I am participating in Still Playing School's Everyday Fine Motor Materials A-Z Series again; and just in case you missed it, we also shared an activity for the Letter J .
Today is the Letter O....
However, since that only happens one time a year, we put together several other ways to play and strengthen those fine motor muscles.
Please also note that we used shatterproof/ plastic ornaments for these activities! A MUST when dealing with especially young ones who think, ahem--- they are balls ; )
Coincidentally we gathered a bunch of other everyday household items to use with our ornaments-- muffin tins, tongs, a spoon, and serving tray.
One of the first activities we tried was very similar to the classic golf tee and marble activity; however, obviously instead of marbles we used ornaments.
We have been very successful with marbles, but we actually had a bit of difficulty with getting five ornaments in a row.
We made it to three, but perhaps the ridges in our ornaments threw us off?! Still a good way to practice hand-eye coordination!
Next, we Stacked the Ornaments on a Skewer:
Encourage the use of tongs to pick up and sort the ornaments:
Or simply encourage your little ones to grasp the ornaments with their hands-- provide different sizes to encourage pincer grasp, palmar grasp, etc.
Smaller ornaments are going to require a bit more hand-eye coordination, but the larger ornaments might require a bit more over all hand strength.
Hope you have been encouraged by this series that fine motor skills do not require any special items bought from the store!
You can find many materials right in your own home.
And when it gets a bit closer to Christmas time, buy some extra shatterproof ornaments to make Ornament Garland for a festive flair made special by your kiddos!
I'd love for you to follow along so you never miss out on one of our fun activities we share at School Time Snippets!
