The wonder hands - toddlers learning with paper folding

People today are creative beyond our imagination. It is an art and to be creative you just need to think   differently. Creativity can’t be taught, it is inborn. You may however introduce your child to this magical world of creativity. Creativity is another form of expressing oneself. You make use the waste and turn it into something beautiful. Write a poem or a story. You make be a good orator …that’s creativity too. Or you can magically turn paper into something beautiful.

Origami and paper craft has always fascinated children across all age groups. Children are curious and paper crafts are an interesting way to enhance education with enjoyment.  

 Listening Skills

  Paper folding/craft is all about precision. Children are made to carefully observe and follow the instructions given by the teacher. “It’s interesting to see the attention span of toddlers. During our paper folding activity, each child is attentive and carefully follows the instructions of the teacher,” shared Mrs. Chawla school head of plays all schools in Sonipat. “It’s the most important time of the day.”  This activity enhances the child listening skills. Children learn to concentrate.

Thinking Skills:

Paper folding/craft    helps improves   spatial visualization skills of the child. Children are guided to   comprehend and construct their own imagination. Preschools in Sonipat start with simple paper folding activities. Mrs. Nair, teacher with a preschools in Sonipat shared “with each new story , there is a new artwork taught to the children. Children are guided to use paper and create their own characters from the story. Its fun especially when they make their own characters”. You may refer the internet for such crafts and get a vast variety of ideas.

Motor Skills:

These activities help in developing the child eye hand coordination. Children carefully observe and try to create the same. It’s an interesting mechanism to develop child’s motor skills too. The activity involves the usage of small muscles which control the hand, fingers and thumb. The child experiences and gradually learns to have control on her/his fingers. Develops their grip too and bring about a synchronization between hand, eye and fingers..This later helps children in other activities like  writing, feeding oneself, buttoning and zippering. Gross motor abilities also influence other everyday functions. a child’s ability to maintain appropriate table top posture (upper body support)  and sitting upright to attend to class instruction, which then impacts on their academic learning. Gross motor skills impact on your endurance to cope with a full day of school 

 

Social Skills:

Children love to show off and exhibit their creations. Children learn to communicate and interact with each other, both verbally and non-verbally, through gestures, body language and our personal appearance.  It’s a boost to their morale and esteem. “Its fun to see how they later sit across and show off their creation,” shared Mrs. Nair, teacher with preschools in Sonipat. “As a practice our classrooms are decorated with only the craft creations of our children. Children see their creation each day. They also learn from the work done by others. This also creates a desire in them to do better. So probably the next craft is better.”” We don’t encourage competitions. But children learn best from and with their peers.”.

The benefits of paper folding are immense. “We encourage our parents too , to engage their children in such activities at home. It keeps the child busy , away from the mobile and television  and ofcourse mother gets time to finish her chores,” laughed Ms. Sujata teacher play schools in Sonipat