With the Spooky Season just around the corner, it's almost time to add some Halloween flair to your child's playtime. In this post, we're sharing four easy-to-set-up fine motor activities that are both festive and beneficial for your little ones. But before we jump into the fun, let's quickly explore why fine motor play is so important for your child's development.
These 4 Halloween fine motor activities are quick and easy to set up using items you probably already have around the house!!
Paper Plate Mummy - Lacing/Threading
You'll need:
A paper plate
Hole punch
White string or yarn
A pipecleaner
Googly eyes
First, punch holes along the outer edge of the paper plate. Next, attach two googly eyes to the plate's center. Now, twist a pipe cleaner to create a 'needle' and attach it to the string. Your little one can have a blast threading the string through the holes in any order they prefer until they've wrapped the mummy entirely!
You can watch a video of this in action here!
Fine Motor Clay Spiders - Pushing
You'll need:
Clay or playdough
Googly eyes
Pipe cleaners Watch your little one roll a ball of clay or playdough, then have them poke in the pipe cleaners for legs. After that, they can have a great time pushing all those googly eyes into just the right spots!
You can watch a video of this in action here!
You’ll need:
A basket or container
String or yarn
Cotton balls
Plastic spiders (or other creatures to rescue!)
Tongs or tweezers Set this activity up ahead of time. In your basket you can put cotton balls and the plastic spiders. Use the string to wrap around the basket trapping in the spiders! Give your little one the task of rescuing the spiders. Tongs or tweezers are great but your little one will work the same muscles and build similar skills just carefully reaching in and picking out each spider too!!
You can watch a video of this in action here!
Coloured Pasta Colour Sort - Pincer Grip
You'll need:
Pasta
Paint
Coloured bowls or containers
Tongs or tweezers (optional)
Colour your pasta by placing it into bags with a few squirts of paint (different bags for each colour...and halloween colours of course!) then shake it up until the pasta is covered and leave it out to dry. Once dry you can pop it all into a tray with the coloured bowls and tongs for your little one to sort by colour!
You can see how to colour the pasta here!
If you are looking for some more 'grab and go' style Halloween activities you can view our range of Halloween Printables here!