Barrel of Monkeys Fine Motor Painting

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Happy Fine Motor Fridays! Kingston has been quite smitten with the classic game Barrel of Monkeys. Barrel of Monkeys is the ultimate fine motor game in itself. The gentle balancing of the monkeys requires some serious skill. We decided to spring these silly monkeys from their barrel and get them messy! 

We removed the monkeys from the barrel and counted them as we balanced them on each other. It took Kingston several tries before he was able to balance the monkeys. Once he had a hold of them all, he dipped them in the washable fingerpaint provided.  

The monkeys fell off as he painted with them, and he had to pick them up and try to balance them again. Every time he did that, we would count the monkeys aloud to make sure we had the right amount! 

After he painted that way for a bit, he used the monkeys on their own. His imagination has been running wild lately. I am in love with listening to his elaborate set ups and schemes. He immediately dived into pretend play with the monkeys and pretended they were going "swimming" in the paint and jumping in "puddles". He dragged their crazy arms and legs through the paint and even printed their faces.  

The last thing we tried was balancing and painting with ALL of the monkeys in the barrel. That was certainly challenging! We ended up in peels of laughter trying to keep all of the monkeys together. 

Don't forget to check out all of the other awesome Fine Motor Fridays posts:

Straw Painting Fine Motor Butterflies from Still Playing School

Play Dough Invitation with Ants from Stir the Wonder

Button Music Note Art from And Next Comes L

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