The window is an under-used resource for play activities. There are so many benefits to playing on a window. Working on a vertical plane makes it easier for a child to coordinate both eye and hand movements because the hands are right in front of their eyes. This makes it easier for the child to see what they are doing.
Window activities are also great for strengthening shoulder and arm muscles, developing gross motor skills as well as fine tuning fine motor skills. For the letter W in our Fine Motor Skills series, I decided to set up a Window Shapes Fine Motor Play activity. All we needed was contact paper, some masking tape (or sellotape) and some shapes.
I admit I have a love/hate relationship with contact paper. I love the endless ways there are to play with contact paper but I hate actually peeling the backing away and getting it in position without ending up with a huge ball of plastic. Thankfully placing it against a window isn’t too difficult. Ensure that you attach masking tape or sellotape to each corner and that the sticky side is facing you.
Any style of shape could be used for the activity. I opted to use plastic trapeziums as they were thick which meant they were slightly raised on the contact paper. The object of the activity was for my son to be able to pick up the shapes and place them onto the window independently. This worked on his pincer grip.
At first, my son placed the plastic shapes onto the contact paper in random places using one hand. He then moved onto using two hands at the same time.
It didn’t take him long before he realised that the contact paper was sticky and experimented with putting different body parts onto the window. As his play developed, he explored placing the shapes close together, far apart and creating a pattern. My son worked hard in order to get two shapes to be positioned next together in order to make a hexagon.
Once all the shapes had been used, my son turned his attention to removing them. He took each shape off of the contact paper which further reinforced his fine motor skills. He repeated the activity numerous times throughout the day.
Items you can use for this activity can be found:
- Contact paper – US readers | UK readers
- Geometric shapes – US readers | UK readers
Related reading:
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