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Preschool teachers and daycare providers can help children learn to recognize and write the letter X through fun activities that support clear learning objectives.

Learning Objectives

• The students will identify the letter X
• The students make and recognize the X sound
• The students will learn to trace and write upper and lower case X’s.
• The students will identify objects that begin or end with the letter X.
• The students will do a letter X craft.
• The students will listen to and learn “Exciting X” Rhyme.
• The students will listen to books that feature items that start or end with the letter X.

Handwriting and Alphabet Recognition
Introduce the children to the letter X along with simple objects that begin with the letter X. Create a colorful letter X poster board or bulletin board that presents both the upper and lower case Xs. Include pictures of objects cut from magazines that begin or end with the letter X. For example: x-ray, xylophone, fox, box, ox, lox.

Write both the upper and lowercase X on a whiteboard or chalkboard. Demonstrate the X sound and ask the children to make (repeat) the X sound. Next ask the children to think of words (names, objects, or places) that might begin with the letter X.

Encourage the children to practice tracing the letter X in both upper and lower case using a letter X worksheet. A good example of such a Letter X worksheet is available on the Kidzone website. Children can also practice writing and tracing the letter X on blank sheets of paper using pencils, colored pencils, or crayon.

X Craft Activity
Cut out a large letter X from cardboard. Provide children with art materials like paint, crayons, marker and colored pencils along and all sorts of embellishments like stickers, ribbon, string, glitter, sequins, feathers, and scraps of material. Encourage children to decorate the X as they place. Allow them to dry and then hang them on a letter X bulletin board.

X Rhyme
Teach the children “Exciting X”, a rhyme by Jean Warren

X was very lonely. He had few words of his own.
Then along came E and together they would roam.

Wherever E would go, X would tag along.
Then one day, they married. Now X is very strong.

You can hear his sound, whenever they go out.
Extra, Extra, Extra! Now the news stands shout.

I get so excited, when I see them together.
They’re always exercising and X is feeling better.

So when you see a sign that says EXIT this way.
You know that E and X are together to this day!

Letter X Story Time
Jessica’s X-Ray by Pat Zonta and Clive Dobson (Sep 12, 2006)
The Talkative Letter X by Daniel Errico (Jun 15, 2011)
Xavia’s X Book/ El Libro X de Xavia (My Letter Library/ Titulos Del Abecedario) (Spanish Edition) by J. L. Mazzeo (Mar 30, 2007)
Ox-Cart Man (4 paperbacks and CD) by Donald Hall (Jan 2004)
The Year of the Ox: Tales from the Chinese Zodiac by Oliver Chin and Miah Alcorn (Jan 1, 2009)
Fox by Kate Banks and Georg Hallensleben (Feb 20, 2007)
Fox and His Friends: Level 3 (Easy-to-Read, Puffin) by Edward Marshall and James Marshall (May 1, 1994)
Fox at School: Level 3 (Easy-to-Read, Puffin) by Edward Marshall and James Marshall (Aug 1, 1993)

Including these simple activities into the curriculum of child care centers will greatly enhance preschoolers’ language learning. Lesson plans should contain clear learning objectives but also remember to seize spontaneous moments of opportunity to teach.

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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.

Preschool teachers and daycare providers have the opportunity to promote creative development by providing art activities that explore media and materials and encourage imagination.

This Thanksgiving Vegetable Cornucopia craft is an excellent example of an activity that provides the opportunity to for expression, to encourage spontaneity in material usage, and to introduce children to textured materials.

This Thanksgiving creative arts lesson plan includes a materials list, preparation instructions and procedures for this activity to make childcare jobs easier, but also the age appropriate learning objectives and a sample of the simple supporting verbal cues necessary to encourage participation and support learning.

Vegetable Cornucopia Materials:

Potatoes, corn on the cob, apples and squash
Paint in a variety of colors
Brown construction paper
Shallow paint dishes
Art paper
Scissors

Cornucopia Print Activity Preparation:

• Cut cornucopia shapes out of brown construction paper
• Set out tempura paints in shallow trays
• Cut vegetables in half to create stamps
• Cover the activity table with butcher paper and set out paint and art paper

Procedures for Cornucopia Prints Activity

1. Invite the children over and tell that you are going to make vegetable prints to decorate a cornucopia.
2. Help children glue their cornucopia onto art paper
3. Show children how to press the stamps into the glue and then press the stamps onto the cornucopia.
4. Children can make as many prints as they like. Allow to dry completely.

Cornucopia Print Craft Objectives
Objective 1
To provide the opportunity for expressive activities by encouraging the children to create prints using vegetable stamps.

Verbal Cue A: Today we are going to make designs with vegetable stamps!
Verbal Cue B: Would you like to press the stamp onto the paper?

Objective 2
To encourage spontaneity in material usage by allowing the children to choose paint colors and to use with the veggie stamps.

Verbal Cue A: Which color of paint would you like to use first?
Verbal Cue B: I like the designs you have made!

Objective 3
To promote the sharing of art materials to foster social interaction and cooperation

Verbal Cue A: Let’s take turns using the paints.
Verbal Cue B: Can you let Melissa use the orange paint?

Kids will have great fun in your childcare center while learning important creative arts skills.

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Present this simple preschool lesson plan that is all about elephants. Children love zoo animals and will enjoy learning about elephants through fun elephant facts, a field trip, an elephant craft, an elephant song and finger play, and preschool picture books about elephants. This lesson plan goes well with a zoo theme or safari theme.

Elephant Facts:

• Elephants are the largest mammals that live on the land
• There are two types of elephant, the Asian elephant and the African elephant
• Elephants are herbivores and eat mainly grass, tree leaves, flowers, wild fruits, twigs, shrubs, bamboo, and bananas.
• Elephants use their tusks to dig for food.
• An elephant uses its trunk to lift food and suck up water then pour it into its mouth.
• The elephant’s trunk can sense the size, shape and temperature of an object.

Field Trip
Take children to the local zoo to provide direct observation of elephants. Call the local aquarium or wild animal park and ask them for a tour for preschool age children. Preschoolers can observe elephants and learn about their habitats. Bring paper, pencils, crayons, and colored pencils so that children can draw what they observe. Ask them to tell you about their drawing and write their descriptions beneath the picture.

Craft: Paper Plate Elephant Puppet

Materials: Paper plate, gray paint, paint brush, gray construction paper, googley eyes, glue, and scissors
Instructions: Encourage children to paint a paper plate gray and then allow it to dry.  Cut two large ear shapes out of the gray construction paper and show children how to glue them to the plate. Help children glue on two googley eyes and allow the entire project to dry. Cut out a circle in the center of the plate. Then, show children how to slip one arm through the hole so that it looks like the elephant’s trunk.

Elephant Action Song and Finger Play
Teach the children the following song and finger play about elephants.
Elephant Finger Play

The elephant has a trunk for a nose (hands clashed in front swinging back and forward; body bent at waist)
And up and down is the way it goes.
He wears such a saggy, baggy hide,
Do you think two elephants could fit inside?

An Elephant Went Out To Play (Action Song)
Choose one child to come to the middle of your circle and chant:
An elephant went out to play
On a spider web one day
He/she was having so much fun
He/she invited another one (have the child invite a classmate to join them).

Continue until all your little elephants are in the center!

*Elephant song and finger play taken from PerpetualPreschool.com

Preschool Elephant Books
Share the following picture books about elephants with children:
Ellison the Elephant (with Audio CD) by Eric Drachman and James Muscarello (Nov 18, 2005)
I Broke My Trunk! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) by Mo Willems (Feb 8, 2011)
Elephants Cannot Dance! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) by Mo Willems (Jun 9, 2009)
The Right Number of Elephants by Jeff Sheppard and Felicia Bond (Jun 30, 1992)
The Elephant’s Child by Rudyard Kipling and Geoffrey Patterson (Apr 27, 2010)
Hiccups for Elephant (level 2) (Hello Reader) by James Preller and Hans Wilhelm (Apr 1, 1995)

Additionally, you may add an elephant math activity, or an alphabet writing and recognition activity. The key is to use your creativity when creating lesson plans and vary the activities, making sure they are developmentally appropriate.

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Present this simple preschool lesson plan that is all about kittens. Children love animals and will enjoy learning about kittens through kitten facts, a kitten  craft, a kitten finger play, and preschool picture books about kittens. This lesson plan goes well with a theme about pets or animals.

Kitten and Cat Facts for Preschoolers

• A kitten is a young cat
• A kitten litter can contain 3 to 6 kittens
• A group of cats is called a clowder
• A male cat is called a tom and a female cat is called a molly
• Cats lick their coats to keep them clean.
• Kittens purr to let their mother know they are nearby and everything is fine

Kitten Craft
Kitten Paper Plate Mask
Materials: Paper plate, pipe cleaners, brown construction paper, stapler, scissors, popsicle sticks. 

Instructions: encourage children to paint the paper plate brown. Allow to dry. Use scissors to cut out holes for eyes. Help children how to staple on pipe cleaners for whiskers. Cut brown triangles out for ears and show them how to glue them on the paper plate. Glue a popsicle stick on the bottom of the back of the plate.

Kitten Finger Play for Preschoolers

Teach the children the finger play “Five Little Kittens”*

Five little kittens standing in a row,

(Hold up five fingers.)

They nod their heads to the children so.

(Bend fingers)

They run to the left; they run to the right.

(Run fingers to the left and then to the right.)

They stand up and stretch in the bright sunlight.

(Stretch fingers out tall.)

Along comes a dog who’s in for some fun.

(Hold up one finger from opposite hand.)

ME-OW! See those little kittens run!

(Let fingers run.)

*”Five Kittens” taken from PreschoolEducation.com.

Preschool Books about Kittens

Share the following picture books about kittens with children:

• The Little Kitten by Judy Dunn and Phoebe Dunn (May 12, 1983)
• All About Cats and Kittens (Reading Railroad) by Emily Neye (Oct 25, 1999)
• Kitten (See How They Grow) by DK Publishing (Apr 16, 2007)
• Three Little Kittens (Folk Tale Classics) by Paul Galdone (Mar 21, 2011)
• The Berenstain Bears’ New Kitten (I Can Read Book 1) by Mike Berenstain and Jan Berenstain (May 22, 2007)
• Three Little Kittens by Jerry Pinkney (Sep 30, 2010)
• Marley and the Kittens by John Grogan and Richard Cowdrey (Apr 27, 2010)
• Clifford’s Kitten (Clifford 8×8) by Norman Bridwell (Jan 1, 1992)
• Carl and the Kitten (My Readers) by Alexandra Day (Nov 8, 2011)

Additionally, you may add a kitten math activity, or an alphabet writing and recognition activity. The key is to use your creativity when creating lesson plans and vary the activities, making sure they are developmentally appropriate.

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Children can learn to rhyme before entering kindergarten. As you teach children in your daycare center to learn to rhyme you also help them build their vocabulary and improve their phonics skills. Children will be more inclined to learn how to rhyme when they are engaged in stimulating and memorable activities. Play rhyming games with preschool children to help them learn groups of words that sound similar. When starting a daycare, add these games to your curriculum activities.

Thumbs Up

Play a game of “thumbs up” with preschoolers.  Say a list of three words. Tell the children that if the three words rhyme, they may approve by giving the “thumbs up” sign with their hands. If the three words do not rhyme, the children may disapprove by making the “thumbs down” sign. For example, say three words such as “jump,” “pump” and ear”. When the children realize the three words do not rhyme, they should give the list a “thumbs down.”

Rhyming Basket

Place familiar objects in a basket. Ask the preschoolers to form a circle. Pass the basket to the first child. When the child receive the basket, say a word that rhymes with one of the objects in the basket and then encourage the child to select an item from the basket that rhymes with the chosen word. For example, if you say the word “star”, the child should remove a toy car from the basket. The child then passes the basket to the next child and the process continues until all of the children have taken a turn.

Body Name Game

Play a game that helps children learn to rhyme words using body parts and visual cues. Point to a part of your body and then say a word that rhymes with that body part. Encourage the child to say the name of the rhyming body part. For example, if you point to your ear and say “deer,” the child should say “ear.”  If you point to your toe and say “hoe,” the child should say “toe.”

Rhyme Matching Game

Play a picture matching game with pre-kindergarten children. Create a rhyming mat by drawing a table of eight boxes on a piece of art paper. Cut out pictures of eight recognizable objects. Paste one picture inside each of the eight squares. Create rhyming cards by cutting out eight pictures of objects that rhyme with each of the original objects. Paste the pictures on small pieces construction paper. For example, cut out a picture of a hat and create rhyming card with a picture of a bat. Provide the preschooler with a rhyming mat and rhyming cards. Encourage the children to draw cards one by one and to match the cards to the rhyming objects on the rhyming mat.

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Children learn through both direct and indirect play. Child day care providers can take advantage of opportunities for social and emotional learning through play activities. In Part 2 of our interview with expert, Meghan McGinley Crowe, executive director of literacy for Little Sprouts, Inc., Crowe explains the importance of learning through play.

OwnADaycare: How does play lead to real life learning in the area of language and literacy development? What are some examples of play activities preschool teachers can offer in this area?

Meghan McGinley Crowe: In college, I studied Russian language and culture.  I had taken a 1-semester class in high school and was fascinated with the guttural, elegance of the language.  Formal study of the language allowed me to learn the basics and pass the tests, but I have very little practical knowledge left.

However, I also was part of an exchange program to Russia where I lived with a family for a month.   The six-year old and I practiced our respective language skills on each other in a low-stress, playful environment and the vocabulary I picked up from this young girl stays with me, where my college level education faded quickly.

Being comfortable to try new language and practice pragmatics is best done through play and teaches not only vocabulary, but grammar, sentence structure, and usage.  Every time a preschooler makes a word past tense like “standed” or plural like “feets”, it is proof that they are playing with language rules and have learned how to generically by adding a suffix to a word they already know.  Though incorrect, this also proves a child is not just mimicking an adult, but rather truly experimenting with language.  Teachers and parents should encourage this practice while gently modeling the correct version of the word.

OwnADaycare: How does play lead to real life learning in the area of physical development? What are some examples of play activities preschool teachers can offer in this area?

Meghan McGinley Crowe: At its core, play is a physical, kinetic activity.  Sitting at a table playing a literacy game, for example, can be a great opportunity to build fine motor skills.  A teacher could give her preschoolers plastic tweezers and cover a table with paper-cut out letters and ask the students to pick out all of the B’s, or the letters in their name.  Not only are her students building their letter identification, they are practicing the skills essential for later writing development.

Gross motor play, including outside time, is full of pretend play and physical activity.  This type of play is often easiest for an adult to enter without disrupting the flow of the activity.  Adults should observe for a few moments before entering the game, and then ask, “What are we playing?” to have the stage set for the pretend story at hand.  Very quickly, she will find herself running, laughing, and enjoying as much physical development as her young playmates.

OwnADaycare: What are examples of good verbal cues that preschool teachers can use to enhance learning through play?

Meghan McGinley Crowe: When offering implicit, incidental learning opportunities (opposed to explicit instruction), teachers should ensure all learning is playful and a natural part of the game at hand.  Teaching new vocabulary is one of the best instructional inserts to gameplay.  Listen to the conversations the children are having and find natural ways to have fun with new words.  When playing on the playground, a teacher can model “tossing” a ball, gently, swiftly, or energetically.  In the block area, a teacher can model creating different housing units such as a condominium, a hut, or a mansion.

Regardless of the games the students create themselves, teachers can give a good start to any lesson with the hook, “would you like to play a game with me?”  Everything is more fun with coated with a playful focus.

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Children learn through both direct and indirect play. Child day care providers can take advantage of opportunities for social and emotional learning through play activities. In our interview with expert, Meghan McGinley Crowe, executive director of literacy for Little Sprouts, Inc., Crowe explains the importance of learning through play.

OwnADaycare: What is the importance of learning through play?

Meghan McGinley Crowe: Just like adults, children have to be engaged in new learning processes.  Learning something that you aren’t intrinsically interested in will not keep your attention, nor easily commit to your long term memory.

Every day is a learning experience for a preschooler.  Each moment is full of brand new experiences.  So many times, adults take for granted experiences like picking a blade of grass or touching a brick wall for the first time, but these encounters are rife with new learning for a young child.  Hands-on, playful learning experiences not only build interest in the subject, but set off a preschooler’s experiences in learning as positive, joy filled ones which they will want to continue for years to come.

OwnADaycare: How does play lead to real life learning in the area of social and emotional learning? What are some examples of play activities in this area?

Meghan McGinley Crowe: Though playful experiences can be solitary, in a classroom setting, play is almost always a social, small group activity.  Child-directed play allows children the opportunity to experiment with new learning- vocabulary, background knowledge, and academic concepts- with their peers.  Children can support each other in using this new expertise, thereby also building social-emotional literacy.

For example, a preschool classroom was set around the theme of transportation.  The teacher built the dramatic play area as an airport to allow children to play with this concept they were learning about each day.  During my visit, I entered the play of a group of four children in this airport to marvel at the ticket stand, metal detector, and luggage area created by the class in the 4×5 area of the classroom.  Children were talking animatedly to each other and my interest was quickly diverted to the conversation.

Child 1: Where do you wanna go?

Child 2: I want to go to Chuck E Cheese please.

Child 1: ‘K, here’s your ticket.  Take your suitcase.

I patiently awaited my turn in line as well.

Me: Can I buy a ticket too?

Child 1: ‘K, where do you wanna go?

Me: I was thinking of going to London, can I take an international flight from here?

Child 1: Yep, here’s your ticket.  You have to take off your shoes though.

The children were clearly playing with new ideas they had explored in books about airports, and facts about airplanes and incorporated the personal knowledge they had experienced traveling themselves.  Playful exposure to the travel theme solidified new learning while giving the class a direction in their small group play.

OwnADaycare: How does play lead to real life learning in the area of cognitive development? What are some examples of play activities preschool teachers can offer in this area?

Meghan McGinley Crowe: Normally functioning adults need at least 15 exposures to a new idea before it is committed to short-term memory, and 35 exposures to commit it to long term memory.  Other neurological research predicts that before you can learn a new concept, you need to have at least 60% knowledge of the topic already.  For example, before I can learn about glaciers, I have to know about snow, ice, mountains, valleys, and rivers.

Children build these exposures to new concepts through play.  Each playful experience builds the cognitive development of learning a new fact and committing it to long term memory.  When studying more complex subjects such as Outer Space or Dinosaurs, teachers should remember that they are not expecting their preschooler to master this new subject, but are rather building the 60% knowledge needed when they learn about the topic in elementary or middle school.

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Present this simple preschool lesson plan that is all about grasshoppers. Children love animals and will enjoy learning about grasshoppers through fun grasshopper facts, a grasshopper  craft, a grasshopper song, and preschool picture books about grasshoppers. This lesson plan goes well with a theme about bugs.

Grasshopper Facts:

• There are 18,000 kinds of grasshoppers.
• Grasshoppers have two pairs of wings and three sets of legs.
• Grasshoppers usually live in fields and meadows.
• Some grasshoppers will jump 200 times their length in one jump.
• Grasshoppers make sounds  by rubbing their wings and hind legs together, or by rubbing their wings together
• Grasshoppers are prey to birds, spiders, mice, lizards, and snakes.
• Grasshoppers are herbivores. They eat all types of plants and may destroy fields like cotton, clover, alfalfa and other grains.

Clothespin Grasshopper Craft
Materials: Clothespins, green paint, paint brush, green craft wire, fancy straight pins, glue, and small googley eyes
Instructions: Provide each child with a clothespin and encourage them to paint the clothespin green. Allow to dry. Bend the craft wire in the shape of legs. Glue the wire  to the clothespin. Glue on googley eyes. Help children make antennae by pressing two pins into the top of the clothespin.

Grasshopper Song for preschoolers
Teach the children the song “Grasshoppers”* to the tune of “Battle Hymn of the Republic”:

The first grasshopper jumped right over the second grasshopper’s back,
Oh, the first grasshopper jumped right over the second grasshopper’s back
The first grasshopper jumped right over the second grasshopper’s back,
Oh, the first grasshopper jumped right over.
They were only playing leapfrog.
They were only playing leapfrog.
They were only playing leapfrog,
When the first grasshopper jumped right over.

*”Grasshopper” taken from Alphabet Soup.

Preschool Books about Grasshoppers
Share the following picture books about grasshoppers with children:

Are You a Grasshopper? (Backyard Books) by Judy Allen and Tudor Humphries (May 13, 2004) Grasshopper on the Road (I Can Read Book 2) by Arnold Lobel (Jan 1, 1900)

The Grasshopper Hopped! by Elizabeth Alexander and Joung Un Kim (Jan 12, 2010)

The Ant and the Grasshopper by Amy Lowry Poole (Sep 2000)

Grasshoppers (Insects) by Cheryl Coughlan (Jan 2006)

Jumping Jack the Grasshopper (Bend a Bug) by Susan Hood and Bruce Eagle (Mar 1, 1999)

Grasshopper Pie by Rebecca Talley and Angela Talley (Nov 1, 2003)

Grasshoppers (Benchmark Rebus) by Trudi Strain Trueit (Sep 2009)

Grasshoppers (New Creepy Crawly Collection) by Graham Coleman and Tony Gibbons (Sep 1997)

Grasshoppers (Incredible Insects Series) by James E. Gerholdt (Jan 1996)

A Grasshopper (Whats It Like to Be . . .?) by Jinny Johnson and Desiderio Sanzi (Jul 2011)

Additionally, you may add a grasshopper math activity, or an alphabet writing and recognition activity. The key is to use your creativity when creating lesson plans and vary the activities, making sure they are developmentally appropriate.

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Present this simple preschool lesson plan that is all about frogs. Children love animals and will enjoy learning about frogs through fun frog facts, a math activity, a  frog craft, a frog rhyme, and preschool picture books about frogs. This lesson plan goes well with a theme about amphibians.

Frog Facts:

• A frog is an amphibian which can lives on land near swamps, pounds and other damp places.
• Frogs lay their eggs in the water.
• Tadpoles hatch from the eggs and the tadpole grows into an adult frog.
• A frog’s skin must stay moist or it will dry out and the frog will die
• Frogs soak water into their body through their skin and breathe through both nostrils and their skin.
• Frogs breathe through their nostrils while also absorbing about half the air they need through their skin.
• Frogs have a sticky, muscular tongue to catch food.  They usually eat worms and bugs.

Frog Math Activities
Trace five lily pads on green construction paper and then number them from 1 to 5. Set out fifteen green pompoms or fifteen plastic or paper frogs. Encourage children to say the numerals on the lily pads and  then place that number of frogs written on each lily pad.

Paper Plate Craft
Children can Paint a paper plate with green paint and allow to dry. , trace two  hand prints on green construction paper and .glue it  onto the back of the paper plate on either side. Cut two white circles and use a black marker to dry in the eyes. Glue the eyes to the top of the paper plate. Glue on a pink pipe cleaner to make the frog’s mouth.

Frog Rhyme
Encourage the children to act out the rhyme “Four Little Frogs”:

One little frog balancing
On a lily pad of green.
He thought it was, so much fun,
He called for another frog to come.

Two little frogs balancing
On a lily pad of green.
They thought it was, so much fun,
They called for another frog to come.

Three little frogs balancing
On a lily pad of green.
They thought it was, so much fun,
They called for another frog to come.

Four little frogs balancing
On a lily pad of green.
They thought it was so much fun
Until they sank into the mud!
Glub, glub, glub!

*”Four Little Frogs” taken from EverythingPreschool.com

Preschool Frog Books
Share the following picture books about frogs with children:
The Icky Sticky Frog by Dawn Bentley and Salina Yoon (Feb 15, 2008)

National Geographic Readers: Frogs! by Elizabeth Carney (Jan 13, 2009)

Frogs by Gail Gibbons (Sep 1994)

Frogs by Nic Bishop (Jan 1, 2008)

From Tadpole to Frog (Let’s-Read-and-Find… Science 1) by Wendy Pfeffer and Holly Keller (Apr 22, 1994)

A Frog in the Bog by Karma Wilson and Joan Rankin (Feb 27, 2007)

A Frog Thing by Eric Drachman and James Muscarello (May 18, 2006)

Frogs and Toads and Tadpoles, Too! (Rookie Read-About Science) by Allan Fowler (Sep 1992)

Frog (See How They Grow) by DK Publishing (Apr 16, 2007)

Additionally, you may add a frog math activity, or an alphabet writing and recognition activity. The key is to use your creativity when creating lesson plans and vary the activities, making sure they are developmentally appropriate.

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When developing curriculum, daycare providers must include age-appropriate activities for young children that develop fine motor skills. This cotton swab painting  activity will support an fine arts unit as well as promote visual motor coordination, bilateral coordination, and hand strength.

Fine motor skills are actions that involve the small movement of hands, wrists, feet, fingers, toes, tongue, and lips. In contrast with gross motor skills which involve larger muscles of the arms, legs and feet, fine motor skills focus on small muscle movements in coordination with the eye. 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 cotton swab painting activity includes the preparation instructions, procedure, and materials list 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.

Cotton Swab Painting Materials

For each child you will need:

• Easel
• Art paper
• A cotton swab for each color of paint
• Tempura paint in a variety of colors
• Shallow dishes for paint
• A smock

Activity Procedures

Set up art easels with art paper for each child.  Set out tempura paint  Invite the children over to art area. Explain to them that you are use cotton swabs like paint brushes. Put a smock on each child. Let the children paint with the cotton swabs. Encourage children to make polka dots with the tip of the cotton swab dipped in paint.

Fine Motor Learning Objectives

Objective 1: To provide the opportunity for increased visual-motor coordination, bilateral coordination, hand strength, and pincher grasp by using the cotton swab as a paint brush

• Verbal Cue A: Can you grasp the cotton swab and dip it in paint?
• Verbal Cue B: Can you paint a design with the cotton swab?

Objective 2: To provide the opportunity to increase bilateral coordination, hand strength and visual-motor coordination by making dots on the paper with the cotton swab dipped in paint.

• Verbal Cue A: Let’s dip the tip of the brush in paint and then make dots on the paper.
• Verbal Cue B: I like how you are making dots with your brush.

Objective 3: The child will use new tools to create designs.

• Verbal Cue A: Can you use the cotton swab like a paint brush?
• Verbal Cue B: I like how you painting with the cotton swab.

Children in your child day care center will create a unique work of art while enhancing their fine motor skills.

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