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Play Cat's Cradle and Knit to Strengthen Patterning Skills

Tags

Mathematics ^21st Century Skills ^Extra-curricular/At-Home Elementary School Strategy

Skills

Fine Motor Skills Organization Abstract Reasoning Visual Discrimination Visual Motor Speed

Play Cat's Cradle and Knit to Strengthen Patterning Skills

If your child needs to strengthen visual-spatial and planning skills (key for math) and enjoys crafts.

How To Apply It!

  1. Cat's Cradle and knitting are examples of enjoyable activities that exercise visual motor skills and train children to pay attention to visual detail.
  2. Cat's Cradle is a two person turn-taking game that requires making different patterns from a single loop of string. The players transfer the string back-and-forth until someone makes a mistake.
  3. Knitting is an independent visual motor activity which develops attention skills by following the step-by-step instructions, keeping track of rows and stitches, and looking for mistakes.
  4. Both activities allow children to grow comfortable with making mistakes and trying
  5. Although students can learn knitting from a book, it is best to learn from an experienced, patient adult who can demonstrate and help with mistakes.
  6. Children can read a book, watch a YouTube video or learn Cat’s Cradle from another friend.

Why It Works (the Science Of Learning)!

Cat's Cradle and Knitting both rely on relatively well-developed visual motor skills. Improving in the game will rely on working memory, flexible thinking and visual motor skills. Knitting helps children improve their fine motor coordination and even has a positive effect on their math skills, as it involves counting and visual pattern recognition.