Almost gave this 1970's Dymo label maker away to Goodwill over the weekend. Whew! What great fine motor challenges it offered the students yesterday morning.
Of course, I didn't have any of the antique label tape that was originally used with the label maker, so I cut skinny strips of recycled construction paper and thicker, shiny white paper. Turned out that reading the "label" was easier if the paper was shiny as compared to the matte finish construction paper.
Many of the elementary students had to contort their wrists and fingers quite a bit to figure out how to turn the letter dial. You could really see how well they knew their ABC order by how quickly they turned the dial clockwise or counterclockwise to advance to the desired letters.
Most students had to squeeze with both hands in order to create a legible impression on the paper. The novelty and fun quickly wore off when the final results did not always reflect which letters they tried to use. Maybe that's why label makers are mostly electronic with built-in QWERTY keyboards these days...
1 comment:
What a creative idea!!! Letter recognition, fine motor, sequencing, scanning, problem solving...the list goes on and on!! Thank you for sharing! Looking forward to more creative ideas from your classroom!
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