When developing curriculum, daycare providers must include age-appropriate activities for young children that develop fine motor skills. This Memorial Day poppy craft will support creative arts development as well as promote visual motor coordination, bilateral coordination, and hand strength.
Children’s creativity blossoms through rich experience in the arts. According to Play Projects and preschool Standards by Gera Jacobs and Kathy Krowley, “Through the arts, children learn to express themselves and discover that they can represent their thoughts and ideas through many different media. The arts help children develop the concept that one thing can represent an idea…Art assists children in making meaning of their world”. Art nurtures creativity.
Fine motor skills are actions that involve the small movement of hands, wrists, feet, fingers, toes, tongue, and lips. Some important fine motor concepts and skills that preschool age children learn to master are bilateral coordination, visual motor coordination, grasp, hand use, manipulation skills, pincer grasp, wrist rotation, pre-writing grasp, hand strength, and tactile awareness.
Children learn fine motor skills through practice. Activities which involve writing, drawing, cutting, stringing, and buttoning are great examples of activities that promote the development of fine motor skills.
This Memorial Day poppy craft includes a materials list and teaching structions for this activity. It also provides age-appropriate learning objectives and a sample of the simple supporting verbal cues necessary to encourage participation and support learning.
Secondcitysoiree.com says “Memorial Day” typically leans towards red/white/blue decor, but if you’d like to go in a slightly different (yet still patriotic) direction, remember the poppy”. So without further ado, here is a cute poppy craft for Memorial Day inspired by Thatartistwoman.org.
Memorial Day Poppy Materials
- Newspaper
- Red paint
- Paintbrush
- Scissors
- Glue
- Thin cardboard
- Twigs
- Poppy seeds
Memorial Day Poppy Craft Instructions
- Have the kids paint their newspaper red. Allow to dry completely.
- Meanwhile, have the kids cut two a small circle out of the cardboard
- Have the kids glue cover their cardboard circle with glue, then sprinkle poppy seeds on the glue, pressing on the seeds to make sure they are secure.
- Once the poppy has dried, kids can glue the circle to the center of the poppy and glue the twig to the back of the poppy.
- Allow to dry completely.
Memorial Day Poppy Lesson Objectives
Objective 1
To provide the opportunity for expressive activities by encouraging the children to paint a Memorial Day Poppy.
Verbal Cue A: Today we are going to make Memorial Day poppies.
Verbal Cue B: Would you like to paint the newspaper bright red?
Objective 2
Objective 1: To provide the opportunity for increased visual-motor coordination, bilateral coordination, hand strength, and pincher grasp.
Verbal Cue A: Let’s a small circle out of the cardboard.
Verbal Cue B: I like the way you are using your scissors to cut circles.
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