Glue Dot Practice

The beginning of the year means your days are filled with relationship building, rules, routines and procedures. It also means you’re spending lots of time teaching children how to properly use tools and interact with teachers and friends. There are so many things to teach your new students and one of the most neglected lessons is how to use liquid glue properly. Some of you may have resorted to being a “glue stick only” class because liquid glue has caused both disasters and distress for you and everyone involved! I’m definitely not judging you because introducing liquid glue to children 5 and younger, is not a task to take lightly. 

After my first year teaching, I discovered the familiar chant of “Just a dot, not a lot!” I quickly adopted it and began using it with my students. Although the phrase was cute and incorporated rhyming, I felt like my students still didn’t quite grasp the concept of what an ACCEPTABLE “dot” was. I realized that in order to get a grip on the great big globs my students were making and get them used to the little dots I was envisioning, I had to give them opportunities to practice. That’s when I made glue dot practice printables and turned it into an official lesson. 

I modeled how to fill in each dot on the page with a little amount of glue and how the glue should stay within the dots on the page. I then allowed them to practice on their own, starting at the top of the page and working their way through the bottom.

Once they were done, I let them place beans or pasta on each of the glue dots, to decorate their page (and add some fine motor practice). Sometimes I let them add the beans and pasta with their fingers and other days I challenged them to use tweezers.

I’ve also done the activity where I let them pour glitter or sand on their dots once I checked it and they were done. 

I will say, once I integrated glue dot practice into my beginning of the year lessons, liquid glue became much more manageable and less of a headache.  

Try this out with your students this month to get them practicing their glue skills! You’ll thank yourself down the line when it’s time to use that glue for other activities. 

Happy Glue Dot Practicing!

Recycle/Reuse Tip: I always printed these one one sided scrap paper from my scrap paper pile I kept. 😉♻️

Download the Glue Dot Practice Freebie