Material: Pom-poms

Tacky Tape Puzzle Pull-Off

A preschooler uses fine motor skills and a pincer grasp to pull a pom-pom off tacky masking tape on a vertical surface, demonstrating the Tacky Tape Puzzle Pull-Off activity for improved shoulder stability and hand strength.

Steps:

  • Tape a piece of construction paper vertically to a door or wall using masking tape. This is your ‘puzzle board.’
  • Use small loops of masking tape to stick several pom-poms and stickers onto the construction paper. Make sure they are secure enough to stay put but loose enough to be pulled off with some effort.
  • Challenge your preschooler to ‘rescue’ the materials from the tacky tape! Encourage them to stand and use both hands—one hand to stabilize the paper and the other hand to pull the items off using a pincer grasp.
  • For an added challenge, hide small plastic animals or lightweight blocks under larger pieces of tape, requiring more effort and bilateral hand use to tear the tape away.

Safety Tip:
Always supervise vertical activities to ensure the child does not climb or lean heavily on the surface. Check that the masking tape used does not damage the wall or door finish upon removal.

Honey Jar

The purpose of this activity is to promote fine motor and visual motor skills.

Preparation:

Step 1: Place pom poms on the table (or on the black of a Lego for an increased challenge).
Step 2: Have your child use the tongs to pick up the pom poms and place them into the jar.
Step 3: To increase the challenge, have your child:

Only pick up the yellow pompoms (to address sorting).
Fill the jar up to a line that you draw in.

Pizza Party

Preparation:

Retrieve the following items:

  1. Homemade playdough
  2. Red paint
  3. Spoon
  4. Topping (i.e. leaves, buttons, pompoms, etc.)

Play:

Have the child:

  1. Roll the playdough into a ball (encourage the child to use both hands when rolling the dough to work on bilateral coordination).
  2. Flat the ball to create the base of the pizza.
  3. Smear the red paint (i.e. “pizza sauce”) with a spoon or with their finger.
  4. Tear up tiny dough pieces to create the cheese.
  5. Sprinkle the cheese and toppings on the pizza.
  6. Garnish with leaves.

Enjoy playing with this pretend pizza!

Tip: After you are finished playing with the pretend pizza, fold it in half and use the fork to press down the edges to make a pretend empanada!

 

Pincer Penguin

Pincer Penguin - featured

You will need black, white, and orange-colored pom-poms to create the body, head, wings, beak, and feet of the penguin.

Instruct the child to glue 1 large black pom-pom and 1 large white pom-pom together. This will be the body of the penguin.

Glue 2 small sized black pom-poms to the body. These will be the wings.

Glue 2 small-sized orange pom-poms to the other side of the body. These will be the feet.

Instruct the child to take a medium-size black pom-pom and glue a small-sized orange pom-pom on it. This will the beak.

Glue 2 wiggle eyes above the beak. This will be the head of the penguin.

Glue the head of the penguin to the body.

Colored Pipes

Colored Paper Rolls

Label each roll or tube by color.

Attach the tubes onto a wall, door, or window using some tape or clear self-adhesive magic cover.

Place pom-poms in a container.

Ask the child to kneel while sorting the colored pom-poms into the right tube.

Use tongs to work on hand strength and grasp.