Christmas is coming and you can definitely see this as you enter the different Early Years’ classrooms. In F3, you can see Santas that have been created using a folding technique, reindeer with moving noses, present flaps with pictures of toys hidden underneath linked to the story ‘Dear Santa’ and snowman with letters from their names cut out of circles. As you enter F1, you are met with stockings decorated with sequins using their pincer grip. F2 have made and decorated paper Christmas trees and painted snowy scenes and snowmen using sponges and white paint.
The teachers love to be creative with the children in class and not only have fun with them but try to develop their fine motor skills at the same time.
When we talk about our fine motor skills, we are describing the small muscles which control the hand, fingers and thumb. When your child has a good development of these muscles, they will be able to do things like write, feed themselves, zip up their coat, cut out pictures using scissors, pickup small toys using one hand and begin to put puzzle pieces together. In school, we like to encourage independence, as it means they will develop these skills more quickly.
Please encourage your child to develop their fine motor skills at home by letting them feed themselves, through completing puzzles, by pegging the washing up and by picking up toys.
Ms Julie Walton
Head of Early Years
