Stickers.

Stickers are fabulous for encouraging fine motor skills in toddlers and preschoolers. They have to exercise some problem-solving to figure out how to get the sticker off the page and then use a pincer grasp to pull it off (promoting good pencil control when they become a writer). I save address labels or stickers that come in junk mail. I also pulled out some stickers leftover in my teaching box, but when they run out I will buy some more because I love Q working with them!

For young children (toddlers), stickers with an even border is best--those colored circles often used for garage sale stickers, address labels--any sticker that is somewhat large and uniform.

For preschoolers with better motor control, alphabet and number stickers are fabulous! The child has to work carefully to remove the sticker without tearing off a letter's leg or tail...it teaches them properties of letters (some letters have tails, some have lines, etc.) and familiarizes them with the visual forms of letters/numbers.

Children that recognize their letters can make words or match sticker letters with written letters.

And stickers for babies? They are called post-it notes! Babies that are sitting up (and actively supervised, of course) love tearing sticky notes off the pad or even try sticking them onto a wall and letting them pull them off.

I like to use sentence strips (pictured above in orange) for sticker activities. It encourages the child to place the stickers in a somewhat linear fashion that lends itself to counting, and I also encourage Q to work from left to right with the stickers on the sentence strip (print awareness).

Plus--it's fun!!

I also keep some in my purse for emergencies when I need to keep Q entertained! Stickers can turn into all sorts of fun in a pinch!