The Empowered Educator

Inspiring ideas, training and resources for early learning.

Frugal Fine Motor Fun!

by 26 Comments

I love any activity that gives the toddler twosome a chance to practice their fine motor skills while having fun and using our homemade sponge stampers is one of their favourite activities so i decided to pull them out again!

Toddler fine motor painting

It is still very hot here at the moment so we picked a nice little shady spot, set up the Sponge Pads again and then I added a few DIY sponge tools.

We used some sponges wrapped in fruit netting which is not only a fantastic sensory experience for little fingers…it also makes a fun pattern on the paper.

I also added some little make up sponges (I got a bulk pack from the discount shop for $2!) and popped on a peg to the end to provide a little handle.

Then the girls began pressing into the stamping pads full of paint and off they went!

Such a great activity for working the hand muscles…lots of different ways to grip, textures to touch and stamping pressure to explore…..

By adding 2 different types of sponge tools it allowed the girls to experiment with their creativity and skills in different ways….they both also enjoyed taking the pegs off and trying to clip them back onto the sponges.

Ruby had a lot of fun seeing how many she could hold at once…she also liked the sensory experience of rubbing the netted sponge over her arms and hands.

Of course we had our handwashing bowl close by and this also turned into a wash basin for the sponges which extended the play into some water painting! They enjoyed squeezing the wet sponges between their fingers and swirling through the water.

We talked about how the sponges were soft and the pegs hard, named the colours we were painting with and marvelled at the patterns the netting made.

An easy activity that cost me next to nothing as I reused our Sponge Paint Pads , used old bath sponges, recycled some fruit bag netting and grabbed some pegs off the line!

I do love a fun yet frugal activity…don't you?

 

Comments

  5. Kierna C says

    This is so clever & looks like so much fun! it’s amazing to see people having fun outside in the heat while we freeze here!! Thanks so much for adding this to the link up, Kierna

    Reply

  6. Amie M says

    Thanks for the reminder of why I picked up those bulk sponges from the 2buck shop 🙂 I think we’ll plan this in this week. By the way, if it wasn’t for your previous post I would never have known the challenges you face with Ruby, running away from activities, needing you there, needing your reassurance…you make it look so easy Jode, so effortless, I was kinda jealous, ya know 😉 I have had these kind of challenges with Chook over the past year, but we have been getting better. Until today, where we had a major regression in behaviour. Too upset to write more, but I’m thinking of you xox

    Reply

  7. Catherine says

    Such a fun and creative way to get your girls practicing their fine motor skills and then lots of fun with water, perfect weather for it at the moment. Wishing you a wonderful week Jode. xx

    Reply

  18. Bec Theo says

    I really need to get my girls outside more to paint. Plus they would really enjoy the sponges especially the ones with the pegs. Elina loves pegs at the moment. I am now planning outside painting for Friday.

    Reply

  21. Peter says

    This is so clever & looks like so much fun! it’s amazing to see people having fun outside in the heat while we freeze here!! Thanks so much for adding this to the link up,

    Reply

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