Fun Friday… combining fine motor practice and writing workshop...

As we read stories in the classroom, we constantly talk about the different parts that make up a story.  We always identify the setting of the story, or where the story takes place.  We always identify the characters of the story, which can be people or animals.  Today we decided to start with a setting, then add characters, and finish with a story.

First,  each child had to choose the setting for their story.  These were the choices.  One of my teacher friends, Mrs. Knott, found these awesome pictures.  Not only is painting with q-tips fun, but it also helps to strengthen your fine motor skills.  These came from a sight called Therapy Fun Zone.  Click on the pictures to download the templates.

I told them we were going to paint our settings but we were not going to use a paintbrush.  Instead we used q-tips.  They had to dip the q-tip in the paint and then dab each circle.  The challenge was to not use the q-tip as a paintbrush.  They had to dip and dab.  This certainly was tricky, even for the teachers!!  When they were done painting their setting, they needed to create their characters.  They drew each character on a piece of white paper, added detail, and then cut them out to place on their setting.  Last, they wrote their story.  They came out FANTASTIC.. Take a peek-