Dear Parents/Guardians and Children,

We have been asked to convey to you the importance of social and physical distancing at this time. We all need to minimise physical contact with each other to help avoid the spread of Covid-19.

Keep a space of 2 metres between you and other people.

Reduce physical interactions with people.

Reduce the number of people you meet every day.

Avoid crowded places.

Wash your hands properly and often.

For more information please visit:

https://www2.hse.ie/conditions/coronavirus/protect-yourself.html

Please find public health information notices in various languages at this link:

https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/news/newsfeatures/covid19-updates/partner-resources/covid-19-translated-resources/

Fine Motor Skill Activities:

Practice Number Formation: Drawing 1,2,3,4,5 in sand/flour/sugar/soil from the garden/shaving foam.

Clothes pegs: Allow your child to practice pinching pegs open and closed. Keep it fun by having them make a long line of clothes pegs by pinning one to the other. Or they can use one clothes peg to pinch cotton balls from one bowl to another.

Playdough is great as it encourages a variety of ways to use hands.

Guide your child through simple activities with the play dough, then let their imagination take over. You can:

• give a plastic knife to “cut” the play dough into smaller pieces.

• help turn one play dough into smaller balls.

• show how to roll the play dough into “snakes”/

• mix different-colored play dough together to form new colors.

• flatten the playdough into pancake shapes.

• squeeze, stretch and pinch the play dough.

Scissors: Using a child friendly scissors is a fantastic way to develop fine motor skills. Use smaller pieces of card stock or construction paper to make for easier holding and cutting. Children can also use the pieces they have cut to create a collage.

Painting allows your child to use paintbrushes to develop fine motor skills. Experiment with different-sized paintbrushes, as well as a variety of things to paint on. One day children might paint on a large cardboard box, and another on finger paint paper.

Lego Toys: To start, give your child larger Lego blocks to practice building and getting used to locking and unlocking the pieces together.

Then, as they get better playing with those, offer the standard Lego pieces, small enough to truly hone in on their fine motor skills.

Buttoning: Buttoning and unbuttoning clothes or teddy/doll’s clothes.

Make a necklace: Using either cheerios or pasta, create a necklace by placing them onto a string.

Gardening/Planting: There are parts of gardening that require smaller muscle control. For instance, transferring seedlings into a garden requires hand-eye coordination skills to safely carry the smaller plant to the new hole. Your child will also need to be able to grasp a trowel to dig and to use a pincer grasp when picking up seeds to plant.

Gross Motor Skills Activities:

Dancing, either freestyle or through songs with movements, such as “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes,” “I’m a Little Teapot,” “The Wheels on the Bus,” or “Popcorn,” provides lots of movement.

• Standing on one foot for 5 seconds

• Standing on tiptoes for 3 seconds without moving feet

• Hops on one foot 5 times

• Walks backwards on a line

• Target Practice: Toss a ball into a hula hoop

• Catching and Throwing a ball.

Move like an animal

You’ll need some open space, but this is a great way to get kids using new muscles. Here are some ideas:

• Move like a bird (run with arms outstretched)

• Move like a snake (wiggle on tummies on the floor)

• Move like a bear (walk on all fours)

• Move like a frog (get down on haunches and hop)

• Move like a kangaroo (take big leaps with arms in front of chest)

• Move like an elephant (with heavy stomping)

• Move like a penguin (waddle with ankles close together and arms pinned to sides)