Play To Learn: Imaginets

Welcome to this week’s Play To Learn series! Today we’re going to talk about this fun little product I picked up at our local homeschool fair called Imaginets.

As most of you know, I’m a total sucker for fun colorful stuff, and these were so cute I couldn’t resist! They come with a set of idea cards which are great for preschoolers! 

Your kids use the card then re-create the image using the magnetic wooden shape blocks, or they can also create their own original designs as well.

The blocks are great for boosting fine motor, and visual thinking skills. And though the product is rated for ages 3 and up, it’s been a favorite for my 2 year old all the way to my 8 year old!

As an added bonus each side of the carrying case is magnetic, so they can build on both sides or just one. Blocks and cards easily store inside for easy storage as well! So we’ll definitely be adding Imaginets to my list of “Favorite Preschool Things!”

If you have more ideas to share, or would like to be included in future “Play To Learn” posts, please email me at homeschoolerconfessions {at} gmail {dot} com, we’d love to hear from you!

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Play To Learn: Logical Thinking

Welcome to our Play To Learn feature where we’ll be looking at games to help your children work on their logical thinking and reasoning skills. There are tons of ways to do this, but here are just a few ideas to get you started!

Logic Links:

Have you tried Logic Links Puzzles yet? I promise they aren’t paying me for an endorsement, we just love this game! Its great for building logical reasoning skills and I add them to our workboxes for fun!

Each card contains a puzzle that tells which disks they'll need along with clues as to how to place the colored disks. I mostly use it for 2nd grade right now since my Kindergartner can’t read the cards quite yet. I have given them to him though, just made sure there was a “Work with Mom” sticker on that box!

 

Dollar Puzzles from Michael’s:

I found these inexpensive shape puzzles and they were a great addition to our workboxes! They are harder than they look and turned out to be a great problem solving game!

 

Creative Color Cube Activity Cards

 

These cards are great for logical thinking skills, the set comes with 32 activity cards that begin with easier tasks of making shapes and patterns and progress to building shape towers (some with hidden cubes) and even simple computations.

 

Tangram Puzzles:

 

Tangrams are puzzles consisting of seven simple geometric shapes that can be rearranged into innumerable figures. The puzzle has simple rules: recreate the target figure using all seven pieces without any overlap. Click here to read about the theory behind Tangrams and a fun online game example!

I found these Tangram cards and blocks at Lakeshore Learning they also have the blocks by Learning Resources. This set includes cards with each shape outlined for beginners and then cards without the shape outlines for more of a challenge!

Pattern Blocks:

 Pattern Blocks are similar to the Tangrams, but include more pieces in each puzzle allowing you to make really great patterns and pictures. I found these free Pattern Block Printable at Prekinders.  I found my cards and Wooden Pattern Blocks Here!

 

 BLOKUS!

I featured this on my Fine Motor Skills Pt. 2 post, but it’s also great for Logical Thinking too! Rules are simple, each player gets a color. The goal is to get as many of your pieces on the board by the end and they can only touch on their corners. For single players, it’s still a challenge to get all the pieces on the board!

Jenga

 

Jenga is such a fun game, it takes skill to build the tower and even more to remove the pieces without it falling down! Great for logical thinking!

 

Mystery Pattern Blocks:

This is a fun game from Lakeshore Learning, it comes with pattern cards and a mystery box. The wooden pattern pieces go in the box and you have to stick your hand in and “FEEL” to find the right piece to complete the pattern.

 

Foam Shapes Puzzles:

 

I got this fun idea from Walking by the Way. I grabbed a tub of foam shapes from Michael’s (or any hobby store) and then made a grid on construction paper. I glued 2 different shapes in the top row of the grid, then gave my daughter the appropriate shapes she needed to replicate my design.

 

BEADS & PATTERN CARDS

I found this set at a local used curriculum sale and am so happy I did! It came with a bunch of pattern cards, beads and shoelaces. You just pull out a card a shoestring and a hand full of beads and copy the pattern they’ve done on the card.

Those are just some of many ideas to help boost Logical thinking skills! If you have more ideas to share, or would like to be included in future “Play To Learn” posts, please email me at homeschoolerconfessions {at} gmail {dot} com, we’d love to hear from you!

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Play to Learn: Fine Motor Fun Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of our Fine Motor Fun series here at Play to Learn! We’re continuing on with our fine muscle building games to help your little guys gain better control of their fine muscles which will aid greatly when they begin more complex skills such as handwriting!

 

Glass Beads:

I found this bag of gems at Michael’s. We use them for everything from color sorting, to counters for our Letter of the Week games! Balancing them on the Popsicle sticks takes great control!

Small Spaces!

This idea came from Carisa at 1+1+1 and I have to say it’s been a winner in our house for everyone. It’s great for fine motor coordination and one-to-one correspondence as well! This was an old plastic jar I had, and I used a nail to punch holes in the top.

Blokus Game:
This game is easy enough that everyone can play, even our preschooler. Each player gets a different color, the goal is to get as many of your pieces on the board as possible. The trick is they can only be touching by their corners.

Variation: My preschooler likes to play alone, she sorts all the colors on the board and her goal is to get all the pieces on. Its great for logic / puzzle solving skills, color sorting, and all the while working those tiny hand muscles by picking up small pieces and fit them into their little spots on the board!

Pattern Blocks:

Everyone loves these! They’re great for logic, patterns, shapes and puzzle making. It also takes some dexterity to place each shape on the board without disturbing the others.

I also made pattern cards for use with these blocks, click the image to download a copy, there are 8 patterns plus a spot to make your own fun pattern!

Sorting with Spoons:

This game practices counting while at the same time working on fine motor coordination. The goal is to use the small measuring spoons to carefully scoop up and pour out the correct number of beans into each bowl based on the number inside. Variation: You could also use tweezers with the beans, pom-poms, or beads.

Poking Holes:

I found this fun idea on Activity Mom. We either use a toothpick, or we have these cute Oversized Push Pins (note: they are sharp), to poke holes through the paper in the shape of the letter. Print on regular paper for easier poking, and do this one on carpet! There is a printable for each letter on my blog.

Lacing Buttons:

I found these large sized buttons at Oriental Trading. We use them for all sorts of things, lacing, shape sorting, color sorting, patterning and as counting manipulatives!

Turkey Buttoning Practice!

This was a super easy felt project, click the title for more info and instructions! You could easily switch this up so it’s not a Thanksgiving theme. Simply sew buttons onto a felt shape and provide a selection of extra felt pieces with slits cut in them to button. Click here to download the turkey template!

Variation: Sew different height green stems onto a sheet of felt with buttons on top of each one, then cut extra pieces in flower shapes with a slit in the center. You can also add buttons, snaps, zippers, and hooks to a piece of felt covered cardboard to make a great fine motor skills learning center!

Sticky Mosaics:

This activity was excellent, they are ‘sticker by number’ work boards that work several skills at once! You have to look at the color key, look at the number on the board, then pick off the correct colored tiny square foam stickers and place them on the cards provided. The end results are beautiful mosaics!

A less expensive variation of these can be found for $1 at Michael’s in the craft section. They are VERY sticky and my 4 yr old got a little frustrated with this, but my 7 year old loved it.

The Orb Factory has a bunch to choose from, though they’re a bit more expensive. The more pricey ones are done using color-by-number association. They take some good muscle control to pick off each little foam tile and place it on the correct number on the board. These $1 Michael’s ones don’t have numbers, they are just free to decorate as they like. We’ve done both, and my kids love them.

Pop Beads from Target

These are fun little beads that ‘snap’ together! This is a “Parents” toy I found at Target and I’m always happy with their products. We use these to make necklaces, bracelets, patterns, sort by color/shape/size etc. They’re great for fine-motor muscle control, plus they’re super fun!

Those are just some of many ideas for fine motor skill fun.
If you have more ideas to share, or would like to be included in future “Play To Learn” posts, please email me at homeschoolerconfessions {at} gmail {dot} com, we’d love to hear from you!

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Play To Learn: Fine Motor Fun Part 1

Welcome to our First Play To Learn post! Today we’ll be talking about how to incorporate Fine Motor Skills into learning, and best of all it will be easy and fun! So without any further ado, here are some ideas to help you change a hum drum routine into fabulous fun and work those fine motor skills at the same time!

Biggie Beads by Fun Fusion!

We have the original Perler Beads, but this is a new variation for smaller children who can’t quite manipulate the tiny ones. You can iron your finished design just like the regular ones, and they are perfect to use as counters, color sorting, and patterns! They’re just the right size for my 4 year old, and great for fine-muscle practice! I also had her try this using tweezers to grab the beads.

Toot and Otto:

An new take on the “Connect Four” game! There are several ways to play.

1. Each person gets a letter and whoever gets 4 of their tiles in a row wins!
2. Drop all the tiles in and see how many ‘TOOT’s” and how many “OTTO’s” you can find.
3. Play alone, making a pattern with the tiles!

This game is a blessing in disguise as it works patterning skills, reading & phonic skills, all the while working on fine motor coordination skills as it takes a steady hand to get the small tiles into the slits along the top.

Marble balancing:

This is one of our favorite activities to work on fine motor coordination. I chose to do it in the workbox because otherwise we’d have marbles rolling all over! Using a piece of Styrofoam, simply push golf tees into the foam, then balance different sized marbles on the tops!

Here’s another variation of the above game. I found these wooden games in the dollar section at Michaels! (I think they were actually $5 though). They are come in several shapes, and she had fun putting all the tees in the holes, then we balanced pom-poms on the tops. The good news about these, is you can use them as logic puzzles for your older kids!

Sticker Fun!

We use any tracing worksheets we can find and place tiny stickers along the edges. You can read more and download worksheets here.

Scissor Skills:

This is a great way to work fine motor skills and kids LOVE to cut! I have cutting worksheets on my blog for each letter, but we started off with plain strips of construction paper. I drew lines on the strips with a sharpie and she cut along the lines. Check out more scissor tips and ideas in this ABC and 123 Scissor Post!

Number Dot Cards:

These counting cards are a great way to practice counting while at the same time working fine motor skills! Simply use a fun manipulative like mini-clothespins or some tweezers with pom-poms and place the correct number on each card. You can also use dry-erase marker to trace the numbers, or put little stickers on each dot. If you laminate the cards, the stickers should come off fairly easily making them re-usable!

Chopsticks and Pom-Poms

I found these kids chopsticks at PF Chang’s restaurant. The waiter was kind enough to give me new sets to take home! They’re great for transferring activities. I had her use them to sort these pom-poms by size, but you could use them with just about any manipulative you have. Variation: If you don’t have these handy chopsticks, use tweezers!

Letter bead lacing:

I found these letters at Lakeshore Learning but you can also just get any kind of beads from a local craft store. This is a great way to work on fine muscle control as you lace each small item onto the string. I typically use this to practice our letters, so I’ll give her a letter to find and string on so that we can make a word. After looking at the word she’ll finish lacing as many as she can fit on her string.

Those are just some of the ideas for fine motor skill fun! Stay tuned next week for Part 2 of our Fine motor Fun post with more great ideas!

If you have more ideas to share, or would like to be included in future “Play To Learn” posts, please email me at homeschoolerconfessions {at} gmail {dot} com, we’d love to hear from you!

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