House of Burke: Feeding the Lion Fine Motor Play

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Happy Fine Motor Fridays! Our post today is not only part of our weekly blog hop, but also part of an awesome series hosted by one of our favorite bloggers Devany from Still Playing School - Everyday Fine Motor Materials from A-Z. We chose the letter S; and the material we chose was straws ! Most people have straws on hand at their house, and we just so happened to have a TON of them leftover from Kingston's 1st birthday party last year. (If you haven't read about his awesome party, you should: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

Since we are currently focusing on animals, I thought it would be fun to put together a fine motor activity where Kingston could feed an animal. There were so many animals to choose from, but why not choose the "king of the jungle" for my little king?! I printed a picture of a lion with it's mouth open. Then I taped it to an old recycled clementine crate and cut a small hole right above his tongue. I chose this box for multiple reasons: the first reason was that there were tons of holes in the back of the box that were awesome for extra fine motor practice, and the second was that there was plenty of room between the box opening and the paper for me to reach in and assist Kingston unbeknownst to him if necessary! I provided him with a plate of straws , clothespin , and a frog bag clip.

I showed Kingston how to use the clips to pick up the straws and feed them through the first hole and then through one of the holes in the back. We soon realized the feeding the straws through the two holes was ENOUGH fine motor practice for a toddler and that the clip portion was unnecessary, BUT at least he did have a little bit of squeezing practice. If you are doing this with a child slightly older than K (he is 22 months), then I think it would add a nice extra fine motor element.

As he worked to feed the "rah rah" (K speak for "lion"!), he informed me of each color straw as he picked it up. On his own, he decided that he was going to feed the lion one particular color at a time. He also thought it would be fun to try to feed the frog to the lion!

He practiced squeezing the clip, but quickly learned that it was quicker to feed them through on his own.

He had to really focus to get the straw in the first hole and then find one of the other ones in the back of the box to push it through.

This held his attention for so long, and he was right back at it again this morning! This would be fun with all sorts of printed pictures. You could try different animals, monsters, people, etc!