PL 6.09Using Chopsticks

1. 1

   Invite the child and carry the tray to a table, objects in the left bowl.

2. 2

   Pick up the joined chopsticks. Rest the lower stick in the web of your thumb and against your ring finger; it stays still.

3. 3

   Hold the upper stick like a pencil with your thumb, index, and middle fingers. Open and close it against the lower stick. Showing that only the top stick moves is the difficulty isolated here.

4. 4

   Pick up a cotton ball, carry it over the right bowl, and open the sticks to drop it.

5. 5

   Continue until the left bowl is empty.

6. 6

   Invite the child to move the objects back.

7. 7

   On later days, use separate chopsticks, then eat cubes of cucumber or melon at snack with them.

What catches the child’s eye

• The tips of the two sticks meeting
• A cotton ball held in the air between the tips

Extensions, easiest to hardest

1. Move smaller or smoother objects (dry pasta shapes, wooden beads)
2. Eat a whole snack with chopsticks
3. Talk about the families and countries that use chopsticks at meals