MINI MONDAY: MOTHER’S NEW DO

Something simple, or something daring? It’s time for a spiffy new do! Unleash your inner stylist and develop your fine motor skills as you design your mother’s (or another loved one’s) brand new look!

Materials

• Paper Bag
• Scissors
• Markers
• Newspaper/Scrap paper (optional)
• Camera (optional)

Directions:

• Time for a haircut! Using scissors, cut the open end of your paper bag into strips. Make longer cuts for longer pieces of hair, or shorter cuts for shorter ones. Decide if you want the hair to be the same length all around, or shorter on one side than the other!
  • If your little one is too young to handle scissors, create the beginnings of cuts at the top of the paper bag, and encourage them to pull each strip of paper down to rip it and create the strands of hair. Making cuts which are further apart in the bag will provide a wider surface for them to grasp, whereas making cuts closer together will require more fine motor control
• Fold each strand of hair down to the desired length
• Time to decorate! We all know that mothers are fantastic, so need to worry about capturing her best side – she’s wonderful from all angles! Use markers to draw your mother’s brilliant, smiling face, and design her spectacular outfit!
• Once you’re done, it’s on to the main event – her hair! Lay your paper bag flat on the table and unfold the hair. Use the markers to colour in what now looks to be the “back” of the hair – the part that used to be the inside of the paper bag. As you colour, try and identify each colour that you are using! Repeat this for each side of the bag
  • Note: You may want to place a piece of newspaper, or a scrap piece of paper underneath your paper bag to protect your table from stray markers!
• Once you’re done colouring, stand your paper bag up, and fold down each strand of hair. Folding the strips back down will reveal your colourful work of art! Show your mother her completed new look, and take a selfie in front of the mirror!

Keep the fun and learning going! Can you…

• Create a colourful pattern on your mother’s hair?
• Count how many strands of hair you cut on your paper bag?
• Find the longest strand of hair on your paper bag? How about the shortest? The thinnest? The widest?

Essential Learning Experiences

Fine Motor Skills

Fine motor skills are developed when children learn to use their smaller muscles, like the ones in their hands, fingers, and wrists. Fine motor skills are used for everything from picking up a utensil to eat, buttoning clothing, and holding a pencil when learning to write.

This craft helps to support the development of fine motor skills by inviting children to use their smaller muscles to manipulate the scissors or tear the paper, and to grasp each strip of paper as they fold and unfold them to design their spectacular hairdo!

Recognizing Attributes and Characteristics

Did you know that sorting and classifying are important parts of early math development? By practicing recognizing the attributes and characteristics of objects, children will be able to use this information to later help them sort these objects into groups!

This craft helps children practice to recognize the attributes and characteristics of different objects by identifying the colours they’ve used to create their stunning new look!

Stay tuned for more resources to help spark kids’ creative learning!

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