Where Play Meets Potential
There are so many ways to celebrate the holiday season and believe me I love Christmas. Why not use the fun and excitement to spark interest in sneaky learning activities.
I say sneaky because often times toddlers or preschoolers don’t even realize they are learning when play is incorporated into their interests or presented in a way that is super appealing to them.
Fine motor skills are so crucial for many life skills such as eating, dressing, and writing. Before children start writing with a pencil and a paper, they need multiple exposures to hands-on fine motor activities to build the coordination, strength, and skills needed for the complex task of writing.
So, I try to sneak in those practice opportunities as much as possible. Christmas time is no time for a break from learning through play.
Read on to see some of the fine motor activities we did with a little holiday spirit.
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This fun little DIY was super simple to create and gives just enough challenge to keep the interest of a toddler while also giving a great opportunity to develop those fine motor skills and persistence.
At first this was a little tricky for Ruby and although she really wanted to get the buttons in the slot, she got frustrated pretty quickly. I adjusted by modeling and then putting the button in just far enough so she could push it through. Then I noticed she kept holding the button in the opposite direction as the slot. I adjusted by turning the snowman so the way she held the button lined up with the direction of the slot.
Sometimes it’s more about how we adjust to what we observe rather than seeing the activity as a “fail,” getting frustrated, or giving up on the activity.
To make this DIY I took a cardboard box, cut out and glued a snowman to the box, cut slots and colored around them to look like buttons, then added some larger buttons that I had for putting inside the slots.
For some non-Christmas, but really fun cardboard DIY’s check out my post HERE.
This is a super easy activity that can be left out to revisit again and again. Put the bells in a Christmas tree tray and it doubles as a holiday decoration.
I found some large jingle bells and added some sparkly pipe cleaners cut in half for stringing. I strung a couple of bells as a provocation to string the bells.
Ruby enjoyed taking the bells off and she attempted to string the bells back on, but I think this activity was a little too tricky for her little hands. Pulling the bells off and even just her attempts to string them back on are honing her manual dexterity and fine motor control.
Is my 16 month old the only one currently obsessed with stickers? Well, if your little one is like mine then they love stickers!
A couple tricks to help your toddler independently get the stickers is to peel the backing off of the sticker sheet leaving just the stickers or taking the stickers off the sheet and placing them on the edge of the table or basket.
Once they have figured out how to get the stickers off themselves then it is all over. All they want to do is get stickers and place them randomly all over, even on themselves. Their sticker creations are more about the process of pulling them off and placing them down rather than on creating a purposeful picture. The process is where they are developing their fine motor skills as well.
Check out my post “How to Use Process Art with Children” for more information on process vs. product art. And if you enjoy using process art, check out my post “10 Process Art Gifts you can Make with your Toddler.”
To add a little interest to the sticker activity I added snowflake stickers with wooden sticks. I thought the wooden sticks would be somewhere a little different to try to place the stickers. Ruby preferred putting the stickers on the table and on her nose (her nose is her favorite place to put stickers. It is hilarious and takes quite a bit of hand eye coordination so I allow it).
I am definitely eyeing the Melissa and Doug reusable stickers for a Christmas gift for Ruby.
We recently bought a cube shelf for the baby boy’s closet and the packaging included these awesome cardboard inserts. As my husband Chris was constructing the shelf, I asked if there were extra dowels. There were and they were the perfect length as well. Chris knows now to ask before throwing things away and he has more of a discerning eye for recyclables now too.
So, I used the recycled materials and I glued on a candy cane that I drew for a super simple DIY that was very engaging for Ruby.
Ruby doesn’t always stay focused on Montessori-type activities like I often see with other children engaging in similar play, but this DIY was different.
She actually stayed super focused and when all the dowels were placed in the holes I told her to take them out and put them back in the cup. She followed the direction and took all the dowels out, put them in the cup, and then started putting them back in. Wow!
It is seriously the simple things that create the most interest.
I love playing with ice. There are so many opportunities for learning and development. Science, language, sensory, and motor skills are all naturally integrated into ice play. Since the ice is wet and slippery, it takes even more manual dexterity to grab and hold onto.
For this idea I found some great trays for creating ice at the Dollar Tree. I used a snowflake tray and a penguin ice tray to freeze some blue water (and I added a little peppermint flavoring for an extra sensory experience). I also added reusable ice cubes and then some tools for scooping, grasping, squeezing, pouring, and transferring.
After the ice was melted, I put out the reusable ice cubes with tweezers and a ladle for more fine motor play with a little less mess.
Ruby loved to squeeze both the zig zag dropper and the tweezers. She liked to grab and mouth the ice. She came back to the activity several times. Activities that you can leave out for revisiting are best for toddlers’ short attention span.
Water play is another favorite at our house for many of the same reasons that ice play allows and also because it keeps Ruby’s interest for a long time.
The way we made water play fun and festive was by adding peppermint flavoring to the water. It gave a great smell (I probably would add a little more next time though) and was safe to taste. I also added Christmas colored pom poms to the water with scooping and transferring tools.
The ladle was the favorite tool during this play. Ruby really stayed focused trying to get the pom poms onto the ladle and then keeping them on there long enough to put them in the tall container. She definitely smelled and tasted the water too.
If you love water play like we do and need some more inspiration, check out my post “50+ Water Play Ideas.”
I love open-ended play (check out my post “Loose Parts for Infants and Toddlers”), even for the holidays. Many times the holidays come around and you see lots of product art, crafts, and closed-ended activities. I believe we can incorporate open-ended play with holiday spirit.
One way to do that is to provide tinker trays with holiday themed loose parts. For this tinker tray I included kinetic sand, wooden peg people, plastic shot glasses, Christmas erasers, and a Learning Resources fine motor tool.
Simple, yet provides lots of fine motor opportunities. Open-ended activities like this allow for engagement of multiple ages. An older child might play with this set up differently than a toddler, but they would both be interested and get what they needed.
I observed Ruby using the Learning Resources tongs to get the kinetic sand and Christmas erasers. I also watched as she pushed the erasers into the sand and placed them into the cups.
Painting with unconventional tools supports creative thinking and expression. Toddlers learn that you don’t always have to paint with a standard paint brush, there are many ways to create using paint.
Painting with bows infuses fine motor skills into a very festive holiday painting activity.
We painted a canvas that we plan to give as a gift. I also covered the table with paper so that we could paint the paper to create wrapping paper.
If you like this Holiday process art activity be sure to check out my posts:
If you are looking for more Christmas activities for your toddler, then be sure to check out my post “Easy Christmas Activities to Keep Your Toddler Busy.”
Thanks for stopping by, let me know what you are going to try in the comments below.
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