Five Finger Exercise By DORIS ALLEN and ANGELA COLLINS

Lend a hand and help teach your toddlers how to use their fingers for feeling, holding,

pouring and folding!

POURING Use two plastic containers. Fill one

with rice, macaroni, or other dry objects. Direct toddler to pour rice into second container. When success has been achieved, substitute water for rice or other dry materials.

POLISHING Use non-toxic silver polish. Place a

small amount on cotton ball and direct child to polish silver spoons. Dip pol- ished spoons into soapy water, rinse and dry. Shoe polish and buffer may be used too.

BUTTONS AND

BUCKLES Use a stiff piece of cardboard from

the side of a grocery carton. Cut out a frame with edges about 4" wide. Staple or glue firmly to the edges of the card- board frame some kind of durable cloth material. A gogd kind to use is drapery material samples which can be obtained free from department stores. Sew but- tons to one Side of the cloth and make button holes opposite. Direct child to button and unbutton the material. Zip- pers may be substituted for the buttons. Wide, strong zippers are recommended.

A variation may be used by sewing on large snap fasteners. Collect pet collars that buckle. Have toddlers buckle and unbuckle.

COLORFUL TEXTURES While toddlers may not be able to

verbalize how things feel to the touch, they can match things that feel alike. Use pairs of objects, preferably of dif- ferent colors, and ask children to match them according to the way the materials fee l - -ve lve t , leather, sandpaper, sponges, stones, globs of paste, etc.

3 2 DAY CARE AND EARLY EDUCATION

RIGHTYOR LEFTY?

It is often helpful for a caregiver to know whether a child has a natural pre- ference for his right or left hand. To help find out, give the child a series of ob- jects and note with which hand each is received. A variation can be done by giving the child two pieces of chalk, one for each hand. Have the child stand at the blackboard and extend both arms, then draw lines simultaneously toward the center of his body, then back to arms length. The darker chalk lines may indicate a handedness preference.

FOLDING SHAPES

Prepare a series of rectangles, 9" by 12". Direct toddler to fold paper diag- onally so two triangles will be formed. Caregiver will cut along folded line so child can see the two new shapes formed. Repeat this process with a second rectangle. Then open the paper and have child fold it diagonally in the opposite direction. Now four triangles can be cut out. With a third rectangle, have child fold paper in half. Cut along fold to make two smaller rectangles. Repeat with fourth sheet of paper, fold- ing first in half lengthwise, then side-

wise. Now four rectangles can be cut. Ask child to put all the shapes into two piles. Each pile must have papers of the same shape, rectangles or triangles.

SOFTOR HARD?

Use objects such as a piece of vel- vet, wool, sandpaper, ice cube, rubber ball, soft toy, sponge, shell, serrated bottle cap, etc. Have children describe how each object feels. Then have them classify the objects into categories such as soft, smooth, hard, rough. Decide whether the same object could be clas- sified in more than one way such as soft and smooth, hard and rough.

SMOOTH AND

ROUGH Give each child a small square of

sandpaper approximately 4" by 6". With crayons have children make a picture or design on the sandpaper. En- courage language development by hav- ing them describe how the sandpaper feels, how it feels after wax crayons

have been applied to parts of the paper. Then on a slightly larger square of white drawing paper, caregiver will place the sandpaper picture face down and iron with a hot iron. A discussion on safety around hot irons can take place while this is being done. Then give the child the sandpaper picture and the smooth print. Compare the textures.

PICKAND CHOOSE

Using the pincer movement, direct child to pick up walnuts or horse chest- nuts, one at a time. As control prog- resses, use smaller objects such as grains of rice or popcorn seeds. Vary the process by using the pincer move- ment with the aid of tongs. Use a bowl of mixed nuts. Have the child select certain nuts to be put in smaller bowls. Have each bowl identified by one kind of nut in each bowl for matching purposes-- walnut in one, chestnut in another, almond in a third, etc. I l l

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Dorris Allen is a career teacher in early child- hood education. She has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Oswego Com- munity Day Care Center, and has co-auth- ored an article on handwriting in the current edition of the Book of Knowledge. Angela Collins is currently a kindergarten teacher in an Open Education program based on the British Primary System model, and during the summers directs remedial reading pro- grams.

MARCH I APRIL 1976 33