Hi! I am a first grade teacher at Alice Fong Yu Alternative School in San Francisco. We are the first Chinese Immersion School in the nation. The students are learning Cantonese for 75% of the day. 80% of the students don't speak the language at home and only get exposure to the language during the school day. It is really important that the children are able to use different tools to improve their fine motor skills.
I am trying to give the students as many ways possible to use their hands to be able to touch and feel as a way to remember what they have learned. I also try to use many different tactile ways to motivate the students and make the learning more interesting for them. This way it makes learning the new language exciting and fun for them.
The children are learning new characters every week and one of I am trying to have a balance of using tactile learning and writing with a pencil.
The students work in stations four days a week for about 25 minutes per station. In each of the stations we try to use different learning techniques to keep their interest in learning. Two of the tactile ways that I would like the children to use are play-doh and sand. With the use of the play-doh the can create the characters with their fingers and see how it is formed. In the sandboxes they can use their fingers to write the characters and feel how each stroke is written. With the use of the sandboxes and the play-doh mats it will help to reinforce what has been taught to the children.
They will be able to use one of their sensory motor skills to help them feel success and accomplishment. You can help to affirm the fine motor skills needs in the learning process. The sandboxes that the children will be using have a colored background so they can see what they have written clearly and also be able to show their classmates. The play-doh mats will let the students roll the play-doh in their hands and place it in the mat on top of the character so they are able to see each stroke.
With your help the students can improve their writing skills with the use of the fingers.
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