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Beaded Feather Fine Motor Activity

Colleen Beck OTR/L
Colleen Beck, OTR/L is a pediatric occupational therapist and the owner and author of The OT Toolbox website. She manages all of The OT Toolbox social media accounts and runs the popular newsletter. Colleen created The OT Toolbox in 2011 and since then has written thousands of blog posts designed to support therapy providers, educators, parents, counselors, admin, and caregivers in promoting the healthy development of kids. Check out Colleen's blog posts below:

This beaded feather activity is a fine motor task that we created YEARS ago. WE love it because beads and feathers are common craft materials found in many pediatric occupational therapy professionals’ therapy toolbox. In fact OTs love crafts as a fine motor strategy and this feather bead activity is a powerhouse!

Beaded Feather Activity

If you need a quick and easy little activity for the kids while you are making dinner, or just something fun for the kids to keep practice a few fine motor skills, then this is a great activity for you.  Simple to set up and easy to clean up, this one will get those little muscles going and moving with fine motor dexterity!
 
This can be a great skill-building task to add to a STEAM activity or a STEM fine motor activity.
 


Beading with feathers

This activity works on several grasps, color awareness, counting, sorting, visual scanning, and eye-hand-coordination.  How can you beat such an easy activity with so many benefits??  

 

 
Fine motor activity for kids using beads and feathers.
 
 
 
This post contains Amazon affiliate links.
 
You’ll need just two craft materials for this fine motor activity:
 

 

 
 
Preschoolers and Toddlers can match beads to feathers to learn colors.
 
Get your feathers and some coordinating beads and lay them out on the table.  I started a few feathers to show the kids what we were doing and had the invitation to start ready to go. 
 
They came over to check it out and would bead a bit here and there throughout the day.  It was kind of like a therapeutic little break from bouncing off of couch cushions and each other. 
 
Their little bodies needed a chance to slow down and re-group before getting back into the routine of regularly scheduled chaos.
 
But maybe that’s just my kids?
  
Sorting colored beads to match colored feathers is a fun way to learn colors.

 

Pincer Grasp Activity With Beads and Feathers

You could also put out a big old tray of all kinds of beads with different colors, shapes, sizes to work with. 
 
This slightly makes the activity just a little more difficult as the child has to visually scan for the colors needed and pick out the beads that they want with a neat pincer grasp. 
 
Using the tips of the index finger and the thumb in a precision grasp to manipulate beads from a big tray of colors is great for eye-hand coordination. 
 
Want more ideas to work on neat pincer grasp or eye hand coordination?  We’ve got plenty!
 
Threading colored beads on feathers is a great way for prechoolers and toddlers to work on colors and fine motor skills.

 

Beading Feathers Bilateral Coordination Activity

Holding the feather and the beads requires two hands to work together in a coordinated way (bilateral hand coordination). 
 
This is a great way to practice pre-writing skills and those requirements needed for self- care like managing buttons, zippers, shoe-tying, and scissor skills.
 
Beads and feathers are a fun way to practice colors and fine motor skills with kids.

 

Bead Feathers to learn colors

Younger children (Baby Girl is just getting this!)  can learn colors and practice naming colors as they pick out the beads and match to the color of the feather. 

How many other ways can you think of to make this a learning opportunity? 

Patterns, sorting, counting…this is a fun learning op and a great way to get those little hands moving!

                                Kids can work on fine motor skills and color matching awareness while beading feathers.

Fine motor activity for kids using beads and feathers.
 
 
More Fine Motor activities you will love:
 
 

 

The beaded feather activity and the other fine motor tasks listed above are a great addition to our popular Fine Motor Kits:

Working on fine motor skills, visual perception, visual motor skills, sensory tolerance, handwriting, or scissor skills? Our Fine Motor Kits cover all of these areas and more.

Check out the seasonal Fine Motor Kits that kids love:

Letters Fine Motor Kit
Kit de motricidad fina de verano
Summer Fine Motor Kit
Outer Space Fine Motor Kit
Space Fine Motor Kit
Spring fine motor kit
Valentines Day fine motor kit
winter fine motor kit
Winter Fine Motor Kit

Or, grab one of our themed Fine Motor Kits to target skills with fun themes:

Want access to all of these kits…and more being added each month? Join The OT Toolbox Member’s Club!

Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

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beaded feathers fine motor activity

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