Tag Archives: fine motor

clothesline activity

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Fine motor and water play come together in this fun clothesline activity:

Now that we’re enjoying summer-like temps, we’re starting to get back into our favourite fair-weather activities, like this clothesline activity that I set up in the backyard this morning.
 clothesline activity - bowl, pegs and cloths

The hooligans often play with my basket of wooden clothespins.  They’re excellent for developing fine motor skills, hand muscles and co-ordination.  For today’s activity though, I brought out our camping clothespins.  They’re bright and fun and colourful, and they’re slightly easier to squeeze open than the wooden ones.

IMG_7565

What you’ll need for your clothesline activity:

materials needed for clothesline fine motor activity

  • rope
  • clothespins
  • basin of water
  • stack of facecloths

String your rope up between to trees, posts or deck rails, and you’re good to go.

The hooligans had a great time washing their cloths, squeezing the water out and hanging them up to dry. clothesline activity - washing faceclothswringing out faceclothspinning up the facecloths

The baby had fun simply splashing in the water.IMG_7569

And someone even decided to wash her socks!  This makes me think it would be fun to bring the doll’s clothes out, and let the hooligans “launder” those.  Maybe tomorrow. :) IMG_7571

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button snake

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 For fine motor development and button skills…

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button snake - happy hooligans

A button snake is a a fun way to introduce “buttoning” to your child.  This activity will have your little one passing a button through a “button hole”, and his or her fine motor skills will be challenged as well.

You’ll need only a few basic supplies:

supplies for button snake

 

    • coloured felt
    •  length of ribbon
    • button
    • scissors
    • needle/thread (for attaching your button to the ribbon)

 

To make your button snake:

Cut a your felt into squares.  I made mine about 2.5 inches square.  Basically, your square must be a little bigger than than your button.

Because the hooligans are quite young (there were some twos trying this today), I chose a rather large button.  It was about the size of a quarter.  For an older child, you could use a smaller button to make this activity more challenging

With your scissors, make a slit in the center of the felt square.  I simply folded my felt square in half, and cut a small notch.  Make sure this “button hole” is large enough to pass your button through.

Now, with your needle and thread, sew your button onto one end of your ribbon.  Voila – a button snake. :)

At this point I slipped one square of felt onto the button snake, and slid it all the way to the end of the ribbon, and I knotted it in place there to prevent the hooligans felt squares from falling off the end of the snake as they worked.

Just look at the concentration!button snake collage

Happy buttoning!

button snake with felt squares on the ribbon

I’m frequently asked what kind of camera I use.  I shoot with a Canon Rebel XS.  It’s an entry-level DSLR, and I absolutely LOVE it.  I do not digitally enhance or alter my photos except to add a title and my blog name to the feature photo in each post.  I cannot say enough about this camera.  It’s my “baby”!  You can check out the details here:

winter lacing cards

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winter lacing cards cover photoHappy New Year!   The hooligans have returned, and we’re getting back into our groove here.  We’ve spent the majority of the past two days playing, re-connecting and enjoying the SNOW that we finally got over the holidays!  We haven’t done anything terribly structured this week but I did make these simple winter lacing cards this morning.

I loved lacing cards when I was a child, and I enjoy making them and changing them up seasonally for the hooligans.

This is a simple project and it doesn’t have to cost you a thing!

All you need is some cardboard (a cereal box is great), some patterned paper and a shoelace or a length of yarn for lacing with.   winter lacing activity shapes

I drew the mitt and the toque free-hand, but used a simple template that I found online for the snowflake.

Draw your shape and transfer it to your cardboard, and cut it out.  Then using a glue stick, cover the cut-out with your patterned paper.  I use wallpaper samples for this kind of thing.  I LOVE my wallpaper samples!  Pop into your local paint and paper shop, and ask if they have any out-of-date wallpaper books that they’d be willing to part with.  The store in my town is always more than happy to give me theirs, and we use them for all kinds of projects here.  The paper is beautiful and sturdy, and it’s so much easier on the pocket book than buying expensive scrapbooking paper!

Once you’ve glued your paper to the cardboard, cut it to fit, and then punch some holes all around the edges of your card.

Tie a knot in the end of a shoelace to prevent it from slipping through the holes, and hand it all over to your little one!IMG_0863

If you don’t have a shoelace, you can use yarn with a plastic sewing needle.  In the event that you don’t have a sewing needle, you can use my handy little trick to make a kid-friendly sewing needle out of a drinking straw.homemade sewing needle for lacing cards

Shorten a drinking straw, and cut a slit in one end.  Insert your yarn into the straw, secure it in the slit, and you’re good to go!winter lacing activity - happy hooligans

Happy lacing!

Drop Box

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This is a fabulous toddler and preschooler activity that will cost you nothing to make.  Create a simple cardboard Drop Box yourself, using items you already have around your home!  You’re gonna love it!cardboard drop box

With the last week of summer holidays wrapping up, I really should be organizing school supplies, and pulling my house back together after doing a bare minimum of house-work these past 2 months.  Instead, I immersed myself in this little project, and I must say I am SO looking forward to presenting it to the Hooligans!

I was first inspired to make this when I saw pictures of the drop box that  Play at Home Mom had made.

Here’s what I did:

I started with a good sized box, some Sharpies, a paper cutting knife, and a few objects for dropping.  I would think of more “drop-ables” as I worked away.

I started by cutting holes for the foam shapes, and outlining with the sharpies.  That area will be fun for a little match and drop area.  Then I grabbed a handful of paint chip samples, and cut slits in the box, and outlined the slots with 8 different colours.  The paint chips are various shades of each colour, so the Hooligans will have to decide which colour family each paint chip belongs to.

Next, I drew upper and lower case letters on “popsicle” craft sticks, and made a small drop slot for each one.  On the backs of the sticks, I drew coloured circles, squares and triangles, for the little ones who don’t yet know their letters.

I picked out several coloured blocks from our block bucket, and drew corresponding shaped and coloured holes for those to be dropped through.

And the final activity was numbers.  A few dominoes and numbered holes will encourage counting and matching.

When I was finished, I cut 2 holes to sink a couple of containers into.  The box wasn’t big enough for any more than 2.  It would have been nice to be able to fit all 4 containers across the top, but c’est la vie.  When you’re ready to pack it away, you can store the containers and drop-ables inside the box. :)

Doesn’t it look inviting?  I had a lot of fun working on it.  I always find this kind of thing therapeutic, and kind of lose myself in the process, so it was a relaxing way to spend the afternoon.

I think this is going to be very popular with my little friends!  I can’t wait for them to see it next week. :)

***************UPDATE*************  One and a half years later, this drop box gets pulled out and played with almost every day by one hooligan or another.  Despite the fact that it’s been stepped on and sat on by a couple of the babies (and therefore the sides and top are kind of crunched in), this is still one of the all-time favourite activities in the playroom!

If you’d like more ideas for creating easy activities from recycled materials, here are a few more treasures we’ve made from our trash!