Dear Janney Families,

I hope everyone enjoyed a restful Thanksgiving!  I look forward to seeing you all at the Winter Market this Saturday.

Tonight’s newsletter is brief and contains the weekly student support services column from Cathy Eliot, our Occupational Therapist.

Student Support Services Column
This week I am going to be writing about holiday gifts and fine motor skills. Both the gifts you plan to purchase and the gifts you plan to give away can give your students the opportunity to practice important visual and fine motor skills. While it takes a little prep, kids making holiday cards and gifts is a terrific way to use a variety of fine motor skills and spread good cheer. It is fun to make cards or ornaments. Using a collage method of cut out shapes and drawing utilizes visual motor integration and visual spatial reasoning. Depending on your student’s skill levels you can have some shapes pre-cut and the paper pre-folded to help make the project go faster. Another good project is to make a menorah with wood, glue and nuts. It is important to size the nuts to the candles you plan to use so they can fit in easily. I find it easier to glue the nuts in place first and then use paint or markers to decorate the wood. Board games are a great opportunity to use fine motor skill and have fun with family and friends. Remember Operation? All kinds of fine motor precision and visual motor planning in that game.  Here is my top 5 list of games that promote visual and fine motor skills: Spot it, Card games of all sorts, Q-Bitz, Quirkle, and Chinese Checkers. ​

Warmly,
Alysia Lutz, Principal