Simple Threading Activity to Strengthen Fine Motor Skills

Fine motor skill development is a big focus area for preschool-aged children. The good news is that so many of their everyday activities involve them naturally developing the small muscles in their hands. Threading is a fantastic way to focus on this area of development, and preschoolers often seem to enjoy the delicacy of the process. In this blog, I will explain a little more about the skills that can be improved through threading and share some of our favorite Learning Resources® threading products and give you some ideas of ways to use everyday materials for simple threading activity ideas.

Why is Threading Such a Good Activity for Preschoolers?

Threading helps people of all ages to develop their fine motor skills. These are the skills that help us to make small muscle movements in our hands and fingers. Having good fine motor skills is what supports a child in their quest to draw, write, manipulate small objects, and complete everyday tasks such as doing up buttons and zippers.

Completing a threading activity requires the child to use their small hand and finger muscles to manipulate the objects into place and move them around in a controlled manner. It is also necessary to have good eye-hand coordination and strong concentration skills when threading. Another area of development, which is perhaps lesser well known but holds importance for children, is being patient and persevering to solve problems. When threading a bead onto a string, it will take several attempts for the bead and string to line up accurately. The child might need to change the positioning of the bead or hold the string differently. This sense of trial and error is great for preschoolers working at such a young age.

Threading also can introduce a child to many basic mathematical concepts but in a subtle and fun hands-on way. Often children will comment on the color or shape of the bead they are using, or perhaps they will count how many beads they have added to their string. They might even start to try and make patterns as they are threading. Learning by doing at its finest!

Our Favorite Learning Resources Threading Products

We use two Learning Resources threading products on repeat at home and in my preschool classroom. The first one is the classic Beads & Pattern Cards Activity Set. This set includes two lacing strings with plastic tips (this avoids the frustrating string fraying from happening), 108 wooden beads in different colors and shapes, 20 activity cards, and an activity guide. This might seem like a fairly basic set, but it is very versatile and always seems to be a popular choice with preschoolers.

Some preschoolers love to just freestyle and make their designs or necklaces, often commenting on their favorite colors or shapes as they do so. Other times they might decide to make a bead pattern using one of the activity cards. Their fine motor skills are working hard either way, and they are fully engaged with colors, shapes, and numbers. Sometimes as a fun extension, I leave out paper and markers for them to create their pattern cards for each other.

The second product we love to use for threading is the Uppercase Lacing Alphabet. Each letter of the alphabet comes in ten different colors, and there are 15 laces included in the set. That makes it the perfect activity for friends to enjoy together. They get so excited when they find letters from their own and each other’s names. It can also be an excellent way for older children to work on sight words and spelling while developing those all-important fine motor skills ready for writing the words. You can also turn this into a sorting game by gathering groups of letters on the laces. We even made it into a fun scavenger hunt once!

Everyday Alternative Materials for Threading

There are so many easy and cheap ways to work on threading. Some of my favorites with my kids over the years have been to use pipe cleaners and pony beads to make bracelets. The kids always delight in wearing their threading creations! The fun idea is to use spaghetti sticks stuck into a ball of play dough and then thread pieces of penne pasta over the top. Another affordable activity is to use string and buttons to thread a long snake-like creation. All three of these ideas work on those same skills and will keep little hands busy.

Remember, threading can be as simple as two everyday materials, but it has many different and important benefits. We often take mini threading busy bags out to help keep little hands and minds busy when we are on the go.

Writer’s Bio

Lucy Baker is a Mom of two (4 & 7 years old) passionate about creative play and hands-on learning. She firmly believes in providing children with the opportunity to learn through play and being part of their play journey as a parent. See more of her creative play ideas and process art projects on Instagram @findthelittlemind, and over on her blog, Find the Little Mind.