onto cutting out a square, triangle, circle...

There are many books on the market that have cutting practice pages inside them.  We don't own any, but I know the Kumon ones are popular. 



A less expensive idea would be to use some of the many free printables offered on the internet for cutting practice.  Here are just a few I came across with a quick internet search:

• Activity Village:  Cutting Skills Printables
• DLTK:  Printable Scissor Skills Practice Worksheets
• Kids Learning Station:  Scissor Skills Worksheets for Kids
• Kinder Printables:  Cutting Practice

Of course an even cheaper option (no printer ink used) would be to draw your own lines on paper.  Workbook pages, printables, or DIY versions would make a great independent activity for trays. 

A fun Easter craft to do would be to have your child cut strips of contruction paper and then cut the strip into little pieces to glue on a cross or egg shape to make a collage.  I plan for us to make an egg with a few different colors.  Directions and templates can be found at DLTK.