Scissor Practice inspired by Tops & Bottoms

I am so excited to be joining the Enchanted Homeschooling Mom and many other wonderful bloggers in the 2014-2015 Poppins Book Nook! The Poppins Book Nook is a monthly themed virtual book club for kids ages preschool and up. Each month participants will read a book based on that month’s theme and share crafts and activities that go along with the book on the last Monday of every month. It’s a great way to learn about different topics, build literacy skills and have some fun!

The theme for May is “Folktales” which I had a hard time defining at first. But after a little research I found a way to tie in this theme with our Before Five in a Row unit on The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss. In keeping with the gardening theme, we read Tops & Bottoms by Janet Stevens which is a Caldecott Honor Book about how hard work and quick wits pay off in the end. To go along with this book I created a fun, fine motor activity for my son.

With my son being only three years old, I chose to focus on the proposition words ‘top, bottom and middle’ instead of the moral of the story. A young child can only understand so much about hard work or laziness, but the concrete meanings of proposition words are easy to learn. I paired this lesson with fine motor scissor skills for a simple activity!

To create your own Tops & Bottoms inspired fine motor scissor skills activity you need:

• Colored Construction Paper
• Tape
• Markers
• Scissors

These paper vegetables are really easy to make. I used the markers to draw the vegetable tops and bottoms, then cut them out and used clear tape on the back to attach them together. Then I set them up at the table with a pair of child’s scissors and invited Caden to cut the tops from the bottoms. We also worked on sorting the tops and bottoms into piles for Bear and Hare just like in the story.

This was Caden’s first time using these scissors since I couldn’t find our Faber-Castell My First Scissors (they must be still packed away somewhere). He did really well! I needed to help him position his scissor hand and the hand to hold the paper a couple of times, but he was able to use the scissors to cut the paper vegetables with minimum frustration. I’d say that was a success!

Poppins Book Nook Giveaway! Every month the Poppins Book Nook group will be offering readers a chance to win a brand new storybook or product that ties in with our theme for the month. This month one lucky entrant will win a copy of the E.H.M. curriculum Journey into the World of Folktales(PDF) and one copy of the book that is required to teach it called Around the World in 80 Tales by Saviour Pirotta to further their learning all about folktales.

Entrants must be 18 years or older and reside in a country that receives U.S. Postal mail. This giveaway is brought to you by the company Enchanted Homeschooling Mom who is owner and founder of the Poppins Book Nook. By entering this giveaway you are also acknowledging that you have read and agree to all of the Rafflecopter terms & conditions as well as Enchanted Homeschooling Mom’s disclosures found here. Just enter the Rafflecopter below to win:
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Please come back & join us on June 30th when we explore books about “The Great Outdoors”!   And be sure to follow Poppins Book Nook on Facebook and Pinterest!

Clip Art by Melon Headz

 

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