Category: Fine Motor Skills

Match ‘Em Tweezer Sort

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Here’s a way to trick your kids into practicing their fine motor skills while having fun (and matching up colors, too!). Because the game involves sharp, adult tweezers, I don’t recommend this game for kids younger than 3.

To set up, cut circles from construction paper, and place in the bottom of a muffin tin.

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Now gather pom poms in a variety of colors. We had both regular and sparkly pom poms, which added nice variety.

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Give your child the tweezers; Travis was instantly thrilled, since normally mommy’s tweezers are off limits! I encouraged him to move the pom poms to the correct colored muffin tin.

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Travis thought it was fascinating that the soft regular pom poms were easier to pick up than the sparkly ones. He was so proud when he was able to do the latter.

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For a real challenge, I added in colored buttons as well. I briefly worried these might frustrate Travis, but it turns out they were his favorite item to move back and forth.

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In all honesty, it wasn’t long before he grew bored and decided the pom poms made great monster eyes.

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Then he was on to “baking” pom pom cookies in a muffin tin oven instead – nothing wrong with a little imagination though!

Magnetic Fishing Game

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Disappointed with the mechanics of two recent fishing games, we decided to make our own version instead!

As a bonus, this activity was less about the “fishing” and more about a little learning that I wanted to sneak in.

While Travis slept, I cut lots of fish from construction paper – you can use a template or just freehand the shapes.

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Some of the fish received a letter, and others a shape, and then each one got a paper clip to make it magnetic.

For the wand, tie yarn to a wooden dowel, and secure the yarn with tape. Tie the other end of the yarn onto a magnet. I have a craft stick with a magnet glued to the tip, which makes for sturdier “fishing“, so used that here.

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Now it was time to go fishing! (Or, as we like to say in this vegan household, “rescue” the fish).

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For kids just learning the alphabet, you can simply ask them to find any letter at random. For older kids, this is a great name recognition game. We found T-r-a-v-i-s in both caps and lower case!

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Next up was a shape hunt, which Travis loved. There are so many other variations you could do with this game, such as finding fish of all one color, or finding the biggest and smallest fish.

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Travis ultimately decided that he liked fishing in a slightly different way, affixing the magnet to the paper clip by hand, then tugging up. Either way, I loved that this activity got him playing and learning at the same time.

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Number Bead Stringing

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This project is great on so many levels! It keeps little hands busy if you’re doing chores around the house, works their number skills, and helps hone their fine motor skills.

The original post I saw for the game said to thread beads onto pipe cleaners, but I didn’t have any at home. Instead, we have several laces from a bead lacing kit, so I attached a piece of masking tape to the end of each and numbered them 1 through 10.

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The task was then to thread the correct number of beads onto each string.

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Travis loved counting along as he threaded, and said his creations were necklaces for mommy and daddy – how sweet!

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Don’t fret if your child doesn’t complete threads 1 through 10 in one sitting, this is the kind of game you can leave lying around for a little while.

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Marshmallow Sculptures

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Travis and I had some gooey fun attempting to make sculptures from marshmallows last November, but I confess our attempts were foiled by using large marshmallows and unsteady straws as construction materials.

This time we used toothpicks and the small marshmallows from Dandies, and were able to create much sturdier constructions! Note: I recommend playing this game soon after your child has had a meal or a snack – that way the marshmallows will be viewed more as building material, and less as a treat to eat… Although we did sneak a few bites along the way!

Already compared to November, Travis was much better at construction. He loved adding a marshmallow to either end of a toothpick, and loved that they looked like Q-tips!

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I then helped arrange these into more complex structures, whether two-dimensional shapes…

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Or three-dimensional creations.

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The project was a great way to discuss shapes and dimensions! We even tried a double-decker hexagon.

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In sum, sticky fun for everyone.

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Toothpick Drop

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Toothpick Drop (5)

This game couldn’t be easier, but is fantastic for developing fine motor skills. It sounds almost too simple to be true, but I promise it will fascinate your toddler. Are you ready for the easy instructions?

Dump a pile of toothpicks on the floor, preferably in a variety of colors:

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Give your child an empty spice jar (or any lid with small holes) and show him or her how to drop the toothpicks through the holes.

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All cleaned up? Remove the lid, dump out the toothpicks, and start all over again!

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If you have colored toothpicks, the game is a great way to talk about various colors as well, or make a game of finding a blue one, etc. Do make sure to supervise this one closely, since toothpicks are sharp!

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Baby Food Jar Surprises

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Chances are you have plenty of baby food jars to recycle, but before you toss them, try out this neat game.

Fill 3 to 5 clean baby food jars with small toys, making sure to use a variety of materials. I wanted to present Travis with 2 jars that were quiet when shaken and 2 that were loud. For quiet, I used small rubber dinosaurs and cotton balls. For quiet, I chose coins and marbles (Note: I do not advocate using marbles if you have a child who puts things in their mouth. Please use your own discretion!)

Travis fell upon the jars with delight, first wanting to know what was in each, and then helping me find which ones were loud and quiet. We had fun shaking them and deciding which were which for a while. Then he asked me to open them.

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“That’s up to you,” I told him. “Can you see how it opens?” I helped him twist off the lids, and twist them back on again, great practice.

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He was quite busy with the lids for some time while I cleaned up breakfast. A fun and easy start to out morning.

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Sticky Situations

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Just a simple post this evening. I highly recommend introducing your toddler to stickers early. Peeling them off of sheets and applying them to paper or coloring books is fantastic for fine motor skills, and stickers in favorite designs will delight your little one. To wit, we love truck stickers, rainbow stickers, and shape stickers around here.

I found this neat idea for keeping little hands busy at The Artful Parent. I had my doubts that Travis would be ready for the concept of centering a hole reinforcement sticker over another circular sticker, but to my surprise, he took to it right away!

Talk about good fine motor practice:

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He was very proud of himself every time he applied a reinforcement sticker spot-on.

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In general, I highly recommend Melissa & Doug reusable sticker pads for toddlers. The stickers are easy to peel, great for new images and vocab words (I’m not even sure what some of Travis’s jungle animals are called!), and best of all – reusable.

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Pipe Cleaner Fine Motor Skills

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When Travis sees pipe cleaners, he generally either wants me to bend them into shapes (hearts are a favorite) or into a loop to wear over his arm like a bracelet. So I wondered if he’d care at all when I presented him with this fine motor challenge! Happily, he took right to it.

The idea is self-explanatory from the photos: set your toddler up with pipe cleaners and a colander and let them go to town.

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Travis loved poking the pipe cleaners through the holes, although never quite got the hang of bending one so it could come back through a second hole.

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This game is the kind that’s great to leave out for a day or two. Travis would return to it in between playing with other toys, thread a few pipe cleaners, and then move on again.