Use simple, everyday materials to make a fun fine motor game for preschoolers! Set a race to fill the cups with pom poms, using only the tools provided and no hands. My kids (all ages) loved this!
We recently purchase some fantastic scissor scoopers which I had popped in my Amazon basket and been waiting to buy for ages, and I’m so glad we finally did! They are child-sized and really easy to open and close, making them a great first step towards using scissors as they replicate the same action.
Great for fine motor skills and strengthening the hand muscles (important for writing as they get older), we set about making up a super simple game they could play with them.
I filled our trusty gardening tub (which has been used for so much sensory play already since the summer!) right up to the top with multi-coloured and sized glittery and plain pom poms. We generally pick these up from the £1 shops. Then each child had a clear, plastic cup and one pair of scissor scoops.
When we were ready we started the scoop and fill race! First to transfer the pom poms until their cup was filled to the top was the winner, but they couldn’t touch the pom poms with their fingers, only the scoops.
They took time practising how to open and release the scoops and loved the racing element of the game, with biggest sister joining in when she got home from school too.
We talked about making sure the cups were full to the top without any spaces, and practised using mathematical vocabulary such as flu, empty and half full.
There are plenty of other variations of this that could be played, such as transferring the pom poms from one side of the room to a cup on the other side, as well as using them in a whole variety of different small sensory materials.
When we have used them in some more games and activities we will post about them either here or over on The Imagination Tree Facebook page too. Hope to see you there if you haven’t joined that community already (there are nearly half a million of us!)
The children are currently ages 6, 4 and 2.
What they are learning while they play:
physical: fine motor skills, co-ordination, concentration, opening and closing scissor mechanism, hand strengthening
maths: filling and emptying, capacity
See our full FINE MOTOR ACTIVITIES archives here (there are loads of ideas to pick from!)
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WOW
What a great activity for the fine motor skill! The children must have a lot of fun with this activity 🙂
That’s amazing 🙂