Locks and Keys

In order to help our children strengthen their fine motor skills we placed a number of little locks and keys out at a table today. The keys and locks were mixed together and the children had to experiment with matching a key to its rightful lock through trial and error. This activity took much patience and persistence on the part of our children as it was time consuming to try key after key in the same little lock. Many children were intrigued with the idea and spent a considerable amount of time engaged in the activity.

Some Ontario Curriculum Expectations this activity fulfilled include:

2.2 demonstrate persistence while engaged in activities that require the use of both large and small muscles (e.g., tossing and catching beanbags, skipping, lacing, drawing)

4.1 begin to demonstrate control of small muscles in activities at a variety of learning centres (e.g., sand, water, visual arts centres) and when using a variety of materials or equipment (e.g., using salt trays, stringing beads, painting with paintbrushes, drawing, cutting paper, using a keyboard, using a mouse, writing with a crayon or pencil)

4.2 demonstrate spatial awareness by doing activities that require the use of small muscles