(Affiliate links included for your convenience!)
Happy Fine Motor Friday! This week in our preschool homeschool, we explored the human body. This fine motor eyeball transfer activity was perfect for that, and is also perfect for Halloween which is right around the corner. Even better, it was easily adapted for both my three year old AND my one year old!
To set up our transfer activity, I put 10 Plastic Eyeball Balls
into a wire storage bin
. You can use whatever kind of bin you want, but I would suggest using one large enough that your little one can chase the balls around to pick them up. The process of trying to collect the balls works both their fine motor skills and their hand-eye coordination. I provided a red scoop
(really part of a measuring spoon set) to catch the eyeballs with, and a skeleton skull tray
to collect them in. I made sure to choose a tray that had 10 compartments so that Kingston could practice counting to ten (as well as do simple addition and subtraction) and Bentley could practice one to one correspondence.
into a wire storage bin. You can use whatever kind of bin you want, but I would suggest using one large enough that your little one can chase the balls around to pick them up. The process of trying to collect the balls works both their fine motor skills and their hand-eye coordination. I provided a red scoop (really part of a measuring spoon set) to catch the eyeballs with, and a skeleton skull tray to collect them in. I made sure to choose a tray that had 10 compartments so that Kingston could practice counting to ten (as well as do simple addition and subtraction) and Bentley could practice one to one correspondence.
K went right to work chasing and picking the eyeballs up with his scoop. The slippery plastic made it challenging, and he had to make sure to go slowly and carefully.
As he placed them in the tray, we counted them. As a bonus math activity, we periodically counted how many skull sections we had left and made addition and subtraction problems using the eyeballs and the skull sections. It was a lot easier for Kingston to grasp the concepts when he had the manipulatives right in front of him.
Bentley was super anxious to get in on the action, and waited ever so IMPATIENTLY to dive in! When he had his chance to hold the scoop and touch the eyeballs, he was ecstatic. First he felt them and we talked about eyeballs. We practiced finding his eyes. Then I gave him the scoop, and he was in business! Bentley is a tool guy. He loves things like brooms, hammers, spoons, etc. So, it was fun to watch his reaction to being able to hold the cool scoop. He spent quite some time banging it on the metal bin and listening to the sounds.
He used both the scoop and his hands to pick the eyeballs up and put them in the tray. As he utilized both tools, he worked on different fine motor skills. He did great grasping the slippery eyeballs!
Oh and for the record, SUPERVISE your little ones.. because you wouldn't want them to go ahead and do THIS now, would you?! (Note: Bentley is demonstrating this for informational and educational purposes... because he's REALLY helpful like that! ;) )
Don't forget to head over and check out the wonderful activities that my fellow Fine Motor Friday bloggers are sharing!!
Counting Pumpkins Dice Game from Powerful Mothering
Halloween Finger Puppets from P is for Preschooler
Simple Pumpkin Decorating Idea from Little Bins for Little Hands
10 Fall Themed Fine Motor Busy Bags from Fine Motor Ideas
This activity is versatile and fits great into a preschool All About Me/Human body theme, as well as Halloween. Stay tuned for more homeschool preschool activities that can be adapted for both your preschool aged child AND their younger siblings!
Are you following House of Burke? To keep updated on all of the fun, please follow us on Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram!
Bentley looks super-proud of himself - what a cutie!
ReplyDelete