What are Motor Skills? Why are they important for children?

Gross motor skills are those which require whole body movement, using the bigger muscles of the body to perform everyday functions, such as standing and walking, running and jumping, and even sitting upright. They also include hand-eye coordination skills (like throwing, catching, kicking), as well as riding a bike or a scooter.

Fine motor skills involve the engagement of small muscles in very deliberate (“fine”) movements, usually involving hands and fingers in coordination with the eyes. Developing fine motor skills requires a lot of practice. Without fine motor skills, a young child will struggle with movements that come naturally to an older person, like using a pencil, using scissors, tying their shoes, and many other important daily activities.

How can Pro Tapes® products help develop children’s motor skills?

Believe it or not, our tape products make excellent tools in developing these essential life skills for children (and making it a little easier for parents!)

You can help your children develop their fine motor skills with actions like tearing tape, cutting tape with a safety scissors, sticking down and peeling tape up, and peeling off the paper liner on double-sided products (like UGlu®)

There are also many tape-based activities that engage children’s gross motor skills in a fun (and organized) way! Check out our Pinterest board HERE for ideas!

Plus, using tape means you can keep your house neater at the end of the day. Skip the messy cleanup after using paints and glues! Our tapes stick to almost any surface, and they remove from most surfaces just as easily, without leaving behind sticky residues. You can put tape down on your floors, walls, tables, desks, chairs – almost anywhere- without worrying about permanent damage to those surfaces.

These are some of our tapes that we recommend for motor skills activities:

Many of our tape products are easy for little fingers to unwind. Pro® 46, Pro® Artist, and Pro® Pocket Spike Stacks use a soft backing (that is, the non-sticky part of the tape) so they’re easy to tear by hand.

These tapes also come in a fantastic range of colors, so you can have your child pick their favorite color!

Learn more about our tapes here:

• Pro® 46: crepe paper masking tape; comes in 12 colors
• Pro® Artist Tape: comes in 11 colors, including 4 bright fluorescents that kids love!
• Pro® Pocket Spike Stacks: come in a pack of 5 bright fluorescent colors- plus, these rolls are small, perfect for little hands!

The post Develop Your Child’s Motor Skills with Tape – Here’s How! appeared first on Pro Tapes®.

The goal of STEM education should be to encourage a generation of innovators. STEM is becoming the backbone of K-12 education. Building a STEM –related foundation will prepare students for 21^st century jobs. STEM education encourages students to become more analytical, encourages team work and emphasizes application of theory into practice.

Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) include but are not limited to the following disciplines:

• Robotics
• Nanotechnology
• Physics
• Astrophysics
• Nuclear physics
• Chemistry
• Biochemistry
• Aerospace
• Chemical engineering
• Agriculture
• Statistics
• Info-sciences

Get inspired by creating this simple circuit using Pro® 882L Copper Tape!

Schools should not carry the sole burden of STEM education. Parents must also encourage their children to pursue STEM activities and increase awareness and interest at home and in extracurricular activities.

As parents we can help our children develop a better understanding for advanced engineering concepts with fun and easy projects.

Here is an easy experiment you can try out with your children, using Pro® 882L Copper Foil Tape!

Check out the video above, or see the photo guide below. There’s more than one way to make a path that makes this circuit work… have fun experimenting!

Step 1: Gather Your Materials Together

First, you need to bring all of your tools together before we can get started:

• Pro® 882L Copper Foil Tape (we used 3/4th inch, but different sizes are available!)
• A coin battery
• Individual LED lights (color choice is up to you!)
• A paper surface to work on, like card stock, printer paper, a sketchbook, etc

Step 2: Create a Switch for your Simple Circuit

Make a switch for your simple circuit! First, tape down your coin battery on top of some folded-over Pro® 882L Copper Tape. You want to make sure the coin is firmly touching the copper tape.

Then, fold over a corner of your sheet of paper so that it touches the battery when folded. Once you’ve got this ready, tape down a different strip of Pro® 882L Copper Tape on your corner so that, when folded, it touches the battery. This will be the “switch” for your LED light!

You should now have two “paths” of copper tape started. One coming from your coin battery and the other from your switch.

Step 3: Create your Circuit Path

Now you can get a little creative while creating your circuit!

The goal is to have the two paths of Pro® 882L Copper Tape end up next to each other, with a little bit of space for the LED light in between them.

The first time you try this simple circuit experiment, try making just a straight path, like two parallel lines forming an “11”.

Once you’ve got the hang of it, you can start folding your Pro® 882L Copper Tape (like you can see in the photo below) to create corners and all kinds of paths!

Step 4: Install your LED light

For the fourth step, you can go ahead and install your LED light – once you’re happy with your path!

Bend the little metal legs into whatever shape you need to fit under your Pro® 882L Copper Tape paths. Make sure the metal legs are taped securely!

Step 5: Flip the “switch” and try out your circuit!

If each of your components is securely attached to the copper tape, then when you fold your “switch” onto the battery, you should have LIGHT!

Possible Step 6: No glow? Troubleshoot the problem

Not every experiment will work out the first time! All scientists (big and small) should learn that failure doesn’t mean stop – it means, try something new!

If your circuit did not make your LED light up the first time, keep playing around with the Pro® 882L Copper Tape. Try making an easier circuit path. Double-check that the copper tape is touching itself securely at all bends and corners. Make sure your switch connects properly.

Keep experimenting, and you’ll be sure to find success!

The post STEM Crafts: Simple LED Circuit Project using Pro® 882L Copper Tape appeared first on Pro Tapes®.

Art Class

Of course, art class is the perfect time to get creative. Tape can help you make so many different arts & crafts projects!

Here are just some ideas:

• Use masking tape to make a colorful “mosaic” with chalk or paint, like we did here (link)
• Grab some canvases and paint, and use tape to mask out lines and shapes that you want to keep blank. Paint all over your canvas, peel back the tape, and voilà!
• Help your kids “redecorate” their furniture using tape! You can temporarily add bold new colors, patterns, and pictures without permanently damaging the furniture underneath

For more ideas, just check out the Crafter’s Corner section of our blog! We’ve got tons of craft ideas!

Math Class

That’s right… tape can even make math class fun!

Try these math activities:

• Learn how to measure angles by taping overlapping lines on a table, creating all kinds of triangles and other geometric shapes.
• Tape down a giant coordinate graph on the floor, and mark off each row and column with letters and numbers. Put objects down on random points, and have your children map the coordinates
• Grab your spare change and tape down a four-square box on your table or floor, and have your kids sort the different types of coins into each box

You can find many more ideas for making math class fun with tape on our Pinterest board here!

Language Arts Class

You can use tape as a tool to help kids practice writing and reading, too!

• Write different words from a sentence on a piece of tape (one word per piece of tape), scramble the sentence order, and have your child reorganize it into the correct sentence order
• You can have kids labels the words they see in the world (magazines, on toys, boxes) by noun, verb and adjective using small pieces of tape

Gym Class

DIY your own indoor gym quickly and easily with tape! Physical activity is especially important for kids stuck indoors.

Try these ideas:

• Combine math and exercise with a “frog jumping” activity! Mark a starting point off with tape, have your kids leap as far as they can, then mark where they land with tape. Using measuring tape to have kids measure how far they leaped
• Create an obstacle course with tape on your floors and walls! Make lines for children to “balance” walk on, lines to jump over, and even make tape barriers by taping from one wall the another for kids to duck or jump under

Music Class

Help your kids make their own band by DIYing their own instruments. Use colorful tape to make their instruments look really unique!

• Create a drum using some empty cans and taping across the top. Use chopsticks as drumsticks!
• Make a pan flute by taping a bunch of cut-down straws together
• If you’ve got a piano at home, use tape to label the keys so children can memorize notes
• DIY your own maracas by filling toilet paper tubes with rice or beans, then taping them shut!

For more great ideas, check out our Educational Tape Activities board on Pinterest!

What Tape Should I Use in my Homeschool Classroom?

This is a great question. Not all tapes are created equal! You want to use a tape that sticks down easily on a variety of surfaces, including hardwood floors and carpets.

The tape should also be gentle on surfaces and removes cleanly without damaging walls, furniture, etc. And you want these tapes to come in a wide range of colors that are fun and exciting for children.

These are the tapes we recommend you use in your homeschool classroom:

• Pro® 46 Colored Masking Tape: available in 12 colors, and it’s great for all of the projects we mentioned in this blog!
• Pro® Gaff Tape: available in 20 colors, and also a great choice for any project
• Pro® Scenic 714 Blue Masking Tape: for indoor and outdoor painting projects
• Pro® Pocket Spike Stacks: these small, fluorescent rolls are perfect for all kinds of quick labeling

What are some ways YOU use tape in your homeschool classroom?

Show us on social media and tag us @protapes so we can share your great ideas with the community!

The post How Do You Make Homeschool Classes Fun? With Tape! appeared first on Pro Tapes®.

What Motor Skills do Pre-K Students Need to Develop?

The development of the mind-muscle connection is very complex. It’s extremely important for young children to develop both their “big” muscle skills and their “small” muscle skills to set them up for success in the classroom and beyond!

Gross motor skills are those which require whole body movement, using the bigger muscles of the body to perform everyday functions, such as standing and walking, running and jumping, and even sitting upright. They also include hand-eye coordination skills (like throwing, catching, kicking), as well as riding a bike or a scooter.

Fine motor skills, on the other hand, involve the engagement of small muscles in very deliberate (“fine”) movements, usually involving hands and fingers in coordination with the eyes. Developing fine motor skills requires a lot of practice. Without fine motor skills, a young child will struggle with movements that come naturally to an older person, like using a pencil, using scissors, tying their shoes, and many other important daily activities.

How can Pro Tapes^® Products Help Develop Motor Skills?

Believe it or not, Pro Tapes® tape products make excellent tools in evolving these essential life skills.

Tearing tape to the right size and shape, cutting with a scissor, and peeling off the liner on double-sided products (like UGlu®) can all help with a student’s fine motor skills development.  

There are also many tape-based activities that engage student’s gross motor skills in a fun (and organized) way! You can stick tape down just about everywhere – which means you can make race tracks, number activities and many other kinds of games on the fly.

Let’s dig a little deeper into the unique characteristics of tape that make it ideal for use in the classroom (and at home!), especially when you’re working with students as young as two to five years old.

1) Tape is Colorful!

It’s the first thing that any child will notice: tape comes in all kinds of colors! Just think back to the excitement of being given a big box of crayons to draw with. All of the colors options seemed dazzling!

Our tapes come in a fantastic range of colors:

• Pro® 46 Crepe Paper Tape comes in 12 colors
• Pro® Artist Tape comes in 11 colors (including 4 bright fluorescents that kids love)
• Pro® Pocket Spike Stacks have 5 bright fluorescent colors (plus, these rolls are kid-sized!)

While children obviously love colorful tape, educators love it too!

Our colorful tapes create the perfect educational opportunity for teaching young students about colors, shapes, names, numbers, and more.

Take this quick & easy project from Emma of Mummy Mummy Mum Blog for example. You can have students organize toys by their colors, and use tape to block off each category.

Bonus points for making different shapes out of tape for each color, too! There’s so many ways to customize this project to fit the lesson of the day!

2) Our Tapes Are Easy to Apply

Each of the tapes we’re featuring in this blog are easy for little fingers to unwind. Pro® 46, Pro® Artist, and Pro® Pocket Spike Stacks are made of soft backing materials (that is, the non-sticky part of the tape) and slightly less aggressive -but still strong for the job!- adhesives, which combined make the experience of peeling and ripping the tape easier.

3) Tape Cleans up Easily, and Leaves No Mess Behind!

If you feel like skipping the mess of paints and glues, tape is a great way to go! Our tapes stick to almost any surface, and they remove from most surfaces just as easily – without leaving behind sticky residues!

You can put tape down on your floors, walls, tables, desks, chairs – almost anywhere- without worrying about permanent damage to those surfaces.

Just peel up the tape when the activity is done, and toss it out… or re-stick it somewhere new! Tape is so versatile, you’ll find yourself applying it everywhere for quick crafts and labeling (the Pro® Pocket Spike Stack rolls are great for the latter, since they’re small enough to throw in your pocket and whip out when you need to label on-the-fly.)

Of course, if you don’t mind a little mess, there are craft projects that involve both painting and tape (like this one) – and we’ve got a few more saved to our Pinterest board! 

4) Tape Makes it Easy to Practice Gross Motor Activities

Now that you know how our tape can be stuck down anywhere (and removed cleanly), we bet you’re starting to realize all the potential tape has for gross motor skill practice!

You can put down lines to create roads and parking lots for car toys to be pushed along, create all kinds of games like “Pom Pom Push”, or mark lines on the floor for children to walk and run and practice balancing on. You can even use the actual rolls of tape for hand-eye coordination practice!

5) … Tape Lets You Easily Practice Fine Motor Skills, Too!

Something as simple as unwinding, tearing, sticking down and peeling up tape is the perfect activity to train children’s fine motor skills. We adults may think it’s an easy activity, but for little hands, it’s actually quite challenging!

There’s all kinds of ways you can have students practice ripping and sticking down tape. This project where students wrap tape around sticks (by Deborah, of teachpreschool.org) couldn’t be any more simple; and yet, it’s a profound opportunity for children to practice all kinds of fine motor skills.

To quote Deborah,

So what benefit is wrapping tape around a stick? Well besides all the motor skills development involved (twisting, pinching, pulling, cutting) and the eye-hand coordination involved (getting the tape stuck where you want it to stick and keeping it going in the right direction) and the decision-making (choosing colors) and critical thinking (regulating how much tape to tear off the dispenser, calculating how much tape is needed to fully wrap a stick) and the concentration it takes to completely wrap a stick – the children are also exploring the freedom of creative expression and the use of their imagination. After all, a stick is not just a stick if you use your imagination!…

Well said! If you’re looking for more ideas on how to use tape for fine motor skill practice, check out our Pinterest board! 

6) Tapes Like UGlu^® Offer the Next Challenge in Fine Motor Skills

UGlu® is an excellent product for the Pre-K classroom. It’s a removable adhesive glue, but in a convenient tape-like format, which bonds to almost any surface. It comes in a variety of shapes like squares (dashes), strips and rolls.

UGlu® is non-toxic and less messy than liquid glue, and much less dangerous than hot glue guns! It’s the perfect alternative product for sticking things together in the classroom safely.

Separating the liner can be tricky for a small child, but rest assured that with practice and patience, they will become experts!

Here’s How to Stick Down UGlu®:

1. Remove one side of the liner by peeling apart the piece of UGlu®
2. Place UGlu®, exposed adhesive side down, on the first bonding surface
3. Press firmly across the entire surface of the remaining liner to ensure a strong bond is made between the UGlu® and the first surface
4. Remove the remaining liner. Press the second surface together with first using strong even pressure for 10 seconds at each adhesive location to ensure a strong bond is created

And Check out this Video Demo on How to Stick Down UGlu®:

7) We have Specialized Tapes, Too!

Pro Tapes® makes all kind of unique tape products you may not even know about that can help around the Pre-K classroom.

Our Pro® Measurement Tape is a great example. Available in both Metric and Imperial measurements, this tape is perforated every 12 inches (25.40 mm), so you can stick a tape ruler just about anywhere!

It’s a great way to start teaching students how to compare sizes by measuring objects (or their feet and hands!) or for art projects.

Then there’s masking tapes like Pro® Scenic 714, which are specially designed for easy application and gentle removal for painting projects. It’s extra safe on walls, canvases and more. Use it when masking out lines for paintings, or helping students write their name out to make a “tape resist” artwork!

Have any questions or want to know more? Contact us using the form on this page!

Want more ideas for how to use Pro Tapes^® in YOUR Pre-K Classroom (or with your young children at home)? Check out our Pinterest Board here!

The post 7 Reasons Tape Is Perfect for Developing Children’s Motor Skills in the Pre-K Classroom appeared first on Pro Tapes®.