I find that after summer or winter break it is nice to start off with a "short and simple" type of project. This is one of my favorites as the kids really enjoy watching their paper "bend" as they progress through the lesson.
I have the kids use compasses to draw the circles, some can do this totally on their own, some buddy up with another student, and there are a few that I assist. The biggest obstacle for this is-believe it or not-hand strength! Personally, I blame all things with a screen. When I think back to how my own children spent their early years, their days involved many fine and gross motor skills. The internet was just getting started, I think there was one or maybe two gaming stations, and those VHS tapes took up a lot of storage space!
The part that I find most interesting is that academic achievement, socioeconomic status, race, sex, or age seem to have no correlation to hand strength in my students. Hand strength or lack of it seems to simply come from how students spent their time outside of school, beginning with their pre-school years and continuing on.
The best thing about this problem is that it's easy to help kids improve their hand strength. Coloring, cutting, and painting are all good things, but remember they mainly work the dominate hand. Playdough, legos, and other things that encourage the use of both hands are also necessary. The beauty of this is that all of these activities are not only inexpensive, but can become valuable family time as well.
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