My time in Las
Vegas has come to an end. I had
the opportunity to experience four awesome days of workshops and meet some
other great kindergarten teachers!
I’ll post some more ideas in the coming weeks and as I use them in my
classroom this year. Stick with me- this is a long one!
I attended two of
Tere Bowen-Irish’s sessions about motor control. Wow! I had no
idea how much the experiences a child has in the first year of life had such an
impact on their future motor growth and development!
I learned that children
who do no crawl don’t have the opportunity experience their body in relation to
objects, and they are that kid that constantly runs into things when they are
walking around your room. Can you
picture that child? I have a few
kiddos in mind.
She also talked
about the importance of tummy time.
Tummy time helps build shoulder and neck muscles. These children have a difficult time
sitting and writing. Their core
muscles are likely not well developed, and therefore, they are physically
unable to sit in the chair and write.
They may stand or sit on a leg to get balance.
Using a walker
causes children’s hamstring muscles to tighten and ankles to shorten which
makes sitting “crisscross applesauce” very difficult. This is the child who falls over when you ask them to sit
crisscross applesauce and put their knees down and also maybe the child who
walks on his/her tiptoes. Have you
had one of these? I can think of 2
in my class last year.
Finally, one of
the most interesting tidbits I learned is that when you write, you keep your
tongue grounded on the roof of your mouth. The child who has their tongue sticking out or moving all
over the place when writing needs oral motor control to help them focus on
their writing. Giving the child
gum or a thick straw to chew on will help them with this oral motor control and
allow them to hopefully better focus on their writing.
I purchased
Drive-Thru Menus, which are motor activities to help build strength in the
areas mentioned above. Easy little
engaging exercises designed for young children. I am looking forward to using them in my classroom. The set I purchased is based on poems
and nursery rhymes and intended for preschool and kindergarten students.
I found all of
this very interesting and couldn’t wait to share it all with you! I hope you got something you can use
from this or at least found it intriguing!
