As teachers who specialize in hands-on, problem solving lessons and activities, Lauren and I find ourselves having discussions about fine and gross motor skills on an almost daily basis. As Kindergarten and first grade becomes more worksheet based and less task and process-oriented, students are losing out on opportunities to develop crucial fine motor skills through play and repetition. Busy Boards and sensory play are seen as preschool activities. Art Education has become less about the exploration of materials and open-ended inquiry and more about performing exact tasks in the style of certain artists or artistic movements. Again, we’re assuming our children can walk when we haven’t shown them how to crawl, which is why, over the last decade teaching K-6 children, I’ve increasingly seen second and third graders who can’t successfully tie their own shoes, pinch an alligator clip, or independently put a simple puzzle together.

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