Material: Pom-poms

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.

 

Caterpillar Clips

Place the pompoms on a plate or in a container.

For each clothespin, have the child reach out and pick 5-6 small pompoms, using pincer grasp to pick them up, and place in front of him.

Ask the child to apply glue on the wide part of the clothespin, and use the tweezers to place one pompom at a time on the glue.

While the glue is drying, either draw 2-3 leaves on green construction paper or let the child draw them. Have the child cut out the leaves. If the child has difficulty cutting, we recommend providing thicker lines.

Once the glue is all dry, instruct the child to glue the googly eyes on the first pompom. Make sure to glue on the clothespin side that opens up.

Ask the child to put one caterpillar on each leaf by opening the clothespin with one hand, and holding the leaf with the other hand.