One fall morning Educator Sara facilitated a fall activity with the children. We started by bringing a bucket outside so the children could collect leaves that had fallen on the ground. When we had enough leaves in the bucket, we brought our leaves inside for the next step of our activity. Sara taped down some mac tac onto the table. The children explored how sticky it was before they put any leaves down. As soon as Theo touched the mac tac he said “sticky.” Theo then continued to tap his hands on and off the mac tac to continue feeling how sticky it was.
Throughout this activity the children were able to demonstrate their pincer grasp by picking up thin flat leaves off the ground and table; this required the toddlers to use their thumb and index fingers and strengthens their tiny hand muscles, as well as their hand eye coordination skills by aligning the leaves with the sticky surface and pressing it down to build spatial awareness.
