I am delighted to present my new learning material, Dancing Fingers, a fun exercise for practicing motor planning, body awareness, rhythm and coordination, as well as developing hand-eye coordination. 

Dancing Fingers can be printed and used at home or in the classroom. Alternatively they're perfect for online lessons.

Step 1.

Place a card on the table in front of the child, use your fingers to demonstrate the pose displayed on the card in such a way that the child can clearly see what you are doing. Ask the child to repeat the symbol that you just demonstrated to him.  Do the exercise with all the other cards.

Step 2.

Time to step up the pace: this time show the child two cards, then use both hands to demonstrate symbols, i.e. each hand will display a different symbol simultaneously. As previously, the child's task is to mimic the symbols using his or her own hands.

In the third varation on this activite, the child is again shown two cards, and has the gestures demonstrated to them, but must then repeat first one symbol with one hand, then the second symbol using the other hand.

The  coup de grace is to lay out the cards face up before the child, and then to have the child demonstrate all of the cards in order, first using the left hand and then the right.

Be creative and think up your own ways of using Dancing Fingers.

Share your ideas with us - we'd love to hear from you!