My grandson and I have been going through some of our left over supplies from this past year in preschool and using them up so I can restock as needed. In the past, I have shared with you how to make colored glue and if you missed this post you can view how to make colored glue by clicking here. This was Kai’s first chance at squeezing glue from a bottle and let me tell you, when I set out the first colored bottle of glue, I had his undivided attention…
When we first started our discovery of glue, I set out a piece of paper and one bottle of colored glue. I showed Kai how to squeeze the glue over the paper…
It was much easier for Kai to stand and squeeze the glue than to sit and because the glue bottles were fairly old, he had to squeeze extra hard to get the glue to come out but he is a determined little guy and squeeze he did…
Kai likes to do everything himself and as a general rule, I only get one chance to show him how to do something and then I am supposed to let him do it by himself! If I try to help, he gets mad at me so I stepped back and watched him turn each bottle of glue around in his hands until he figured out the best grip to get the glue to come out of the bottle…
After using each color of glue, he would ask me for a new color until we had every color of glue on the table. He would squeeze a bit then switch to another color. Squeeze a little more and switch again…
It wasn’t long before he figured out the best grip for squeezing the bottles. He would squeeze so hard that his little leg would shake and I could hear him breathing deeply – but still, I was not allowed to help…
Through this process, we were building strength in Kai’s hands which is an important part of fine motor skill development. Kai was also using his critical thinking skills as he self-corrected his grip on the glue bottles and found the grip that worked best. And he was building eye-hand coordination as he tried to squeeze the glue over the paper rather than over the floor…
I am not sure how long Kai stayed at this process, but the next time we went into the classroom, the first thing he asked to do was squeeze more glue!…
And for those of you who are interested in how our glue picture turned out – just check out this beauty below! Kai didn’t care about how the picture turned out and I really didn’t either. Observing him throughout this process was quite impressive all by itself…
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Links to Grow On
Designing with colored glue from Teach Preschool
Making glue paint in preschool from Teach Preschool
More ideas to do with Glue on Pinterest