Copycat Game & Gross Motor Clipart

 

I am very excited to introduce you to my friend Mason.  I met him on the Teachers Pay Teachers website where we each have a store. 

Mason is a young entrepreneur who has turned a growing talent and a dream into a successful clip art store - MKE Mason. He is honing his skills using the powerful iPad Procreate app, and his creativity has resulted in some fun ideas and some very original clip art sets, like his Copycat game above.

Join me in supporting this young artist and his dream. He loves interacting with people who stop by his store, whether it is through feedback after downloading his clip art, or as a question or comment on the ask a question tab (no purchase required).

If you would like to print out the images to play the Copycat game, good news - they're FREE! Follow this link to his store to pick up the set. ->  MKE Mason

Now let's get down to the fun part - Mason made up his own rules. Below are the instructions for his Copycat game, in his own words. Enjoy!

 

How is the Copycat Game played, you ask? Well, here’s what to do…

*download the clip art, of course

*open a new document, presentation, or PowerPoint

*add the clip art to the document, size to your desire

*print the document (best on card stock)

*cut the paper or have your kids cut them

*laminate for durability, cut again

*tape them on the wall (see image below)

*one kid does actions (by hitting, slapping, tapping, etc the images on the wall), the other kid copies it

 

Work on gross motor skills, balance, directionality, sequencing, symbol/body part recognition, socialization skills, leisure exploration and participation, core strengthening, coordination, and spatial relations.

Try this:

• Go over each image before playing the game and make sure each player understands the associated actions.
  
• Start with fewer actions and as the player remembers them, add in an additional action per game.
  
• Make a pattern card with several steps. Allow the individual to use the card and follow the actions three times. Then take the card away and ask the player to perform the actions from memory. If the individual has difficulty, try a sequence with one fewer steps and try again. Find where the individual has success and then work up from there.
• After each person plays, they choose the next new action. For instance the first player does one action. The second player repeats that action and adds one more. The next player repeats those two actions in order and adds one more. How far can you go before someone forgets a step?
• Have a person who is not playing record the actions in sequence and check for accuracy as the players go.
• Play alone. Print the images on cards that are blank on one side (one image per card). Lay three cards face up. Practice the actions in sequence, then turn the cards blank side up and repeat the actions. Each time you get a sequence correct, add an additional card (action) and play again. See how many you can remember before you get something wrong. Play again and see if you can beat your score.
  
• Start by using hand and feet symbols as any hand or foot. Then make it harder by having to recognize which hand or foot (right or left) and using that specific one. Remember - when you are looking at an image like this, as if someone is standing across from you, the images are reversed. Their right is really your left. Hope that makes sense.
  
• Practice recognizing each image and color by calling it out before doing the action. For instance, "yellow small circle".
• Make new games by assigning different actions to each symbol. For instance the orange hands could mean high five someone or clap, the fists could mean box the air or knuckle bump someone.
• Have fun!
  

Build A Garden

 

Does anybody have a brown thumb, like me? Then maybe Build A Garden is the route you need to take - build an indoor garden that never needs tending. 

Build A Garden comes in several different boxed sets, each with a different number of pieces. I have the set in the image above and it comes with 98 pieces, all hard plastic. I'm going to show you the contents of the box first, as it will be easier to explain after.

I enlarged the image above so that you can see the details on the blooms. There are four different flower parts, and the names are even printed on the box. The largest petals pieces depicts a variety of flowers, including lily, petunia, orchid, and chrysanthemum. There are two of each bloom, but they are different colors. Therefore, you cannot build a model to copy by color, only by type. Each flower can be made up of several pieces and each time you "plant a garden", it can look different. There are 8 green base pieces, each with five holes for "planting" flowers and they can all connect.

The contents of my box.

Try this:

• Build a one-base piece garden. Take a picture of it and ask the individual to make the same garden.
• Build a four-base piece garden. Take a picture of it and ask the individual to make the same garden. There will be pieces in the background and some parts will be partially covered. More difficult.
  
• Work on color recognition. Make a garden where each flower is a single color.
• Call each flower part by its scientific name as you build.
• Add the stem to the base and build the flower. To add more of a challenge, hold the flower in space as you build it, then put it into the base.
  
• Follow up with flower crafts from Pinterest, there are a ton of inexpensive, fun craft online. Check this page out - Flower crafts.