Motor Skills

Sensory seeking toys are such a winner with kids but don’t forget that they will also love making the sensory material. This ooey-gooey activity was double the fun because we made the muddy oobleck together first and then enjoyed playing stuck in the mud with fine motor tools and our Family Counters.

What you need:

• Learning Resources All About Me Family Counters
• Learning Resources fine motor tools: Gator Grabber Tweezers, Handy Scoopers, Squeezy Tweezers, Primary Science Jumbo Tweezers, and Tri-Grip Tongs
• Muddy Oobleck (to make mix ½ cup cocoa powder with 1 ½ cups cornstarch, then add approx. 1 cup water, mix until the consistency is right)
• Measuring cups
• Spoons
• Bowls
• Chips and dip tray

Making the Muddy Oobleck

If you’ve never made or played with oobleck before, you sure are in for a treat. It is such a weird and mesmerizing sensory base to explore with kids. To make the muddy oobleck mix ½ cup cocoa powder with 1 ½ cups cornstarch. This is a great opportunity to get your little one working on some measuring and numeracy, as well as their fine motor skills.

Once the dry ingredients are mixed together, gradually add 1 cup of water. The consistency should change, and the end oobleck you are looking for will be brown in color, with it holding its shape when you squish it together but then returns to a liquid-like state when it is released. It is so mesmerizing to watch! My little one spent ages lifting a scoop in the air and watching it slowly flow back down into the bowl.

Prep the Tray

We used a chip and dip tray as our play space, and it worked perfectly. The Family Counters went in the middle compartment. The fine motor tools were in two other slots, and then my little one filled the other four compartments with the muddy oobleck. We were all set for our muddy play session.

Stuck in the Mud

My little one could not wait to get her hands on the contents of the tray. She was so excited to play with the oobleck that she had helped to make. At first, she wanted to experiment with sticking the Family Counters in the mud. She was fascinated as she watched them slowly sink into the mud.

When she would pull the people and animals out of the muddy oobleck, the mud would stick to their feet and slowly gloop back down onto the tray. She loved trying to completely bury the counters under the mud and then rescue them.

It was great to provide so many different fine motor tools because this encouraged so much time spent on fine motor skills development. Each tool required slightly different hand movements and encouraged problem-solving to figure out how to best use them with the strange oobleck consistency.

My little one really enjoyed using the Squeezy Tweezers and Handy Scoopers for transferring the oobleck and making it into shapes. She even decided to give some of the Family Counters mud baths.

The Final Rescue Mission

After lots of play, hiding the Family Counters in the mud and experimenting with using the fine motor tools, it was time for one final rescue mission. Together we used our hands and the tools to pull all of the remaining counters from the mud. Some of them were stuck in there pretty good!

This was such a fun and engaging activity because the play and learning were so hands-on. It can be tempting to not let your little one be part of the sensory base making, but it really adds so much to the activity. Providing a range of tools is also another little trick for helping to peak interest in the activity. The choice is a great way to help children feel they have more control and power over their play. We hope you give this one a try; you can use monster trucks, insects, or farm animals too!

The very first Learning Resources product I purchased as a parent many years ago was the Helping Hands Fine Motor Tool Set™. And 5 years after purchasing it, the tools are still used by both my kids on a regular basis. I often get asked which of the tools is best and why, so I thought I’d share a little explanation of how we use each of the fine motor tools and how they help with developing skills for children of different ages. To help you see them in action I set up a simple pom pom and large building brick sorting activity.

Squeezy Tweezers™

My 3 year old always goes for the Squeezy Tweezers first! They are the perfect combination of a tweezer and scooper. Squeeze the handle to open the ball, scoop up the pom pom and then release the pressure on the handle for the ball to close.

 The recommended age for these is 3-7 years old. Some younger children will likely be able to use them but they do require a certain level of hand strength and coordination to open and scoop with the ball. This particular tool demands the entire hand to work, which really helps to strengthen all of those fine motor hand muscles leading to better hand strength.

Tri-Grip Tongs

This neat twist on a tong has three prongs rather than the conventional two. This configuration aims to help children develop better pencil grip strength. It is designed to try and mimic the same finger placement that your child will use when learning to write. Add a little pressure to the prongs and then come together in the middle to be able to pick up objects.

The recommended age for the Tri-Grip Tongs is 4-9 yrs old which I think is an accurate recommendation. My 3 year old had a little trouble holding the tongs with three fingers as intended, but was still able to use them by squeezing with her hand. The pom poms were a great item to practice using these on.

Handy Scoopers™

We usually enjoy the Handy Scoopers with water play because there are tiny perforated holes in the scoop part of the tool which make for lots of fun water transfer play. They are effectively a pair of scissors with a big scoop-like ball on the end. They are very easy to open and close and can be used with all sorts of sensory bases.

The age recommendation for these is 3-7 years old but my kids were able to use them at the age of two because they are really light and easy to open and close. I love these because they mimic the action of cutting with scissors and really help with scissor finger placement.

Primary Science Jumbo Tweezers™

Designed to encourage the use of a good pincer-grasp when transferring loose parts, the Jumbo Tweezers are great for sensory play and sorting. I like that the handle area is large but the grasp section is small therefore requiring accurate hand movements and the ability to pick up small and detailed items.

The Jumbo Tweezers are recommended for children aged 5-9 as they do require a decent level of hand strength to close the two prongs together. My 3 year old can comfortably use them and enjoys the large size. The Gator Grabber Tweezers™ are a great tweezer alternative for younger kids as they are half the size.

I hope this summary has been helpful for you, along with the photos to see the tools in action. If you are after a good starter set, I’d definitely recommend the Helping Hands Fine Motor Tool Set™ because you get a little bit of everything for a very reasonable price. In the set you also get a Twisty Dropper™ which is great for water play and science experiments! I have found the Learning Resources fine motor skills toys to be of great quality, with many of ours still going strong after five years of play.

Fine motor skills are so important while you are Building Someone Amazing! How well your child can hold a pencil or crayon, cut with scissors, or button their shirt has a lot to do with how developed their fine motor skills are. Luckily, developing fine motor skills – learning to control the small muscles in the hands and wrists – is easy! There are lots of simple ways to help your little one master fine motor movements at home and most of them are really fun. So why not make it a fine motor fall? We’re sharing some of our favorite fine motor activities below – try one each day and repeat each week until your little one’s fine motor skills are up to snuff. Start with:

Grasping and manipulating tweezers and tongs is another fun way to build those fine motor skills!

Save that coffee can! The plastic top and sturdy base are perfect for practicing slotting, another fine motor skill.

Sorting activities are such a great way to develop those all important fine motor skills when Building Someone Amazing. The small muscles in their hands are worked hard when grasping and releasing small manipulatives, and also when using fine motor tools. I love putting together simple sorting trays for my 3 year old. They are easy to set up but keep her engaged, and also provide the opportunity to work on colors, numbers and even literacy too. In this blog we are sharing three fun sorting trays which have a spooky twist ready for Halloween. The trays we use are lunch trays from Dollar Tree, the pumpkins and cauldrons are from Party City, and the erasers are from Target and Dollar Tree.

Fine Motor Scavenger Hunt

There is one tool always on you: your hands! Let’s see what your kids can find that requires them to move their hands. Scavenger hunts are a great way for kids to practice problem solving and learn the value of teamwork. This hunt is great for fine motor development and building recognition of what requires hand coordination. Don’t forget this is just for fun and it’s ok if you can’t find everything!

Fine motor skills are critical to a preschooler’s development. Like any skill, such as playing the piano or dribbling a basketball, practice is essential to success.

When preschool teachers mention fine motor skills, they are referring to the muscles in the hand that are used to manipulate small objects. Fine motor and hand eye coordination are typically parallel skills; most fine motor tasks require refined hand eye coordination. Hand eye coordination refers to the communication that happens between the hands and the eyes in order to accomplish a task.

We use fine motor skills in our everyday lives. Examples include: tying shoes (looping shoelaces through each other), getting dressed (buttons and zippers), eating dinner (using a fork or knife), and brushing teeth (squeezing toothpaste and brushing). In addition, kids will undoubtedly use fine motor skills at school as they write, color, cut, glue, and paint.

Not only is it important to develop fine motor skills for physical growth, but also to build confidence. The more children practice these skills, the more confident they will become. Mastering the coordination of putting on a winter coat, zipping, and buttoning it will make kids excited to go outside. Delaying practicing fine motor skills may have an adverse effect - a student who hasn’t learned to hold and move a pencil properly may make them frustrated during a writing lesson, or could lead to avoiding the task altogether.

While there are plenty of ways to practice fine motor skills around the house, children can also learn through playing with any of these Learning Resources products:

Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog

Max the Fine Motor Moose

Smart Snacks Alpha Pops

Sand and Water Fine Motor Tool Set

Hoot the Fine Motor Owl