Explore engineering while encouraging creative thinking and problem-solving skills with this Robot Tinkering process art activity!
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A huge thanks to Experience Early Learning (formerly Mother Goose Time) for providing us with their Experience Preschool curriculum for free in exchange for sharing our honest and authentic stories resulting from our personal experiences. It’s been such a huge blessing to us! As always, my opinions on awesome stuff for little kids are 100% my own.
Keep in mind that all preschoolers do things in their own time and on their own terms. What one is ready for, another might not be. Please use your best mama judgement when planning activities for your little kids.
One of our favorite activities this week was the Robot Tinkering invitation to create. The new process art experiences always exceed my expectations and this one was definitely no exception.
The skills listed for this activity were Shapes (16.2) and Logic (20.1). Although most of the time, making stuff is an awesome way to encourage Fine Motor (5.1) skills too. If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of open-ended art experiences, see my posts here and here.
What are fine motor skills? Generally muscle actions are groups by either gross motor (ex.: walking, running) or fine motor (ex.: writing, cutting).
If you’re interested in putting together your own Robot Tinkering invitation to create, keep reading to find out how.
What you’ll need
- Robot Photo
- Paper Cups
- Shape Stickers
- Pipe Cleaners
- Wiggly Eyes
- Tape
- Glue
- Markers
- Scissors
Here’s how to do it
Set out a paper cup for each child and then place the rest of the materials in the middle of the table with the inspiration photo. I know I’ve said this before, but it really is that simple.
It’s always fun to watch the little guy explore new mediums and materials and I especially love watching him use his fine motor skills to doodle and cut and sticker and paste. It amazes me how quickly he figures things out.
I think one of the most challenging parts of creating, at least for toddlers, is manipulating things the way they want. Toddlers don’t quite have the fine motor skills to color inside the lines or to cut things out. As with everything else in life, though, the more they practice, the better they get.
That’s why it’s so important to give toddlers lots of open-ended art experiences. As they work with small materials, they get more and more comfortable manipulating the items and of course they’re developing their fine motor skills in the process. What more could you ask for, right?
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If you missed our preschool space post not too long ago, you can check it out here.
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Thanks so much for visiting. See ya next week!
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