Fine Motor Skills Activities Using Velcro Rollers- Fine Motor Fridays
Welcome back to our collaborative Fine Motor Fridays series! We're back with another fun fine motor skills activity, this time using something a lot of moms may have laying around the house- Velcro rollers!
My hair is naturally wavy/curly…but not the kind that looks nice without some taming. So I've had these Velcro rollers sitting in my bathroom closet for years ever since I thought Velcro rollers were going to be my big hair solution. They weren't but as fate would have it they are perfect when you want a fun activity for your kids!
I was inspired for this post by a beautiful picture from the Imagination Tree on her post with 40 Fine Motor Skills Activities. I literally ran and got them right when I saw it, and we just started playing. I was a little excited. If you don't already have a set, you can pick up an inexpensive set at this Amazon affiliate link: Conair Velcro Rollers.
I am really starting to try my best to find easy activities that make both my toddler and my preschooler happy. This is totally one of them and I love all the opportunities it provides to strengthen the muscles in their fingers and hands. It gave my 15 month old an opportunity to squeeze, pull, stack and explore. My 3 year old enjoyed a new material to create with and manipulate.
Fine Motor Skills Activities Using Velcro Rollers
1. Open Ended Play- I gave them each some time to play with them without the other one around so they could use them in their own ways. It was fun to see their reactions and looks or curiosity when they first touched them. Fine Motor Skills Activities don't need to have a goal or purpose, just exploring and playing will help with development!
2. Will it Stick Game- My 3 year old loved taking the Velcro rollers around the house to see what they would stick to!
3. Velcro Rollers and Straws- My 15 month old enjoyed the added element of the chunky milkshake straws. He like setting them into a roller that was standing on end and then lifting the roller to see them all fall to the table. Once he picked up a straw with a roller on the end and twirled it around, which got quite a giggle out of him.
4. Stacking- Both kids enjoyed stacking the rollers…Big sister liked setting them up, while little brother most enjoyed knocking them down.
5. Shape Making- Big sister looked at a bunch of rollers standing up on the desk and said, “Mommy look, it I made a flower!” So then we tried making various shapes, she liked trying to make a heart and smily face the most. You could also take crayons and trace the rollers then have your child place the correct rollers on the paper to make the picture.
6. Pretend Play- One of the rollers fell off the desk when she was playing and my daughter asked it if it was okay. This launched a whole bunch of play that involved the red rollers as people and the large random shape we had made on the desk as a castle. There was a king, princess and a clown…? My daughter manipulated the rollers from one room to the next and made them interact. They even hugged by sticking together!
7. Hair Salon- Well they ARE rollers. I had to show my daughter how well they stick in your hair. She didn't have much interest in having them in her hair, IÂ think the Velcro was a little scratchy on her ear and scalp. But she loved pulling them out of my hair! I didn't roll them up in my hair, just stuck them on the outside. Kinda hard to take a picture of the back of your own head though. I also showed Ladybug the bobby pins that were stuck to the rollers and she enjoyed pulling them off and sliding them on.
8. Yarn & Fishing- I thought it would be fun to try fishing for rollers so I grabbed a little bit of yarn. My plan was to tie the yarn to a roller and use the roller to fish but the yarn alone actually worked much better! You do have to drag the yarn across the rollers to get them to catch, but we had fun with the fishing- and with some additional play that they yarn led to. It was really fun to play with the yarn and rollers alone, my daughter liked sticking them together and rolling them up in the yarn, then unraveling them and starting over.
9. Finger Puppets- The yarn made me think of little mouths so we tried pom poms and googlie eyes to make “puppy dogs and monsters” evidently. The pom poms stuck barely…the googly eyes stuck when we peeled off the paper backing. My daughter insisted on making tails for them. Then we actually used the yarn we cut for fishing as their leashes and took them for a walk. My daughter enjoyed
10. Felt Board or Wool Coat- We tried sticking these our store bought felt board- and if you have made your own felt board it would probably work well- but the felt on ours is very thin. We found that they stuck better on my wool coat. My daughter wanted to stick every.single.roller onto the coat. Then she enjoyed pulling them…and then she enjoyed batting them off! We made faces and shapes bit but mostly she just liked putting them on randomly.
Overall we really had a lot of giggles and curiosity today. My kids seemed intrigued by the texture of the rollers and really enjoyed manipulating them. I was pleased with all the fine motor skills that were worked- pincer grasp, in-hand manipulation, thumb flexion and more!
If you liked these activities please do pin this post and check out my 10 Fun Velcro Activities for Toddlers post too!
Check out these other Fine Motor Activities and my Fine Motor Materials Shop on Amazon!
Fine Motor Fridays
We are back with the usual suspects this week. Please come by and see what our other Fine Motor Friday Friends have been up to this week and don't forget to follow along on our Pinterest Page! See you next time!
Learning to Squeeze! from Craftulate
Valentines Cutting Skills Activity Tray from Little Bins for Little Hands
Coloring the Snow from P is for Preschooler
Build a Snowflake Busy Bag from School Time Snippets
Word Pop! – Bubble Wrap Sight Words from Still Playing School
Play Dough Snow Bot from Stir the Wonder
oh fun! Makes me want to see if I can find some rollers hiding anywhere!
Haha, I was worried I had gotten rid of mine, was happy to find not one but TWO barely used sets in the closet. Good thing I’m a pack rat!
What a great way to use what you have for fun and skills work. My hair is pretty straight but I could still use some of these rollers for other things. So creative!
Thanks Sarah, I think these rollers work best for models and movie stars, they always seem to be photographed with them while in hair & Make up! But lucky for use we also have curious kiddos who can use them!
Ooooh what a fun idea.
Thanks Emma, we had a lot of fun indeed!
Oh my hair is the same way– wavy/ curly, but totally not cute without me putting product in it, scrunching it, etc. etc!!!
All your ideas are too fun! Love the sticky wool coat! Just make sure they are all off before you head out! Ha!
LOL! Yes, that would be priceless, me walking around with Velcro rollers stuck to my back!
SO MUCH creativity here, both from the kids and you! Great post!
Thanks, yes it was fun to see what came out of this little activity!
Brilliant idea to use velcro rollers! I bet it was fun watching the free play – I always love seeing what kids come up with when introduced to something new. And I love the finger puppets – so cute!
Thanks! It was fun to see their reactions. If you had enough of them it would make for a funny sensory bin filler!
LOVE the fishing game – it makes me want to try it too!
Thanks it was tricky but fun to see when we would get the yarn to catch! Evidently though, it turned out we were catching puppies, I learned, not fish! Haha, not sure just what to call THAT! 😉
I would have never looked at my velcro rollers as something so engaging for kids! I love those faces – too cute!
Thanks Katie, yes once we started playing with them I thought, well they are colorful, chunky and have an interesting texture, perfect for little hands to explore!
I bet those would be a lot of fun to play with! Wish I had some around here now!
Love this post and have pinned it! I will be buying velcro rollers. Clever!
Wow. I need to get some of these Velcro rollers. So many activities!
Found via the Hands-On Play Party
What a great project! My toddler would love all of these things! I think my local dollar store has these, I will definitely be picking up a few of them for play time:) Thanks for sharing such a creative idea!
Great idea! I too have rollers upstairs that have not been used aside from 1 or 2 unsuccessful attempts! Great to have a use for them, will try them out with my Monkey so thanks for sharing!
That is just toooo fun! Thank you so much for sharing! (Adds to shopping list)
What a great idea! I love it!
Thank you!
I did not know that this can be so much fun. Thank you for the idea!
Haha you are welcome, thank you for the kind comment!