Thanksgiving Printable & Fine Motor

One of the main things we are currently working on with the boys is fine motor.  For the most part it needs to be incorporated into their play in ways they don't even realize.  Play-doh for instance is great at working the muscles needed to improve fine motor skills.  We also have wrung out sponges from one side of a dog dish to the other (left to right).  Pinched clothes pins open to attach to the side of a container.  All very effective and they are just having fun.
 

A couple of weeks ago I printed these Thanksgivng worksheets from Homeschool Creations to go with our books on Thanksgiving from the library. They loved them and I am hoping to get to them even more this week.  There are puzzles and tracing sheets, size sorts and a few other fun activities. They are really cute.

One thing one of the teachers I spoke with who work with children that are behind in fine motor mentioned was to cut down their pencils or crayons so that it forces them to use mainly their two fingers in order to hold it properly.  It worked for Eli below but you'll see Alex persisted and managed to still hold it incorrectly.  We are working on that but again if it becomes stressful I can kiss this fine motor work goodbye.


You gotta love the messy hot chocolate faces. :)  Hot chocolate has become almost a daily thing around here since the weather turned a bit colder.



Even picking up these cards is improving fine motor due to the way he has to grasp them to pick them up off the table.


While I have been aware of some of these fine motor activities some of them are new to me  and I'd like to start a little series of posts about them that will help keep me accountable to working on this diligently.  Hopefully I will get to that after Thanksgiving.  Check out the links to Homeschool Creations.  Seriously, GREAT printables.

PS  I just checked out the one for kindergarten age and there are a few clothes pin activities. I plan to try these tomorrow.