Use What You've Got--Including Gravity

The last few days of the school year are a little jumbled and activity planning (on my part) isn't always top notch.  This morning I primarily wanted to review the students' progress on their annual goals and the rest of the time we did fun, fine motor work with items available in the classroom.

I think this rack of shapes was originally purchased by the teacher as a shape counter; it reminds me of the colors many educational toys were manufactured in back in the 80's.  Since the shapes were a little smaller than the typical puzzle pieces I usually use for bilateral coordination activities I thought they would make a nice challenge for this student's current skills.

Oh, yes--my sweetie had quite a time coordinating his hands to hold the paper, place the shape right next to a similarly-drawn shape (2 circles touching each other---2 diamonds touching each other...), keep that all stable while tracing around the small shapes.  Whew!  First we drew the shapes and then I asked him to name the shapes so I could write their names.  Next, he imitated my words.

It was a nice, difficult activity but not impossible.  The best part is that it completely altered his attention to task.  Sitting down and comfortably working at a table would have permitted him to pay attention to everything else in the room.  Standing up at a vertical surface to work allowed the law of gravity to force his attention on the task.