Another thing out on the shelf this week to go along with our penguin theme is a maze activity. I printed the maze from here. Then I trimmed it and matted it on a piece of construction paper and laminated it. I added a little box with a dry-erase marker and a rectangle piece of felt for an eraser. See the photo below.
To do this activity, the child uses the marker to draw a path through the maze.
When finished, they use the felt to rub off their line for the next person.
Mazes are great for working on visual skills and fine motor skills as well. It is also much less frustrating for children to be able to easily erase their mistakes and start over, something that would be very hard for them if they were using a pencil. This set-up also allows many children to use the same maze which means there is no need for multiple paper copies and therefore, it's good for the earth! An easy alternative if you don't have access to a laminator is to slip the maze into a heavy-duty clear plastic page protector. The children have really enjoyed this, so I will be adding more mazes to our classroom for sure!!
This is a great idea. I never thought of laminating mazes so they could be worked with again and again (sometimes by the same child).
I'm not teaching in school this year (I'm at home with my son), but we will definitely be putting this idea into practice within the coming year. Thanks for the great idea!
Posted by: Liz | February 17, 2009 at 09:26 PM