Toddler Gift Wrapping Invitation to Play

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Happy Fine Motor Fridays!! Tis the season for lots and lots of gift wrapping, and my little tape lover is head over heels for it. We have been wrapping lots of gifts lately, a perfect way to practice fine motor skills, so I thought it would be fun to go ahead and set up an invitation to play where Kingston could wrap his own gifts.

I set Kingston up with 4 sheets of double sided wrapping paper that I had leftover from previous years, some Scotch tape, a pile of gift bows, and four books to wrap (books we wrapped: Llama Llama Jingle Bells, Merry Christmas, Mouse!, That's Not My Reindeer, and Jingle Bells from My Little Pocket Library Christmas. I chose these books because they were different sizes and widths. 

The best part of this invitation to play were all of the choices Kingston had. Anyone who knows a toddler knows that choices are paramount to the happiness of tots. K loved that he could choose between red Santas or silver snowflakes. He also loved the choice of gift bows. He chose to wrap the smallest book first, and I just let him go with it. I was surprised that he had clearly taken a few tips from our wrap session together the previous day! 

If the wrapping didn't work his fine motor skills enough, the tape sure did!! He had quite a fine motor workout trying to figure out how to get the tape off his fingers and on to the paper. We had quite a few frustrating moments while my little perfectionist tried to do it himself. 

I encouraged him to place the sticky side down and he worked really hard to get it just right so that it held the wrapping paper together. I love seeing those little fingers hard at work. 

We put a piece of tape on the back of each bow. He was serious about making sure the bow was in just the right spot. 

Once the frustrations were over, he was REALLY proud of his work!

I was actually really impressed too. He wrapped these gifts with pretty minimal help from me! Now we are using them in pretend play. I'm still waiting for him to try to unwrap them, but so far he is having fun pretending to deliver them to me and to his friends. Oh, and he is now officially BEGGING me for a pair of safety scissors! 

Don't forget to check out the other awesome Fine Motor Fridays posts!

Fine Motor Christmas Tree Sewing Activity from Craftulate

Christmas Sensory Bin from Still Playing School

Christmas Salt Tray Writing Activities from Lalymom

Paperclip Candy Canes from School Time Snippets

3 Free Printable Fine Motor Tracing Worksheets - Christmas Themed from Powerful Mothering

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