[Nfb-krafters-korner] Craft Ideas for Fine Motor Skills

[Henrietta Brewer]

I bet playing with shaving cream might be fun for her. Forming shapes would make them more tactile. 

Remember those candies on a piece of paper that we used for medicine when we were little? You could cut the paper into a cell shape and remove a candy or so to make letters.

stringing large beads or the tube type pasta is always fun. You could have her color them with food coloring just to remind her that color is important in our world.

I love the game that I used to do with my day care. You get a box, cut a hole in it's side and attach a sock with the foot cut out. Then place items in the box and have the kids name them. Using one hand would be the challenge for a blind child.

Sink and float would be great too. Fill a bucket with water. Find things in the house that you can get wet. See which things will sink and float. Make a guess first and log the answers. If you get a bar of ivory soap from the dollar store that will make the game fun.

Then, dry the soap and on another day. Use tooth picks and bits of sticky paper to make a boat out of the soap. Float the soap and make waves and find out where it goes. You might want to add a bell to the sails. lol

If you have other children at the same time. Try the old find your shoe game. Put all the shoes in a pile and have the children find their own.

Putting safety pins or small buttons or beads in a pan of rice is a fun way to feel your way through. then if the objects are different shapes sort them into egg carton spots. this will be a challenge in itself. Finding the same one for each item.

How about going outside and finding rocks. sort the shapes and find the one you can paint for a pet rock. Puffy paint might work. But painting doesn't need vision. Just inner vision.

I like finding a piece of tube. The kind that carpet comes on. About three inches in diameter. Cut a foot or so section. Use a rope to make a hanger. Tie it around each end with a good sized piece as a middle loop. Loop that piece over a door knob. Now use small balls, even tennis balls, and see if you can make the ball stay in the tube. using the piece of robe on the door knob you can balance the tube. what about getting a small plastic bowl with a handle or even a pot and put the ball in one end and get to the other end before it falls out. If it falls... Well, time to get on your hands and knees and find it. lol I usually did this in the fall when I could use those tiny plastic pumpkins as balls.

What about making shapes with the braille writer? Nothing fancy, though that is sure fun, just enough to feel the project.

If she likes to play with dolls, play nurse and have her put bandaids on the doll. How smooth can she get it? How straight?

Lacing cards is fun. You can make your own by cutting a shape from an old greeting card or even poster board or braille paper and punching holes around it. Make several and sew them together when sewing one piece is easy. Could you make a house this way? Maybe a fence for plastic animals. 

Put masking tape on the floor and use match box cars to drive on the roads. Make a city with blocks and keep them in place as the cars go down the road.

Well, that is what I get off the top of my head. If you need more ideas, write me.
Henrietta
On Aug 27, 2014, at 2:32 PM, Michelle Creedy via Nfb-krafters-korner wrote:

> Hello
> 
> 
> 
> I'm working with a little girl who is blind and we're doing some pre-Braille
> stuff. Any ideas on fun crafts that are easy but involve some dexterity?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Michelle Creedy 
> 
> Independent Scentsy Consultant 
> http://michellecreedy.scentsy.ca/
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Nfb-krafters-korner mailing list
> Nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-krafters-korner_nfbnet.org
> Division Website:  http://www.krafterskorner.org
> Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/NFB-Krafters-Division/269246643109571
> "Follow NFB Krafters Korner on Twitter: Our Handle is @craftingblind
> Don't have a Twitter account? You can still follow Krafters Korner on Twitter. Go to: Twitter.com/craftingblind
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Nfb-krafters-korner:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfb-krafters-korner_nfbnet.org/gary.brewer%40comcast.net