Kindergarten Mid-Year Check In
With our 5 & 6 year olds half-way through kindergarten, it is a great time to check in and monitor growth in visual-motor integration, fine-motor and graphomotor development. Here are some helpful activities to support your student & child’s growth!
Skills Checklist:
Generates all upper and lowercase letters
Increased awareness of letter size, baseline orientation and placement
Can generate simple 3-4 word sentences with emerging capitalization and letter size.
Complex scissor skills
Bilateral skills required to independently dress, manage hygiene routines and mealtime activities
Bilateral skills, in-hand manipulation and dexterity to complete beading, zippering, buttoning, translate objects and open containers/packages
Maintain a functional and efficient grasp of a writing instrument and utensils *Note increased digit isolation and distal-motor control isolated from wrist and forearm movement.
Improvements in eye-hand coordination during gross-motor activities such as throwing and catching a ball, playing tennis, basketball and baseball
Overall postural control and trunk activation in sitting during longer periods at tabletop. *Not needing constant propping to sit from upper body.
Ability to cross midline and work at midline fluidly for craft activities
Center Ideas
Visual-Motor Integration:
Drawing & Copying from visual-models * change up the placement of the visual model for copying and occular-motor skills - vertical plane, side-by-side copying
Mazes
connect-the-dots
color-by-number
scissor activities-use clay, play-doh & paper
Figure 8's using toy cars or markers & road tape
Fine-Motor Strengthening
Object translation from digits to palm and palm to digits- coins, cheerios, beads, pasta
Tweezer, scooper and utensil play – Have fun with this: Move across the room while holding objects
zippers, buttons & shoe-lace tying – Hone in on age appropriate self-help skills
hand strengthening via model magic, clay and cooking activities- Pinch, squeeze, roll and mold
Board Games such as Operation, Jenga, Battle Ship, Honey Bee Tree, High-Ho Cherry-o
1" square sponge painting- supports precision and prehension skills
Beading- The smaller the bead at this age the better
Tearing, Folding & Crumbling Tissue Paper! Mosaic Art, Self-Portrait or Landscapes
Slot Play
Cooking Activities - great bilateral tasks are required for cooking. Great for buidling strength as well
Graphomotor Activities:
Upper and Lowercase letter formation using play-doh, shaving cream, kinetic sand, finger paint and wikki stixx. We want our kiddos to have a motor-plan of correct letter formation prior to incorporating a writing instrument. If a child is struggling with motor coordination then take it back a step using tactile modalities
Letter formation within boundaries - Students should start to be able to generate letters using baseline with increasing understanding of letter size and placement – Start with large spaces and work down to lined paper and graph paper.
Fun Adaptive Paper Activities - Visuals for letter placement
Repetition, Repetition, Repetition - This fosters motor-planning for correct letter formation. Grade or breakdown letters by lines to support sequencing skills if child is overwhelmed by copying the whole letters.
Break down writing instruments like crayons or try golf pencils
Create Lists
Write Letters to Loved ones & Pen Pals
Draw Pictures and Label Parts
Try Simple Sentences from Visual Models
Incorporate writing into games such as Jenga, Hidden Pictures & Card games
Work in Prone or on Vertical surfaces – Helps to isolate wrist and digits necessary to control writing instrument
