3D shapes and fine motor skills

by Leyla [Thisdayilove] - 10:59

I am currently studying for my Diploma in Digital Marketing which is no easy task especially when you have 2 children, 2 dogs and growing another human. Every week I have a dedicated study day and sometimes when assignments are due are I also use additional days as and when needed. At the moment I have 2 assignments that are due in by the end of the month and so am having to come up with creative ways to keep the girls entertained and study at the same time.

My eldest daughter is learning about 3D shapes in school and my youngest is doing activities to help strengthen her hand muscles ready to practise writing. Trying to find activities that can cope with different levels of skill and keep them both entertained can be tricky. Also one with minimal mess, as much as we love messy play I haven't the time or energy to clean up at the moment.

I placed mini marshmallows on a tray along with jelly tots and some dried spaghetti. I showed my youngest how to thread the marshmallows onto the dried spaghetti and she took great delight in creating patterns. She told me she had 4 pink marshmallows and needed two white ones. Although maths problems are perhaps too advanced we did start talking about adding one more and how many in total and she made some simple colour sequences.

With my eldest I showed her how to connect the spaghetti and marshmallows together to make shapes and how we could build them up to make 3D shapes. She began to get very creative making cubes, prisms and then a house! I must apologies for the photo they both kept moving around quick.

My youngest also took great pride in attempting to make shapes like her sister. The activity is such that they could keep coming back to it and it got them thinking about connecting shapes, along with simple maths problems.

This day I love 3D shapes and fine motor skills