As we slowly transition into the beautiful season of fall, we introduced some new fall-themed activities to our School Age 1 children. Based off observations, it’s come to our attention that a lot of our School Age 1 friends seemed to show curiosity in the colourful leaves on the trees surrounding our field. With this knowledge, it’s also been observed that many of our School Age 1 friends really enjoy fine motor activities. When combing this information, Amber was able to create an activity that would keep the children engaged while giving them a chance to embrace their learnings about the season of fall! This activity included pipe-cleaner made trees, and different varieties of beads, all of which were the colours of fall leaves. The children were then offered the chance to fill their tree with leaves (beads). The children got creative, making colourful AB patterns with beads of different colours. Threading beads onto pipe cleaners is a developmentally rich activity that supports a wide range of foundational skills for children in the JK/SK age group. While it may appear to be a simple creative task, it plays a critical role in building fine motor control, hand-eye coordination, and concentration; all of which are essential for future life skills and self-help tasks. This activity encourages the use of the small muscles in the hands and fingers (fine motor skills), which are necessary for holding a pencil, using scissors, fastening buttons, and completing other daily tasks that encourage independence. The act of selecting, grasping, and sliding each bead onto a pipe cleaner also helps refine the pincer grasp and bilateral coordination (being able to hold an object) both important steps when it comes to writing and other classroom activities. Beyond physical development, beading also promotes cognitive skills such as patterning, counting, and color recognition, while growing determination and focus. It allows for open-ended exploration and creativity, giving children the opportunity to express themselves through design and choice-making. In the early years, hands-on experiences like beading serve as meaningful learning opportunities that integrate multiple domains of development, supporting the child in a play-based and engaging way. Through fun, hands-on activities like building, drawing, and threading, children build the coordination and control needed for writing, self-care, and active participation in the classroom. Supporting fine motor skills early on lays the foundation for success across all areas of learning. It’s also important to recognize the improvement of social and communication skills. Lots of children during this activity were demonstrating collaborative learning and sharing the materials. Before finishing up the activity, a few of the kids asked Amber if they could colour on the paper covering the table. One of them even asked Amber to draw some leaves and fall-themed pictures. Afterward, they helped clean up the beads and pipe cleaners, then were immediately engaged in coloring with red, green, yellow, and brown crayons to create their own leaves. This extended activity really sparked their creativity and deepened their interest in the fall season. We are so excited to do more fall exploration.
