A Simple Fine Motor Activity

I like to keep Roo learning and developing skills even though he is on summer break. I also like to create tools for learning from items we already have at home.

I had an idea for a super simple fine motor activity that I could make in a matter of minutes. I had no idea how much bot of my kids would enjoy working on such a simple activity with such great fine motor skill practice.

You will need:
Pom Poms
A pair of plastic tongs
An egg carton

Photo Credit: Sara Lehman.

The rest is pretty self explanatory. Put the pom poms in the egg carton, then demonstrate how to pinch and pick up then sort the colors.

As you can see I used smaller pom poms for Roo exclusively so he would really have to work at pinching the pom poms with the tongs.

Harper isn't ready for the tongs yet, but using her fingers to grasp the varying sizes and the fuzzy texture of some compared to the hardness of the smaller pom poms is good for her fine motor development too. I use assorted sizes when working on this activity with her.

DIY Sorting Toy {Fine Motor Activity}

One of the things I love about being a mom is that somehow, my kids think I am magical when I come up with a fun way to play out of the blue. No matter how simple the activity, they are always interested and amazed. I know I complain sometimes about how hard parenting is, but you know, the tough moments are so worth it. Little kids are so fun and so sweetly simple in what it takes to get them interested in learning new skills and practicing their existing ones.

One of our favorite upcycled activities was completely simple to create and both of my kids played with it for hours! If you have toddlers or preschoolers in your home, this DIY Sorting Toy is a must make. It offers kids a simple fine motor activity as well as a chance to practice sorting, counting, differentiating between sizes and identifying  colors.

You will need:

a clean an empty egg carton

assorted pom poms {use different colors and sizes for additional sorting challenges}

Tongs or Tweezers for Children 

As you can see all I did was dump a handful of pom poms into a clean and dry egg carton. I laid a pair of rubber tongs for kids down and let Roo explore this option on his own. 

He sorted and sorted! He worked on his fine motor skills, his colors and sorting by size. 

This was an upcycle project that was super easy to put together and that my kids had a lot of fun learning and playing with!

Fine Motor Counting Activity

This activity is perfect for small hands. It combines counting and fine motor work for a fun, hands on approach to learning. This introduction to math is perfect for preschoolers. Best of all, you can get everything you need to set this up at Dollar Tree.

Little hands love pinching, so this activity is perfect for making math fun while engaging fine motor skills! My kids both loved this early introduction to counting when they were smaller, and I often pull this activity out when we have little guests in our house who need something to do. This is the ultimate boredom buster and will always have a place in my busy bag collection.

All you need to make this is some tiny clothespins from dollar trees craft section and a few craft sticks. Mark the numbers you are using on the craft sticks and hand the kids some clothespins. Encourage your child to count the clothespins and put them on the craft stick. 

This is one of those activities you will want to supervise, to keep the pins from mouths, noses and ears. 

If you enjoyed this easy activity for kids, you will want to check out some of my other preschool projects.

Play Doh Stamping 

Itsy Bitsy Spider Craft

veggie garden sensory bin

This veggie garden sensory bin comes together so easily to give little ones a chance to play and get excited about their vegetables while working on fine motor skills.

We have a weekly routine in the summer; every Tuesday and Saturday we head to the farmers market. We buy all of the fresh food we will eat that week, plus a little extra to freeze. I love how the offerings change throughout the season. The kids love the sights, the smells and the baked goods. While they might spend most of their visit to the market pleading for cookies, they always jump in the line for our favorite farmer. Who gets to hold the basket and who gets to pick the produce? We always work it out.

Last week while we were in line for our peppers, onions and radishes, the kids were bickering about the basket and the picking job and inspiration hit. I knew right away that I was going to recreate a garden scene for their enjoyment. If they argued about who got to play first, I will never tell.

Supplies:

• Plastic box with clip lid
• One pound of dried black beans
• ½ cup of whole coffee beans
• Leaves from artificial flowers
• Assorted play food; tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, strawberries etc
• Plastic serving tongs
• Sandbox tools

Directions:

Layer the dry black beans in the box.

Add coffee beans to the mix for a fragrant experience.

Nestle the leaves into the beans (I simply removed the leaves from a few stems of
artificial flowers).

Place the fruits and vegetables in the beans and on the leaves.

Add plastic serving tongs and plastic shovels.

Invite your child to harvest the veggies, to explore the beans and to work on fine motor skills
by picking the veggies and beans up with the tools.

This was so much fun for the kids. Even too cool, 9 year old Rolf got involved and explored this veggie garden sensory bin.

This was fun to smell and touch and it gave Harp a chance to work on her fine motor skills.

When you are all finished playing, you can snap the lid on the bin and store it for playtime in the future.

You can find all of my sensory content here.
Birthday Cake Sensory Bin

Play Doh Fine Motor Rainbows

Play Doh and buttons are the perfect combination to make a fun fine motor rainbow! This is a great activity for indoor play days and is so easy to set up!

We are crazy for both play doh and rainbows so this activity was a huge hit with my daughter Harper. It was easy to set up, and gave her a chance to explore textures, express creativity, and work on her pattern making skills, with a dose of fine motor too!

Supplies:

Play Doh

Buttons in assorted colors and sizes

If you can't find white play doh, like we used, no worries, use any color your kids like!

If you don't have a jar of buttons at home, we bought this little jar of multi color buttons at Dollar Tree.

Directions:

Roll out a can of play doh.

Offer your child a pile of buttons.

Encourage your child to make a rainbow by lining up the correct color of buttons in the pattern of a rainbow.

As buttons can be a choking danger to small children, be sure to closely supervise this activity with little ones.

This was a lot of fun for Harper. We will certainly be pulling this activity out again in the coming months as an easy yet engaging boredom buster!

You can find more fun ideas for kids here

Button Tower Stem Activity

Glow in the Dark Galaxy Slime

Play Doh Lollipop Counting

Give early math lessons a sweet spin with this play dough lollipop counting activity. It  combines counting, fine motor skills and a touch of creativity to provide lots of hands on educational fun.

Play doh is my go to tool for hands on learning fun. There are so many ways to use it to learn. This play doh lollipop counting activity is fantastic because it uses basic supplies like craft sticks and play doh to create a math lesson little kids will love!

Supplies:
Assorted colors of play doh
Craft Sticks
Numbers or dice


Directions:
Invite your child to form the lollipops with a small bit of play doh and the craft sticks.
Encourage your child to pick a number from the pile or roll a dice.
Whichever number they come up with, encourage them to roll out that many itty bitty tiny balls of play doh in a different color.
Decorate the lollipops with the small balls of doh.
Repeat with more numbers for a hands on math lesson that works in fine motor skill work too!

You can find all of my play doh ideas here
Reader favorites include:
Play Doh Pie Counting
Play Doh Pre-writing
Play Doh Stamping

Making Traffic Lights Preschool Craft

My son and I have a routine. In the morning he has free time, he can play as he like or watch cartoons. He can color or grab a stack of books to look at. While he has free time I work. At 10 a.m. He gets his notice that we will clean the living room together when am finished cleaning the kitchen. 

Roo takes advantage of that notice and plays as hard as he can while I work in the kitchen. If it appears that he is having a especially good time I might dash in to make beds and start a load of laundry so that he can extend his fun.

When the chores have been taken care of Roo and I pick up all of the evidence of his morning fun. 

When the blankets, pillows, toys and books have been put away and the carpet has been vacuumed it is craft time. Harper likes this part of the morning because it is her chance to get on the floor and roll around.

Each week I have 2 planned crafts and I offer Roo the chance to choose the other 3 activities for the week. Last week he told me he wanted to make a "red light". 

Hmmm. That is easy peasy! Even I can manage this one without incident!

To begin the craft we got out the disposable plates I keep in our craft supplies for projects like this one, and 4 sheets of construction paper in red, yellow, green and black. I grabbed a tube of glue and we sat down to create.

I had Roo help me tear the paper into small pieces. I thought this was a good way to work on fine motor skills and develop his pencil grip.

 

Next I tore the black paper into 2 strips.

I made 3 circles of glue on each paper.

I demonstrated what I wanted Roo to do. Place the little bits of paper onto the glue. At first he wasn't sure why I wanted to keep the colors separate. 

But then he saw what we were doing! How cool! We had 2 "red lights" and he was ready to play. There was no waiting for the glue to dry!

And yes, that is a spider riding a motorcycle on the tracks!

2 "red lights" were not enough. With big blue eyes Roo begged "More Red Lights Please!" So we made another one with bits of paper on one of the plates we had used earlier.

I had a happy little boy who was very interested in daily craft time and who found inspiration in our craft to jump into a serious session of imaginative play. I felt accomplished that we had a smooth craft session, we worked on fine motor skills with a high interest creation. 

I am thinking of a better option for red lights for Roo. Maybe painting them on clothes pins so he could set them up by the train tracks. What do you think? What would you try?

Play Doh Pre-Writing Activity

This play doh pre-writing activity is a fun way for preschoolers to work on letter recognition and writing while using their developing fine motor skills.

As we prepared for kindergarten, I wanted to make the process of learning the letters fun for Harper. We turned to our local discount store to find supplies. I came up with a really cute and easy way for her to practice her letters and see them printed too.

I am a participant in the amazon affiliate program. If you make a purchase I will earn a small advertising fee.

Supplies:

• A bag of letter beads; I found mine at Dollar Tree.
• Play Doh
• A Pencil or Play Doh Tool for Writing

Directions:

Invite your child to flatten a can of play doh .
Ask your child to pick on letter bead from the bag of beads.
Encourage your child to write the letter in play doh using a pencil or play doh tool.
Instruct your child to find more beads in the same letter and place them around the letter they wrote in the play doh.
Repeat with more letters.

This was a fun hands on way to practice letter recognition, letter formation and fine motor skills. It was the perfect way to mix play time with learning.

You can find all of my play doh recipes and ideas here.

Favorites include:

Play Doh Pie Counting

Play Doh Ornaments

In the Carrot Patch Activity

This easy activity for kids is fun and it uses their fine motor skills!

My kids are too cute. In the warm months, they attack my flowers with the cutest dramatic play sessions. The flowers are carrots and they are farmers, anxious to share their crops!

With that kind of imagination, it is hard to get irritated over it. I thought maybe we could keep the carrot patch fun going, long after they had picked every stem.

This activity comes together fast! All you need is a box, some orange and green cardstock and some glue. A utility knife or box cutter will be handy as well.

Cut carrot shapes from the orange paper.

Glue green bits to the top, to resemble a fresh carrot.

Cut slits in the box, making them a tiny little bit wider than the carrot shape.

Slip the carrots into the slits and let the kids pick them and plant them.

This is great for fine motor and dramatic play, and it just might save the flowers, but I am not counting on it!

Apple Tree Addition Activity

This apple tree addition activity is perfect for kindergarten and first grade students. It gives them a hands on chance to practice their skills and work hands on play into their lessons. This is an all around engaging way to teach addition to kids.

This semester both of my kids are attending virtual school. They have a great curriculum that they follow, and the kids seem to be ok with the change in how we learn.  But, I like to make sure they are learning offline too. This apple tree math activity is perfect for little kids who are just grasping math concepts. Plus it is easy to set up and it is a lot of fun to work with. 

Using play doh is a great way to make this more than a math activity. Play doh is great for sensory play as wee all know. Adding it to math? Thats an equation for fun learning! Adding pony beads gives the activity a fine motor element, so I guess this math lesson has a lot of layers to it!

Supplies:

Green and Brown Play Doh

Pony Beads

Small wooden letters or stamps

Directions:

Encourage your child to roll out a tree trunk with brown play doh.

Instruct your child to flatten out a can of green play doh for the leaves of the tree.

Select two numbers and stamp them into the leaves. Add a +  between them.

Offer your child a few pont beads.

Encourage your child to count out enough for the first number and press them into the doh.

Instruct your child to count out enough beads for the second number and press them into the doh.

Ask your child to count all of the beads to get the sum.

Remover the beads. 

Remover the "leaves"

Smash the green doh into a fresh pile of doh.

Repeat with more numbers.

If you liked this easy math lesson idea you might like these reader favorites:

Fine Motor Counting activity

Play Doh Pumpkin Faces

Pine Cone Rescue Fine Motor Activity

This easy fine motor activity is perfect for keeping little hands busy without requiring any special materials! This Pine Cone Rescue is great for quarantine, or anytime you need to challenge little learners with simple supplies.

This is a super easy to set up activity, but let me be honest, this is HARD! It will challenge the kids and their fingers!  Last week my kids were restless and they were looking to argue with each other and I whisked them outside for a walk, hoping to get the ants out of their pants. 

It didn't work; they had a fight or three in the middle of the street. As the 6 year old picked up a pine cone to throw it at her older brother, inspiration hit me. Busy work was exactly what they needed!

Supplies:

Affiliate links are used, if you buy, I earn a small advertising fee.

Rainbow Loom Bands

Pine Cones

Directions:

Place the small rubber bands around the pine cones.

Add more bands for older kids, and fewer for younger kids.

Encourage your kids to rescue the pine cone.

Be sure to dispose of the bands properly after removal because they can pose a hazard to small kids and pets.

Removing the bands is challenging! So, this is a great activity for kids of all ages. 

You can find more boredom busters for kids here
Mermaid Tail
Leaf Foxes
Easy iPad Stands

Paper Plate Witch Craft

This paper plate craft is perfect for toddlers and school aged children. This one requires simple supplies you likely already have and comes together in a flash!

We have been crafting up a lot of Halloween fun! The kids are really excited about spooky fun and awesome costumes, so I have been indulging their interest and excitement with easy crafts! 

To make this fun witch craft all you will need is:

A paper plate

Green Paint or Markers

2 fun googly eyes

Glue

Black Construction Paper

Orange Construction Paper

Scissors

Color or Paint the Paper Plate Green

Cut a triangle from the black paper, then cut a strip slightly longer than the triangle, glue these onto the paper plate like a witch's hat.

Tear a few strips of orange paper for hair. Tearing instead of cutting will give kids a chance to use fine motor skills plus make the paper curl slightly, which is just fun! Glue the hair onto the witch. 

Next, add eyes and draw on a nose and a mouth. We gave our witch a cute smile.

There you have a cute, friendly and fun Paper Plate Witch craft! This is great for little ones because it is creative, it gives them the opportunity to use their scissor skills and work their fine motor skills too. Additionally, it offers your home a touch of personalized Halloween decor!

You might also like this cute Angry Bird's Pig Craft.