DIY Binoculars for “I Spy” Game

   

I Spy is a fun game that kids love, and it’s great for a variety of skills, such as scanning, figure ground discrimination, visual attention, visual memory, and more. These binoculars are easy to make!

All you need are two toilet paper rolls, some construction paper, string or ribbon, and glue or tape. 

Have the child decorate the toilet paper rolls with construction paper. They can secure the paper to the rolls using a glue stick or tape. Use some tape to connect the toilet paper rolls and tape each end of the string onto the outside of each roll (as seen in the photo) and that’s it! Your child can then use the binoculars to look for different items. Mix it up by telling them to look for items of different color or different shapes. Or you can have them look for a specific item that you name. Just be sure to make it fun and engaging, and your child will have a blast!

 

Activity for Following Directions

This is a wonderful activity to work on following directions with a child! It is also a great way for a child to learn their colors and shapes. Because the child has to peel and place the stickers with accuracy, it is also a great nice activity for fine motor skills. 

All you need is a blank sheet of paper, some colored markers, and dot stickers in a variety of colors. Draw a variety of shapes in different colors. Now all you have to do is give the child instructions such as, "Put the pink sticker on the pink circle, or put the purple sticker on the purple square."

 

The Benefits of Play Dough Play!

     Rolling, squishing, pinching, and manipulating Play Dough has so many benefits for toddlers, preschoolers, and young children. In this post, I’m going to focus on two of those benefits: strengthening and bilateral skills.

     

Developing arm and hand strength is important for growing children, because they are needed for functional skills, such as self-help and fine motor activities. Grip strength and dexterity are needed for buttoning, writing, zipping, and other manipulation tasks. Bilateral skills are necessary for using both sides of the body together in a coordinated manner. This is also called bilateral integration, and it is an important for many activities that your child will carry out in home and at school. If a child has difficulty with bilateral coordination skills, they may end up using one hand alone rather than both hands together, which leads to challenges with certain activities, such as tying shoes, using a knife and fork, cutting with scissors, and buttoning.

     Play dough provide many opportunities to for a child to strengthen their arms and hands and improve bilateral integration. For example, while they are rolling, squeezing, flattening and shaping the dough, they are developing muscles in their little hands and learning to use them together in a coordinated manner!