23 Apr Starting Out Right
By Kris Carter, Vice Principal and 1st Grade Teacher, MLCA
Our beloved Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Bonty developed a life skills class to help her Kindergarteners develop their fine motor skills. Fine motor skills are necessary for kindergarten students when learning to tie their shoes, properly form their letters and numbers along with their reading and handwriting skills.
Mrs. Bonty’s first step in this process is to introduce the kids to sewing. “I know that sounds like a dramatic first step, but kids love to make something out of nothing.”
The children start their projects by sewing a small pillow. Their second project is their very own Christmas stocking. Mrs. Bonty loves to see the satisfaction on the kids’ faces when they complete their projects.
Once the Kindergarteners have finished a couple of sewing projects, she introduces them to finger crocheting. The students are given a single piece of yarn and shown the process of creating knots to make a chain.
As the students continue to repeat the steps they are rewarded with longer and longer chains of stitches. They often make bracelets and necklaces out of their chains.
Overall, Mrs. Bonty is pleased with the program. “The kids like it and feel accomplished” she said she has even had students go home and teach their parents how to finger crochet. “The program reinforces the need for order – things must be completed in a certain order. That order is taught and reinforced in the classroom in math, reading and handwriting skills.”
Thank you for taking the time to read this article. For more articles from MLCA go to https://mlcatexas.org/blog/.
