3 Tips You Need to Teach Preschoolers How to Use School Supplies
Knowing how to use school supplies is an essential skills in preschool!
Preschoolers are creative, silly, busy little ones who are somehow always just a little sticky…
They’re curious but also not great with fine motor skills yet so trying to use items like glue, scissors, and pencils becomes a big struggle.
It’s up to us to help them learn how to use all these amazing school supplies around them..but how?! Follow these tips to help preschoolers learn how to use school supplies and find success with glue, scissors, and pencils this year.
1. Set Clear Expectations about How to Use School Supplies
With any young child, it is essential to set clear expectations BEFORE teaching a new skill.
Tools, Not Toys
In my classroom, we call all the classroom supplies “tools”. My students begin to learn the difference between “tools” and “toys” from the first day of school.
We play with toys, but we don’t play with tools. Use visuals and real objects to help show your little learners the difference between the two.
A hammer helps us hit nails to hang pictures. A screwdriver helps us fix things that break. We don’t play with hammers or screwdrivers because they are tools.
Scissors help us cut paper. Glue helps us stick things together. These are tools too, so we don’t play with them either.
2. Choose the Right Supplies
It’s important to have the right-sized supplies accessible for your preschoolers.
Think small! Preschoolers have small hands, so small supplies are often best. Ensuring classroom tools are the right fit will help develop fine motor skills quicker and more efficiently.
Golf pencils are the perfect size (and super fun too)!
Scissors like these are small and have a blunt tip for safety purposes.
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Don’t underestimate the fine motor development that is happening. Using classroom supplies is the start of many important life skills like tying shoelaces, using zippers, and assembling a yummy PB&J sandwich!
3. Use Memorable Tricks
Through lots of hands-on trial and error, I’ve found some tricks that REALLY DO WORK to help teach preschoolers how to use classroom tools.
Pinch your pencil
This trick helps little ones learn the correct grip and finger placement needed to hold a pencil, crayon, or marker.
Glue sticks peek out to say “hi!”
Little ones love to keep turning that glue stick up until alllllll of the glue is out and then won’t go back into the tube. BAM, a classroom full of wasted glue sticks!
Teaching students only to roll up the glue just enough so that it can say “hi!”, helps them work on precise fine motor skills and keep the glue for as long as possible.
Scissors – thumbs up & snip, snip, snip
It’s hard for preschoolers to figure out which fingers go into the different holes of scissors. I’m sure you’ve seen many different crazy options in your classroom.
Teach little ones to make a thumbs up while grasping the scissors to help them achieve the right grip before they are ready to get to the real fun– snip, snip!
Using classroom supplies is an important part of Pre-K, and understanding why and how to do so in an easy way makes a world of difference!
Do you have other amazing tricks for teaching preschoolers how to use school supplies? I’m always on the hunt for more ways to help my students (and you all!). Send me a DM on Instagram!
You might also be interested in:
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COMPLETE GUIDE to Very Hungry Caterpillar Activities for Pre-K
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