November 23, 2020 - The OT Toolbox

Egg Carton Snowman

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You’ll need these materials to make an egg carton snowman craft:
White styrofoam egg carton (OR paint a cardboard egg carton with white paint)
Scissors
Black crafting pom poms

Craft glue

Black permanent marker

Bamboo skewer

Recycled K-cup or other small cup, like a drinking cup

Black felt

Styrofoam Egg Carton Craft

Make this egg carton snowman craft and work on fine motor skills with the kids this year.

To make the egg carton snowman, first cut three sections from the styrofoam egg carton. Cutting styrofoam is a great way to practice scissor skills. It takes a bit more “oomph” to cut the egg carton and is a nice way to practice hand strengthening.

Poking the bamboo skewer into the stryofoam egg carton provides an opportunity to work on tripod grasp, intrinsic hand strength with arch development, and an open web space.

Kids can make a egg carton snowman craft with Styrofoam egg cartons.

More Christmas Activities

Working on handwriting with kids this Christmas season? Grab your copy of the Christmas Modified Handwriting Packet. It’s got three types of adapted paper that kids can use to write letters to Santa, Thank You notes, holiday bucket lists and much more…all while working on handwriting skills in a motivating and fun way! Read more about the adapted Christmas Paper here.

Make this egg carton snowman craft and work on fine motor skills like tripod grasp, intrinsic hand strength with arch development, and an open web space with the kids this year.

Try these Christmas crafts for more fine motor fun:

Want more ways to boost fine motor skills with a snowman theme or winter theme? The Winter Fine Motor Kit is on sale now!

This print-and-go winter fine motor kit includes no-prep fine motor activities to help kids develop functional grasp, dexterity, strength, and endurance. Use fun, winter-themed, fine motor activities so you can help children develop strong fine motor skills in a digital world.

This print-and-go winter fine motor kit includes no-prep fine motor activities to help kids develop functional grasp, dexterity, strength, and endurance. Use fun, winter-themed, fine motor activities so you can help children develop strong fine motor skills in a digital world.

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.

Christmas is just around the corner, and we’ve got some fun ideas in store for you! This Jingle Bell Kid’s Activity can be a jingle bell game or a Fine Motor Christmas activity that kids will not forget! Use an egg carton and jingle bells kids can manipulate for a color learning and fine motor activity.

We’ve done our share of Christmas play activities and this Jingle Bell Sorting activity is just one way to play and learn with a Christmas theme. We’re joining a bunch of other bloggers in a busy bag series where each month, we’ll bring you a busy bag activity to keep the kids busy and occupied (and learning!) In-hand manipulation activities are a great way to boost fine motor skills needed for tasks like managing clothing fasteners, using a pencil when writing, manipulating items like coins or beads, and more.

This jingle bell activity would be fun to incorporate into a Christmas sensory bin, too.

Jingle Bells for kids are a fun Christmas fine motor activity with an egg carton.

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Jingle Bell Kids Activity

This jungle bell kids activity is a Christmas busy bag that helps children build fine motor skills, as well as other learning components in a game format.

We’ve done quite a few “busy” time of activities on this blog. These are the activities that kids can do on their own or with a little set up and explanation. They are kept busy and learning, creating, or exploring on their own. Busy bag activities are perfect for times when caregivers need to focus on other children, dinner preparation, or while waiting. Modern day busy activities might be smart phone apps for some kids, as they “busy themselves” as they wait in a restaurant or doctor’s office. A busy bag activity that is easy to set up might be something as simple as manipulating small items, or sorting sugar packets by color.

Jingle Bell Activity for Kids

Independent learning is important to a child’s development. When a child is learning on their own, they are able to come up with questions and ideas independently. They develop problem solving skills, and exploring during the process of the activity. When a child has an adult participating in an activity with them, they often times focus on the end product or goal rather than the process of the task. Children become aware of their own strengths and weaknesses during independent play and can gain a sense of satisfaction when they do a task on their own. Busy bags are great for independent learning!

Color Sorting with Jingle Bells

Paint the egg carton to match the jingle bells kids will use to work on color sorting, counting, and fine motor skills.

We started with a recycled egg carton. Technically, this isn’t a busy BAG since we made our activity in an egg carton…but it is a busy activity, and I love that it can fold up and stow away with the sorting material inside the carton. The cardboard type was needed for this activity, in order to get the paint to “stick”. I painted the sections of the egg carton in four colors. I LOVE these poster paints for their bold colors.

Paint the egg carton for a jingle bell sorting activity.

Little Sister (age 3) helped me paint the sections, and we let them dry overnight…because when Little Sister helps, a lot of paint is used.

Jingle bell activity to work on fine motor skills at Christmas.

The next day, we were ready for our jingle bell sorting activity. We used jingle bells that we received from our friends at www.craftprojectideas.com (Thanks so much!!) I poured the bells into the top section of the egg carton, and showed Little Sister how to sort them.

Kids can work on fine motor skills with this Jingle bell activity.

This is such a great activity for color identification, fine motor skills, scanning, hand-eye coordination, and early math.

This jingle bell activity is a toddler activity for Christmas because they can work on fine motor skills and color sorting with toddlers.

The colors are so bright and the jingle of the bells gives a great sensory input to this activity. Little Sister sorted and sorted while I changed diapers, swept the floor, and watched her sort.

Kids can sort jingle bells in this Christmas fine motor activity.

Christmas jingle bells for kids to work on fine motor skills.

Preschool jingle bell activity to work on fine motor skills, color sorting, counting.

One of the cousins came over one day and these two three year olds had fun sorting together.
I showed them how to extend the play by counting the number of bells in each section.

Count jingle bells with this Christmas fine motor activity for children.

I love this activity for it’s fine motor aspect, too. Managing the jingle bells as they picked them up and sorted them into the sections works on many skills. You can encourage your child to pick up a few bells at a time and pocket them into the palm of the hand as they sort the bells one at a time.

Picking up several bells works on in-hand manipulation, specifically the skill of translation. Moving the bell from finger tips to palm as they “squirrel away” bells into their palm is a difficult task for many kids. This is a task needed in order to manage coins or other small items.

This jingle bell activity works on fine motor skills like in hand manipulation.

Placing the bells into the sections requires the child to use in-hand manipulation to move the bells from the palm to the finger tips. This is also the skill of translation and is needed for pushing coins into a piggy bank or vending machine, or managing small items like marbles.

Translation is a complex task requiring strength and dexterity of the intrinsic muscles of the hand. It’s fun to watch these skills develop in an activity like this one!

In hand manipulation is a fine motor skill that kids can refine with this jingle bell activity for children.

We’ll be saving our painted egg carton for long after the holidays to sort lots of different items: crafting pom poms, paper clips, paper, dyed pumpkin seeds, and more! Here is a big list of fine motor activities using craft pom poms.

With this activity and any other on our blog, please be sure to supervise your children when small items are involved. If your child is one who puts items into their mouth, you may want to hold off on this activity for a while. Use caution with this activity as it involves small parts.

Christmas Handwriting Activities

Writing out that Christmas wish list is a difficult task that brings out tears instead of holiday excitement. I’ve got a solution for your kiddo with handwriting difficulties: a packet of modified paper for all of the Christmas handwriting tasks that come up each year. Use this handwriting pack to help kids who struggle with handwriting to participate in holiday traditions while even working on and developing their handwriting skills!

Working on handwriting with kids this Christmas season? Grab your copy of the Christmas Modified Handwriting Packet. It’s got three types of adapted paper that kids can use to write letters to Santa, Thank You notes, holiday bucket lists and much more…all while working on handwriting skills in a motivating and fun way! Read more about the adapted Christmas Paper here.