“You can’t erase pen!” my daughter said as I drew five small circles on the paper and poured the small erasers out on the table. What could we possibly be up to! She loved the mystery.
I made this activity into a tweezer fine motor activity. Strawberry was delighted to find her actual task was an eraser sort challenge: Could she sort the small erasers into the correct circle using only the alligator tweezers?
The small “Gator Graber” tweezers made it into a game for Strawberry. Could the items make in time before the alligator got them for good? What was each of the items thinking as it got picked up by the alligator? Strawberry loves giving anything and everything its own voice!
In general, the tweezers sort was a difficult activity for Strawberry. There are a lot of muscles required to use the tweezers and the erasers are small! She liked to move the larger/circle ones (the world, for example) the most I think because they were a little easier to move! Next time, we’ll use some larger items, like pom-poms for the tweezers. But she still enjoyed sorting!
After we moved a bunch of the erasers, we compared how many were in each circle on the paper. She liked counting them up. I challenged her to move more from each category. She played for as long as she wanted, which was maybe 10 minutes.
This was not an activity that required a long attention span. In fact, it’s purpose was to keep her busy quickly while I got other things set up and ready for the day! It was nice that she could find some imaginary play in the midst of practicing difficult fine motor skills, counting, and sorting. It gave me a few minutes of a break, and she enjoyed it all.
Want some more activities using tongs or tweezers for fine motor play? See the links below!
- Matching Easter Eggs Sensory Bin from Life Over C’s
- Painting Sugar Letters from Still Playing School
- Fine Motor Long Vowel Activity from Learning 2 Walk
- Alphabet Water Sensory Game from Mom Inspired Life
- Create CVC words using Fine Motor Tools from Adventures of Adam
- Pom Pom Color Match Game from Raising Little Superheroes
- Plastic Egg Fine Motor Activity from Something 2 Offer
- Water Bead Pick Up Game from Play & Learn Every Day
- Bead Necklace Fine Motor Practice from Schooling a Monkey
- Intrinsic Hand Muscle Strengthening with Tongs from Sugar Aunts