Thumbs Up For New Funky Fingers Nursery Programme

Children at Little Trinity Nursery in Kidderminster are proud as punch to be the first of their nursery to successfully complete the newly introduced Funky Fingers 12-week nursery programme. Introduced into the nursery in January, Funky Fingers is designed to support fine motor, hand and wrist movements of children as they begin to write, with activities aimed to encourage the necessary skills required to hold a pencil or pen. Little Trinity Nursery Manager, Miss Gaynor Carter, explained: “The Funky Fingers Programme involves the children taking part in varying activities, and can include the need to hold tweezers, which requires the children to squeeze tweezers in order to pick up objects. “The reason I decided to introduce the programme into Little Trinity in January was due to the fact that the children were already showing heightened interest in mark-making, so it would be a good way to encourage the correct skills as they continued to develop their writing and drawing techniques. Being able to hold a pencil correctly when the time is right is very important and supports the children as they move from nursery into school.” The Birmingham Road nursery began introducing Funky Fingers to their 3 and 4 year-old children in their final year in nursery, but it swiftly moved into other rooms within Little Trinity due to the popularity of activities. Miss Carter added: “There are five activities per week and the whole class take part in either the morning, following registration, or in the afternoon for children who start at 1pm. “Every child can choose which table they wish to join and complete that activity as a piece of music plays. Once the music ends the activity is tidied away. Each day they attend nursery they can choose a different activity, and so during the week they have several opportunities to take part in a range of Funky Finger activities, all designed to promote a variety of motor and movement skills development.”