• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • New? Start Here!
  • About GHOK
  • Contact Us
  • Terms and Policies
  • Blog
  • The Shop
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube
Growing Hands-On Kids

Growing Hands-On Kids

Child Development Tips, Tools, and Strategies

You are here: Home / Hands-On Activities / Fall Paper Plate Cutout Wreath Activity for Fine Motor Skills

Fall Paper Plate Cutout Wreath Activity for Fine Motor Skills

September 15, 2013 By Heather Greutman 5 Comments

Like what you read? Share it!

268shares
  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Print
  • Email

Affiliate and Referral links are used below to promote products I love and recommend. I receive a commission on any purchases made through these links. Please see my disclosure policy for more details.

I am really excited about this week! I am participating in the Autumn Inspiration Week part of Inspired Bloggers Network. I will be posting this week about fall and autumn inspired fine motor and sensory activities for kids! Today’s post is a fun one; a fall cutout paper plate wreath.

Fall Paper Plate Cutout Wreath Activity for Fine Motor Skills

Directions and Printables for Fall Cutout Paper Plate Wreath

I found this activity on DLTK-Kids.com, my favorite website for fine motor activity ideas, printables, and worksheets.

CLICK HERE  to get the list of items and specific directions for this activity. When you are on that page you will see at the bottom a link for the printables I used. There are color and b/w options. If you have a child who will tire easily or you want to focus on just cutting, then print out the color option. If your child has good fine motor strength and endurance, then print out the b/w options and have them color each picture before cutting them out. This will also make the activity last a lot longer, so take that into consideration, especially if you have a child who may not want to sit still that long.

This activity is designed for children ages 3+.

FallCutoutWreathActivity1

Fine Motor Skills Used in the Fall Cutout Paper Plate Wreath

  • Bilateral Coordination – Using scissors and holding the paper
  • Fine Motor Strength & Endurance – There is a lot of cutting and coloring if you choose to do that part.
  • Proper Hand Grasp Practice – Refer to my post on age appropriate hand grasps in order to help promote the proper grasp with your child while they hold the crayons for coloring. If your child has problems with grasp, I highly recommend the Flip crayons from Handwriting Without Tears.
  • Eye-Hand Coordination – Using the right amount of glue on each circle picture and then placing that circle appropriately on the paper plate.

Ideas for Grading This Fall Fine Motor Activity

Terminology Definition: Grading = Making an activity easier or harder based on your child’s skill level.

  • Remember if your child has difficulty holding scissors, you may want to consider some adaptive scissors. This will allow them to practice cutting and still work on hand strengthening, but it takes out some of the coordination skills they need for cutting, making it easier for them and successful.
  • If your child has difficulty sitting still for extended periods of time, consider setting a timer for 5 to 8 minutes, then provide a movement break for them. After a 1-3 minute movement break have them come back and continue the activity. The Ultimate Guide to Sensory Breaks ebook is an excellent resource for some sensory break ideas.
  • As I stated earlier, pick the b/w printable option for your child to color if they have good fine motor strength and endurance. If they tire easily, you could mix some of the color or b/w printables, or assist them in coloring.
  • If your child rushes through cutting, try printing out the pictures on card stock instead of regular computer paper. The thickness of the card stock will force them to slow down and take their time and will also decrease the amount of paper ripping or tearing with cutting.
  • If holding the whole paper is too overwhelming for your child, try cutting the paper into strips for them to hold.
FallCutoutWreathFineMotor2
  • Use a hole punch to cut out each of the pictures, either the color copies or the ones that they color. You are still working on fine motor strengthening, but it takes the cutting coordination out of the picture.
  • Use color tinted glue that goes on purple or blue and dries clear so that your child can see where they are placing the glue on the paper, if they have vision or eye hand coordination problems.

Tips to Reinforcing Good Fine Motor Skills

  • Proper Thumbs Up Position on the scissors while cutting, as well as holding the paper with the opposite hand and turning the paper as they need to while cutting. If your child has difficulty remembering this, put a sticker or draw a smiley face on their thumb nails and tell them the sticker or smiley should always be facing up, not down.
Thumbs up position on scissors
  • Staying inside the coloring lines while coloring. Remember to take your child’s age into consideration. Prek age children can still have deviations from the coloring line up to 1/4” from the coloring line. If the coloring is obviously rushed or messy, remind them to stay in the  lines, modeling yourself if necessary and have them start over with a new circle to color.
  • Proper hand grasp when using crayons for coloring – refer to my post on proper age appropriate hand grasps *pictures included*

You can also enforce patterns with this activity, by having your child pick a AB, ABC, ABCD pattern and so on to glue the pictures in.

The finished product is a beautiful wreath that can be hung in their room, in a window, bulletin board, or as part of your home’s fall decorations! They will love being able to contribute something to your home’s decor and you will feel great about being able to help them practice great fine motor skills!

FallCutoutWreathFineMotor4

Like what you read? Share it!

268shares
  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Print
  • Email

Filed Under: Hands-On Activities Tagged With: Fine Motor, For Parents, For Teachers, For Therapists, Visual Motor Activities

Reader Interactions

CONTENT DISCLAIMER: Heather Greutman is a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant.
All information on the Website is for informational purposes only and is not a replacement for medical advice from a physician or your pediatrician. Please consult with a medical professional if you suspect any medical or developmental issues with your child. The information on the Websites does not replace the relationship between therapist and client in a one-on-one treatment session with an individualized treatment plan based on their professional evaluation. The information provided on the Website is provided “as is” without any representations or warranties, express or implied.
Do not rely on the information on the Website as an alternative to advice from your medical professional or healthcare provider. You should never delay seeking medical advice, disregard medical advice, or discontinue medical treatment as a result of any information provided on the Website. All medical information on the Website is for informational purposes only.
All activities outlined on the Website are designed for completion with adult supervision. Please use your own judgment with your child and do not provide objects that could pose a choking hazard to young children. Never leave a child unattended during these activities. Please be aware of and follow all age recommendations on all products used in these activities. Growing Hands-On Kids is not liable for any injury when replicating any of the activities found on this blog.
YOUR RESPONSIBILITY The Website was developed strictly for informational purposes. You understand and agree that you are fully responsible for your use of the information provided on the Website. Growing Hands-On Kids makes no representations, warranties, or guarantees. You understand that results may vary from person to person. Growing Hands-On Kids assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions that may appear on the Website.

Comments

  1. DaLynn McCoy (@dalynnrmc) says

    September 15, 2013 at 11:18 pm

    This is gorgeous! I’m glad to see that the circles are just printouts – I was about to fall out of my chair at the paper pieces! The tips for motor skills are great; definitely one to save and read carefully again later. My twins are 3 and will enjoy this, but it might even be a good endurance exercise for my 3rd and 5th graders. Definitely looking forward to more from you this week via the #InspiredBN series. Be blessed!

    Reply
  2. Missy says

    September 15, 2013 at 11:26 pm

    I love DLTK too! I did this craft with my kids a couple of years ago 🙂 Seeing your post brought back good memories. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  3. Anne Campbell {LearningTable} says

    September 16, 2013 at 1:44 pm

    This is such a neat activity–and I love the finished result! 🙂

    Reply
  4. Andi @ The Weary Chef says

    September 28, 2013 at 12:13 pm

    What a cute project, Heather! I am definitely going to try this with my boys!

    Reply
    • Heather G. says

      September 29, 2013 at 1:12 pm

      Thanks Andi! I hope they enjoy it!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Fine Motor Skills checklists

Get This Free Fine Motor Checklist!

Sign-up for my weekly child development newsletter and receive this free fine motor checklist for ages 0-6.

Website Terms and Policies

Welcome to Growing Hands-On Kids! My name is Heather and I’m a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant with experience in school-based Occupational Therapy. I use my background to share child development tips, tools, and strategies through hands-on activities. You can read more about me by clicking here.

The 8 sensory systems printable packet.

Get This FREE 8 Sensory Systems Handout

Sign-up to receive my 9-day sensory processing email series and get this 8 sensory systems handout in English & Spanish!

Website Terms and Policies

Footer

Growing Hands-On Kids

Growing Hands-On Kids, LLC 2020. All content, photos/graphics, video, printables and ebooks written or created by Heather Greutman of https://growinghandsonkids.com are copyright of the owner. You may not alter or reuse text/content, photos/graphics, or videos in any way (print or digital use) without express written consent from Heather Greutman. For more details, please read our website terms of use and policy page.


PRIVACY POLICY

We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Cookie settingsACCEPT
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

SAVE & ACCEPT