All you need is an empty gallon jug, toddler-sized tongs, & marbles and you've got a great set of activities at your finger tips. Let me tell you about all the ways we used this activity:
I put the marbles in a dish and we focused on colors, counting, numbers, math.....and then music! And obviously fine motor skills also.
As you ask your toddler to add marbles to the jug with the tongs, you could work on color recognition & identification. They could only add yellow marbles or blue marbles or whatever color you ask. As they add the marbles to the jug with their tongs they will be working on some fine motor skills AND their colors.
If you've got a really young child you could count each marble that is dropped into the jug. As they advance you could start asking things like, "How many blue marbles are in the jug?" Later you can begin with some math problems like, "You need six blue marbles, but you only have four in the jug. How many more blue marbles do you need to add to the jug?" So with this you've added numbers, counting, and math to your fine motor task. And notice that this task can progress as your kiddo grows. That is my kind of task lol
I think it would be ludicrous of me to not think that once all of those marbles get added to the jug it wont be shaken. It absolutely will be shaken like a loud maraca. lol Embrace it! Start talking about rhythm and beats. Your child will love to mesh together fine motor skills and marbles. I know that mine have enjoyed this.
See isn't that a super fun & easy task that you can just pull together really quick, but have great impact? What activities do you have like this that you can share with me???
Obligatory Blogger Disclaimer: I was not provided any compensation for this post. I just really like these products.
