fine motor skills

Spring Sensory Water Bin Play Date Activity

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We are so excited to share our first Spring activity of the year!  This winter has been a loooong one! (and with it still being frigidly cold out side with inches of snow on the ground…the actual first signs of Spring seem a long way off!)
This Spring Sensory Water Bin is part of the All Things Kids bloggers Spring Sensory Play Date Activities series during the month of March.  We put this water bin together to celebrate Spring and friends.  What better way to kick off warmth and sunshine with a playdate with friends.  When you get a few toddler or preschool-aged friends together, what better way to play than with sensory play activities? 

This Spring themed activity is perfect for a play date.

Spring Sensory Water Bin

{Note: This post contains affiliate links.  In other words, this blog will receive monetary compensation when any purchases are made through the links in this post.  Our opinions and ideas are in no way affected.  You can read our full disclosure policy here.  As always, we thank you for your support and community here at Sugar Aunts.}

RELATED READ: Simple Spring Sensory
Play date activity with a sensory and fine motor Spring theme.
We are big fans of water bins for play and this one was no different!  We started with a bin of water scented with Pomegranate Body Scrub.  Just a little bit of the bath salts were all we needed to scent the water with a nice Spring fresh scent.  Any scented bath salts (or body wash/bubble bath) would work.  We just wanted to get a fresh scent and the rose colored water. 
You’ll want to watch smaller children who are playing with this water bin very closely.  You don’t want any tastes of the scented water, and especially if salts are being used!  Use your best judgment and if there is a concern, eliminate the scented portion of this activity.  Regular water would work fin, or even a few drops of food coloring, if you want to achieve the colored part of the water bin.
Tulip and butterfly water bin for a Spring play date.
I added a few foam butterfly crafting sheets
and foam tulip crafting sheets to the water bin and a handful of foam Spring stickers.  When these foam sheets and stickers get wet, they can stick to the foam and plastic plates very easily.  They can be removed and placed again and again without difficulty.
This is a perfect activity for a Spring play date.

Placing these foam stickers on the large foam sheets is a great way to practice tip to tip grasp and fine motor skills.  baby Girl had a hard time understanding that the sticker’s backs would not peel off once they were wet, but she got the hang of just placing the foam shapes in different places once I showed her.

Kids love to explore senses in water play. This Spring themed sesnory activity is great for a play date.

Scooping up the floating shapes from the scented water was so much fun and a great way to practice visual scanning and eye-hand coordination, too.  We didn’t add any scoops to this activity, but a few kitchen utensils like large spoons or an ice cream scoop would be a fun way to further extend this sensory water bin.

Toddlers will love this Spring-themed water bin.

Baby Girl just enjoyed getting her hands in the water and grabbing up the shapes.  Sensory play at it’s finest!

Sensory and fine motor play perfect for Spring!
We used our plastic plates
to sort and play with the foam stickers.  The wet stickers stuck nicely to the plastic plates, too.
Scented water adds a sensory component to a Spring water bin.
What is water play without a little scooping and transferring?  A couple of small bowls and a turkey baster were perfect for more fine motor play in our Spring water bin. 
Using the turkey baster to transfer scented water not only stimulates the senses, but works on gross hand grasp.  What a great fine motor strengthening tool the turkey baster is! 
Hopefully this is inspiration for your next play date.  If you’re worried about the mess, you could set this up in a small baby pool or in a bath tub.  If you’re in warmer climates than we are, take it outside.  I know we will be re-doing this activity once the weather turns and we can get outside!
Let us know if you do this Spring Sensory Water bin or something like it.  We would love to hear about it or see pictures.  Just stop by our Facebook page and share your fun with us!
Be sure to catch all of the other Spring Sensory Play Date Activities being posted this week over at our bloggy friend’s sites:
Crayon Box Chronicles
Do you have a Spring Sensory activity to share?  Link it up all month long below.  we will be pinning to the All Things Kids Pinterest board and creating a round-up of fun Spring Sensory Play Date Activities at the end of the month.  We would love to feature YOU!

Sensory play activity with rocks

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We are huge fans of sensory play around here.  This super simple rock activity kept the kids occupied for a long time one day.  It doesn’t take much to keep a couple of toddlers and preschoolers busy when you give them a bin of soapy water and something to clean!  Sensory play and fine motor play go hand in hand with this rock activity.


Sensory play with rocks

 

Sensory play with rocks

{Note: This post contains affiliate links.  In other words, this blog will receive monetary compensation when any purchases are made through the links in this post.  Our opinions and ideas are in no way affected.  You can read our full disclosure policy here.  As always, we thank you for your support and community here at Sugar Aunts.}
sensory and fine motor fun with rocks
We started with a bin of river rocks
that we’ve had for ages.  These little rocks were a little dusty from spending the winter outside.  before we could play with them, they needed a scrub down.  
A bin of warm soapy water, a colander, and clean water and we all we needed  to set up this easy activity.  Throw in a scrub brush and sponge and we were ready to go.
sensory activity for kids using rocks and soapy water.
Little Guy loved this activity.  He scrubbed the rocks clean!  Using the scrub brush is a great way to work on bilateral land coordination to hold the brush and the rock…and tripod grasp to hold the little rocks.

playing with rocks and a soapy bin of water is a great fine motor and sensory activity for kids.
Baby Girl got in on this soapy fun too.  This sensory activity was so neat to play with the suds and find the rocks at the bottom of the bin.

squeezing a sponge is a great fine motor exersice for kids.

Squeezing a sponge is a great way to work on gross grasp of the hands.  Little Guy said, “this is the best fun, Mom!” …success!

washing rocks is a great fine motor and sensory activity for kids.

Our rocks were nice and scrubbed clean and ready for play.  And now to get them doing dishes…

DIY Shape Stamps

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These DIY Shape stampers were part of a craft we made waaaaaay back at the beginning of the month before Valentine’s Day. (HOW did February fly by so fast???)  We cut heart shapes from Styrofoam packaging sheets and stamped hearts.  The hearts decorated our front window for a few weeks.  While we stamped the hearts, I cut out a few other shapes from the Styrofoam sheet and had a little fun with shapes!

Shape Stamps

Creative painting with styrofoam shape stamps

This was a simple craft and creative way to paint while learning about shapes.  baby Girl is only just learning her shapes and calls everything a triangle.  Little Guy is happy to help her out with the correct shape name…calling out the shape before she even has a chance to answer!

A few shapes cut from Styrofoam sheets were all we needed to get started.  We stamped the shapes in red paint but adding more colors in there would made a fun creative painting art project.

Some of the shapes didn’t turn out exactly like they should have…but it was fun!

Stamping with these palm-sized stamps is a fun way to cross midline (reaching across the middle of the body) as Baby Girl reached to dip the shape in paint and then to stamp the shape onto the paper.  Crossing midline is an important skill for little ones.  This activity would be great for kids with special needs or difficulty using one hand/arm. 

Baby Girl wanted to paint some of her stamps too.  She is big-time into all things painting!

Our DIY stamps turned out to be a lot of fun and a great way to decorate our window for a holiday.  We re-used our hearts and made a fun spring flower with the prints.  Watch this space to see more crafty fun and see where this project went!
We’ve been having fun with our Styrofoam activities this month.  Lots of fun activities are linked up and if you’ve got any fun Styrofoam blog posts, be sure to stop by and share them with us! 

Visual Motor Activity for Learning and Scanning, Eye-hand Coordination

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We shared a great bubble wrap activity yesterday and are continuing again today with another fun learning through play activity with the awesomeness of bubble wrap!   This time we did some visual scanning to work on letters of Little Guy’s name, letter sounds (a great pre-reading activity!), color awareness with Baby Girl, and eye-hand coordination as we popped the bubbles.  Sounds like a super fun way to play and learn, right?!?
Visual Motor activities are very important to the pre-hand writer…and new handwrites, too.  Learning to place those letters on the lines and be aware of how much space is left on the page is part of visual-motor skills.  So is line awareness when cutting.  And even, moving with large muscles as we carry items in the home or classroom.  We have to be aware of how much space is around us and this is where visual-motor awareness comes into play.  
Visual scanning (scanning with the eyes across a page, for example) and hand-eye coordination (using the hands in a coordinated manner based on what the eyes are telling us) are both part of Visual Motor Skills.  Visual Motor activities are a fun way to play while working on these important skills.


This visual motor activity is a great way to work on visual scanning, eye-hand coordination, and letter and color awareness.

 

Visual Motor Activity to work on visual scanning and hand-eye coordination

We started our fun with these funny faces stickers from www.craftprojectideas.com/.  We received them free of charge and have been loving the silly faces in our crafts.  The colors were perfect for this activity.  Baby GIrl stuck the stickers onto a piece of paper and together we worked on colors.  She can tell me some of the colors, but most of the time, needs help.  These stickers were a fun way to practice!
Kids can work on color awareness with colored stickers in this visual motor activity.
{Note: This post contains affiliate links.  In other words, this blog will receive monetary compensation when any purchases are made through the links in this post.  Our opinions and ideas are in no way affected.  You can read our full disclosure policy here.  As always, we thank you for your support and community here at Sugar Aunts.}
Once the stickers were in place, I taped a piece of bubble wrap on top of the stickers.  Now we were ready to get to popping!
Preschoolers will love locating and identifying letters in their name as they visually scan.
Little Guy used a Window Marker
to dot the colored stickers as I called out a color. 

  

Use window markers and scan for colors, letters
He had to visually can the paper to locate the color he needed.  Pushing hard enough with the marker provided a nice “pop” when he dabbed the bubble.  Using his hands in a coordinated way to dab the correct bubble worked on hand-eye coordination.  Because of the bubble wrap on top of the stickers, he had to make sure it was aligned correctly.

Children can visually scan for letters and develop eye-hand coordination to locate letters.
Next, we tried this with the letters in his name.  I had extra letters, plus the letters in his name and asked him to dab all of the ones that he needed for his name.  Scanning across the page in all directions was fun way to explore letter identification as he visually scanned top to bottom and side to side.  He again worked on those hand-eye coordination skills as he popped the correct bubbles.
More playful ways to practice hand-eye coordination and visual scanning :

Valentine’s Day Garland Craft Noodle Painting

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Valentine’s Day activities are all around!  If you are looking for a few Valentine’s Day activities to add to your OT line-up, I’ve got you covered with activities that pack a developmental punch. Have you been cutting any hearts yet?  Covered a box in paper for a Valentine’s exchange?  Bought cards for the kids to give out at school?  We’ve done a few activities…there was this Valentine’s Day Painting and even a Valentine’s Day Sensory Bin that you may have seen. 
 
Painting noodles is such a fun creative painting activity that you can use to make bracelets and necklaces while building fine motor skills.
 
This Noodle Painting activity started out as a fine motor activity for Baby Girl and turned into a pretty Valentine’s Day craft and decoration. 

 

 
Fine Motor Craft for kids with painted noodles with a Valentine's Day theme!

 

 

 
{Note: This post contains affiliate links.  
 

Fine Motor Activity for Toddlers

 
Painting a variety of noodle types is a great fine motor and sensory experience for Toddlers.

Baby Girl (age 2) LOVES to paint.  She will ask to paint almost every day.  One day I decided to bring out something besides paper for her to cover with paint.  I pulled out a small handful of different dried pastas and put them into a divided dish.  In the center was our spill roof paint cup

with red paint. 

 
Baby Girl got busy painting.  She explored each noodle and had fun painting!  Manipulating the little pastas was a great fine motor dexterity task…and very sensory too, as she covered her fingers with paint. 
 
We let the painted pasta dry and ended up using it another day to make our Valentine’s day craft.

Valentine’s Day Noodle Garland craft

 
Squeezing glue is a great hand strengthening activity for Toddlers.
 
I cut some hearts from red construction paper and gave Baby Girl glue.  She squeezed the glue all over the hearts…however she liked!
 
Squeezing glue is a good way to encourage hand strengthening in children.  Squeezing the glue bottle requires a gross grasp on the bottle.  A gross grasp is using the whole hand in a squeezing manner and really strengthens the muscles of the hand.
 
 
She put the painted noodles in the glue with a tip to tip (pincer grasp).  Picking up small objects with just the tips of the fingers requires precision and dexterity. 

 

Create a Valentine's Day heart garland for decoration and fine motor/sensory experience.

The hearts dried and we strung them along a strand of yarn in our dining room.  They make a pretty Valentine’s Day decoration!

 

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.

Snowman Math Kindergarten Theme

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Kindergarten Math is new for us.  Big Sister is half-way through kindergarten now, and has been learning SO much!  Being that she’s our oldest, it’s all new for us, too!  We’ve gotten used to the homework and the worksheets that come home each day and can see all of the creative ways her teacher works on learning objectives.  This math activity was a little practice for her math homework that we’ve seen in worksheet form. 
I created a snowman math theme for her to practice composing and decomposing numbers a lot like what she does on worksheets.  This was a hands-on activity for Big Sister to practice counting and putting numbers together and taking them apart to make larger numbers.  Plus, it was a fun way to practice the skills she’s been learning!


Composing and Decomposing numbers activity for Kindergarteners with a Snowman Theme

Snowman Math

Kindergarteners can use pom poms for a counting manipulative in early math.

Snowman Math Theme for Kindergarteners

This hands-on math activity used just a few materials.  We started with Styrofoam egg cartons, cut into sections of three.  They made the perfect snowman shape with just a few snips.  There’s nothing better than using recycled materials in a craft or activity, and this was no exception! 
Once the snowmen were cut from Styrofoam and ready to go, I pulled out our white pom poms.  These were received free from www.craftprojectideas.com, and just what we needed to count for our snowman math.

I wrote numbers on the center circle of the snowmen and had the pom poms ready to go for counting when Big Sister came home from school one afternoon.  I showed her how the snowmen look like the circles that come home on her math worksheets.  Together, we counted out pom poms to make the numbers on each snowman.

Composing Numbers: Kindergarten Math

Now, I am no Kindergarten teacher, but our math practice was a fun way to practice the skills that Big Sister is bringing home from school.  We started by composing numbers to make our snowmen.  Big Sister has been bringing home a bunch of worksheets where she had to use manipulatives in the classroom to build numbers. 
Composing numbers is building numbers and the beginning stages of adding.  There are no addition or equal signs introduced yet.  Tow handfuls of manipulatives are all that are needed to count the total.
So, when Big Sister composed the numbers to make the number I had written in the snowman, I first had her count out the number of pom poms that she needed.  For the snowman with “13” written on it, we counted out 13 white pom poms. 
Then, she grabbed two handfuls of those 13 pom poms.  She counted how many were in each hand and put one handful in the “head’ section of the snowman…and the other handful in the “bottom” section of the snowman.  We were able to compose thirteen in a few different ways by doing the same activity over and over again with those same 13 pom poms.

Decomposing Numbers: Kindergarten Math

Decomposing numbers is just the opposite.  We worked on taking apart the numbers and exploring how many ways we could take apart the 13 pom poms.  We started with the 13 pom poms in a pile on the table.  Big Sister grabbed a handful and put them in one of the circles.  She then counted how many were left over.  She put the remainder into the other circle of the Styrofoam snowman.

This was such a fun math activity for Big Sister and I!  We got to work on “homework” in a fun and creative way and practice a little early math…with a snowman theme!
This post is part of the Project: Recycle & Create series that we are taking part in each month.  You may have seen our Cardboard box small world Pretend Zoo post from January’s cardboard theme. 

For more resources related to the kindergarten age range, check out our blog post on name practice for kindergarten. Hands-on and multisensory learning supports development and skill-building through play!

Soda Dough Snowmen Sensory Bin

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Did you see our Soda Dough Snowmen post from last week?  We’ve been using our snowmen in all kinds of pretend play with loads of imagination!  They came in handy one day for this Soda Dough Snowmen Sensory Bin. This is a Winter sensory bin that supports fine motor skills and tactile sensory input.

Snowman Sensory Bin

We love this snowman sensory bin because you can involve kids in several aspects of setting up and playing with the sensory bin:

  • Making the fake snow
  • Molding the fake snow into snowmen
  • Manipulating and exploring items in the snowman sensory bin
Sensory Bin with Soda Dough Snowmen
We loved creating this snowman sensory bin on a cold winter day.
Items that you can add to a snowman sensory bin include:
  • Container
  • Cotton balls
  • Tinsel
  • Cotton batting
  • Gems or other small objects and items to manipulate and explore
Child manipulating loose parts in a sensory bin with Soda Dough Snowmen

Loose Parts in Sensory Bins

We used cotton batting left, cotton balls, our soda dough snowmen, bits of tinsel, and some glass gems.  A few clothes pins were added for fine motor exploring, too.  This was a fun little world for Baby Girl with loose parts.  All those little pieces are fun to explore and examine. 

Language is developed.  As your child plays, ask her questions.  “What color is that?” “What can we do with this?” What is this called?”  Their imagination will blossom and learning is encouraged.  You can add colors, scents, textures to sensory bins with little loose parts pieces.

Hand Strengthening with Clothes Pins

Pinching items with clothes pins is a great way to strengthen the intrinsic muscles of the hands.  Strength in the arches of the hands is needed for endurance with coloring and handwriting.  Starting in the toddler years with fine motor strengthening activities is a fun way to play and work on pre-handwriting skills.   Not to mention, it’s just fun!

Looking for more sensory bin ideas?  Check out our Sensory Play page for lots of fun activities!

Fine Motor Tripod Grasp Activity for Kids

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We have many tripod grasp activities here on the website, and this one is a fun way to build skills with items you have in your home: loop cereal and tooth picks. Also be sure to check out our resource on an easy way to work on tripod grasp. Check out the idea below!

Tripod Grasp Activity

For this tripod grasp activity, you’ll need just a couple of items:

  1. Loop cereal (We used fruit loops. Try these other fruit loop crafts, too!)
  2. Toothpicks
  3. Styrofoam or a cardboard box.
This was an activity we did way back in December (seems like it was much longer than a month ago!) but we’re just now getting around to blogging about.  So, let’s just ignore the red and green colors…Ha!
 

 

 
This Fine Motor play activity was a big hit with the Toddlers. 
 
My little Niece and Nephew, in particular, were infatuated with this activity!  They played for the longest time…stacking cereal rings, taking them off, re-stacking…eating a few…and moving them around again!
 
Note:  As with any activity that you see on on this site, please use your judgment when it comes to your child’s safety and participation.  All children are different, but all activities should be closely supervised for your child’s safety.
 

 
Fine Motor Tripod Grasp Activity
 
We started with a strip of Styrofoam and a handful of toothpicks.  I stuck the toothpicks into the Styrofoam in a line and put out two bowls of cereal rings.  The red cereals were in one bowl and the green cereals were in another bowl.
 
This was a great opportunity for the two year-olds to work on a little color identification.  Little Nephew is really good at his colors.  Baby Girl needs a little more help.  Or a lot of help!  (Unless it’s “purple”. She KNOWS purple! 🙂 )
 
 
Picking up the cereal rings and stacking them onto the toothpicks was a great way to work on tripod grasp.  They had to manipulate the cereal rings and stack them one at a time.  We did a few patterns with the help of Little Guy (age 4).
 
 
Next time you’re in a house full of grumps/enjoying a PJ day/looking for an easy fine motor activity for the kids…Pull out the cereal and some tooth picks and get ready to have some fun!
 
A few more Tripod Grasp Activities:
Improving Pencil Grasp with Fine Motor Play
DIY Lacing Cards
Tripod Grasp with Pipe Cleaners
 
 
 

Crafting Poms Learn and Play with Craft Poms

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Crafting Poms are SO versatile in children’s activities.  They are not only a crafting essential, but also such an amazing learning tool!  Play with crafting poms is almost instantaneous when you pull out a package of these fuzzy, colorful, soft materials.  When we heard about the Ultimate Guide to Crafting Materials hosted by Craftulate, we KNEW that we had to join in on the fun and post about crafting pom poms.  We wanted to put together a bright and colorful post all about our favorite ways to craft, create, learn, and play with one of the ULTIMATE crafting materials…crafting poms! 



Learn, Play, and Create with Crafting Pom Poms

{Note: This post contains affiliate links.  In other words, this blog will receive monetary compensation when any purchases are made through the links in this post.  Our opinions and ideas are in no way affected.  As always, we thank you for your support and community here at Sugar Aunts.}
Learn and Play with Crafting Poms

 Playing with Crafting Poms

  Is it just our kids, or do yours do this too…when we pull out a bag of craft pom poms, there immediately, is a ton of bouncing, rolling, flying balls of fluff sailing across the table, being rubbed on little noses, held gently in little cupped hands…and just lots of plain silliness happening???  There is just something about these cute little fuzz balls that make kids (and Mom) happy and ready to create and play! 
We’ve got a few crafts, activities, and developmental play ideas for you all about Crafting Pom Poms.
This Fine Motor Strengthening Color Match Activity worked on so many fun things!  We matched colors to the bright pom poms and worked on intrinsic muscle strength as the kids pinched the clothes pins to grab up the matching pom poms.   This was a big hit and so adaptable with different colored poms.  you could use this Colored Squeezer Tweezers Set
to match the colors of poms as the child pinches them up and places them in a bin or even a matching bowl, like this colored plastic bowl set.  Pinching the crafting poms up with clothes pins or tweezers is a great way to strengthen and develop the arches of the hands.  This development is so important in handwriting and endurance while coloring.


Learning with Crafting Poms

Toddlers and preschoolers alike love picking up crafting poms, and putting them into bottles.  The skills developed in an activity like Fine Motor Play with Crafting Pom Poms are many!  Small children observe cause and effect and color identification all while working on tripod grasp, bilateral hand coordination, and finger isolation.  They are LEARNING so much! 


Crafting with Poms

We made this Line Awareness Craft Pom Snowflake Craft recently and put those crafting poms to creative use!  We used the soft little fuzzes to make a wintery craft that decorates our dinging room.  A little glue and a handful of crafting pom poms can make any dreary day a time to create!

Looking for more ways to create, learn, and play?  Follow our Sugar Aunts Pinterest board where all of our posts are shared in one place:

Follow Sugar Aunts’s board Blog Posts BY the SUGAR AUNTS on Pinterest.

The Ultimate Guide to Crafting Materials is a HUGE list of crafts created with all sorts of items.   Head over to Craftulate’s page where you will find the list of materials and links to posts on each one.  Link up your crafting pom pom posts below.  We’d love to see how you’ve used them to create, learn, and play!

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