I recently purchased a waffle iron and when I unpacked it, I noticed the box was filled with some packing foam. I love repurposing items for play so I got started thinking how I could best use this with the kids. Then I remembered these adorable heart picks that I found at the dollar store a while ago. I am pretty sure they carry them year round since I bought them in the Fall. If you cannot find these picks, any multicolored toothpicks would work. This fine motor activity doubles as a lesson on patterns for older kids. My youngest just had fun placing the picks in the foam and making a design rather than making fine motor patterns.
*These picks are sharp, so make sure your child can handle them safely and is properly supervised.
You will need:
- Leftover packing foam
- Heart picks or colored toothpicks
My five year old was very interested in the pattern making aspect of this fine motor activity.
She picked out three colors to work with - red, white and blue, and set out to make a pattern.
She worked her way around the foam and ended up making her pattern form a circle.
My youngest decided that she would make a pattern too using yellow, green and white picks. However, once she started she decided to abandon that plan and just place the picks wherever she wanted.
Even if your child is not ready for pattern making, they can still get a lot out of this fine motor activity. There is lots to learn as they push, pull and rearrange the pins.
For more fine motor ideas check out:
18 Fine Motor Activities for Preschoolers Fine Motor Skills Activity with Tongs
LOVE this! My Cliff always picks on me when I talk about wanting to save that foam. I need to show him this. ;)
ReplyDeleteKrissy, the only reason we were able to do this at all was I just got the box with the foam. Had I not claimed it right away, hubby would have gotten rid of it. :-)
DeleteI have several pieces of foam from our new shelf in the schoolroom saved just for this!
ReplyDeleteThis is brilliant! I never go to the $ store, but I'll have to keep an eye out for picks like those. I've also seen similar things done with craft foam and golf tees, but I don't have any of those, either. I think this would be a great fine motor activity for my Katie, whose hands are a little different than most of ours.
ReplyDelete