Fun, Summer Fine Motor and Language Activity

Summer Sun Lesson Plan:  Targets fine motor cutting with scissors, basic language concepts (shape, color), higher level concepts (half, longer, shorter, around), 1:1 correspondence counting, and answering simple “WH” questions.
I created this lesson plan for my almost five year old niece to target her previously achieved and current IEP goals.  This works well for a summer activity to maintain skills she has as well as continue working on challenging her comprehension.
Before you begin this project with Ella, get your materials and work schedule ready.  First, draw a circle on a plain piece of paper.  Next, draw strips, about 1 inch in width, vertically down a piece of yellow construction paper.  Now you are ready to begin!  Make sure Ella is seated so she can cut the strips using good stability.  She will need to cut at least ten strips.   If you want to show her how long the task will take, you can count to a designated number for each strip.  Put five of these strips aside to write questions on later.  Next, have Ella cut three of the longer pieces in "HALF".  Using the remaining two strips, have Ella cut each strip into small pieces.  Again, you can count to encourage her to complete each step.  You will use these pieces to fill "IN" the circle for the sun, so cut as many as you need.  It is alright to overlap these pieces in the circle.  Finally, arrange all strips as shown in the picture while talking about "LONGER" and "SHORTER" concepts, and then talk around gluing these "AROUND" the circle.   I like to make a song out of these tasks like, "The rays go around the sun, the rays go around the sun, hi, ho, the dairy oh, the rays go around the sun."
Keep the expectation at a level where she will enjoy it.  The main goal is to get her cutting.   Given that her goal was to maintain attention to a 15 minute task, you can put the art project aside and while Ella is napping or enjoying free play, write one of these questions on each of the longer rays.



The Finished Masterpiece!
 You can either wait and ask her these questions another time or ask them when Ella has finished her cutting and gluing.  You may need to provide the answers and/or use visual cues the first time you ask the questions.  Always work on one task at a time so she can give each instruction her full attention. 

Here is a sample work schedule for your project.  You can always just use a square with a question mark to represent the last task:
If you want to include Abby, your two year old, in this activity, you can always give her a yellow paper of her own and have her rip or tear the pieces apart to make her own sun.  Be sure to let Ella know that her instruction is different because she can use big girl scissors:)