Pouring Practice Activities for Kids Using Plastic Animals- Fine Motor Fridays
It's the second week of our Fine Motor Fridays series! I'm teaming up once again with four other awesome kid bloggers- Craftulate, And Next Comes L, Stir the Wonder and School Time Snippets– to bring you new fine motor activities every Friday in October.
I've got a very fun activity for you today! My three year old daughter is in that phase where she is infatuated by pets. We don't have any real pets but she has stuffed animals and plastic animals that are getting us through. Her aunt picked up on this obsession and sent her a set of plastic pets (amazon partner affiliate link) as a big sister gift when baby brother turned one. She has had an animal from this set by her side since she received it several weeks ago.
To prepare for the second week of our Fine Motor Fridays series, I was trying to think of a fun way to practice pouring skills that was a little more engaging than pouring from a pitcher, or playing in the sink- which we have done a LOT and is also terrific fine motor practice! When Ladybug asked to brush Bunny Bun Bun's hair, I thought, why not use these guys to make a pet shop?! (And YES that really is the adorable name she gave to this bunny.)
To prep for this easy activity I grabbed various pouring vessels, spoons and containers. I also had some box lids laying around and thought we could use them as pet beds. For fun I cut up the bottom of an egg carton into sections of two to be used as food dishes. We also had some plastic baby food cups so I poked holes in the bottom of one so the water would drain out like a shower. The finishing touches were a wash cloth, towel and baby brush. It was a heap of stuff, but other than bring it outside and bring it back in, there was not too much to do! I guess I also sprayed some hose water in the largest container.
When I asked her if she wanted to go play Pet Shop outside she was super excited and kept asking what we should do next to play Pet Shop. Her jobs were to collect all her pets and help make pet food. The pet food was nothing more than colored rice (add rice to baggie, add a little rubbing alcohol, then add some food coloring. Knead to spread color, lay in the sun to dry.) which she had fun shaking and kneading to spread the orange color. She also poured it into the pan to “bake” it.
Pouring Practice: Plastic Pet Showers
Once the food was made, we got to work giving the animals showers and baths. Apparently, even the goldfish needed one, I hadn't even thought of that! She used tons of different pouring vessels and loved watching the water splash onto her pets.
After the showers, we of course had to dry the animals off and brush their fur…again, even the goldfish need this! I don't know what I was doing with this collage above, but it also shows us putting the pets to bed at the end and playing with the colored rice. As we have done with other materials in the past, we had to sprinkle the rice onto Ladybug's hands- good spooning practice! Bonus!
Pouring Practice: Pretend Pet Food
After all that bathing and scrubbing, the animals were all hungry and our pet food was done baking. Ladybug served up the pet food into the egg carton dishes. She used some small pinch cups, a spoon and our smallest measuring cup to dose it out. They sure were hungry!
As mentioned above, when the animals were all tuckered out we laid them down in their cardboard beds and had to be very quiet while they slept. We sat on the sidewalk and drew shapes in the left over colored rice. Ladybug loves running her hands through sensory materials and it is a calming activity for her…perfect when trying to let those pets sleep! Cleanup was pretty quick, just dump out the water and pile everything back up. Fun and fun, done and done!
Fine Motor Fridays
As I mentioned above, this post is part of a month long series called Fine Motor Fridays. Every Friday in October, you can head to Lalymom and the 4 other lovely blogs below to find a new fine motor skills activity! Pencil in some extra time though, because my co-host's blogs are chock full of amazing and inspiring activities for your kids! I've found loads of fun activities for both my 3 year old and my 1 year old on these blogs. If you're not following them already, you should surely check them out!
Below are the links directly to this week's Fine Motor Fridays posts, while the links at the top of this post will take you to their Facebook Pages…it's handy up there right next to the Like button for my own Facebook page (Hint, hint! Like, like!).
We hope to see you next Friday for more Fine Motor Fun! I'll also be sure to pin each of our posts to my Fine Motor Fun Pinterest board, so check that out for more inspiration! Thanks for coming by!
As I mentioned above, this post is part of a month long series called Fine Motor Fridays. Every Friday in October, you can head to Lalymom and the 4 other lovely blogs below to find a new fine motor skills activity! Pencil in some extra time though, because my co-host's blogs are chock full of amazing and inspiring activities for your kids! I've found loads of fun activities for both my 3 year old and my 1 year old on these blogs. If you're not following them already, you should surely check them out!
Below are the links directly to this week's Fine Motor Fridays posts, while the links at the top of this post will take you to their Facebook Pages…it's handy up there right next to the Like button for my own Facebook page (Hint, hint! Like, like!).
We hope to see you next Friday for more Fine Motor Fun! I'll also be sure to pin each of our posts to my Fine Motor Fun Pinterest board, so check that out for more inspiration! Thanks for coming by! – See more at: http://lalymom.blogspot.com/2013/10/easy-fine-motor-activities-using-fresh.html#sthash.bshe1iTN.dpuf
As I mentioned above, this post is part of a month long series called Fine Motor Fridays. Every Friday in October, you can head to Lalymom and the 4 other lovely blogs below to find a new fine motor skills activity! Pencil in some extra time though, because my co-host's blogs are chock full of amazing and inspiring activities for your kids! I've found loads of fun activities for both my 3 year old and my 1 year old on these blogs. If you're not following them already, you should surely check them out!
Below are the links directly to this week's Fine Motor Fridays posts, while the links at the top of this post will take you to their Facebook Pages…it's handy up there right next to the Like button for my own Facebook page (Hint, hint! Like, like!).
We hope to see you next Friday for more Fine Motor Fun! I'll also be sure to pin each of our posts to my Fine Motor Fun Pinterest board, so check that out for more inspiration! Thanks for coming by!
– See more at: http://lalymom.blogspot.com/2013/10/easy-fine-motor-activities-using-fresh.html#sthash.bshe1iTN.dpuf
This is the second week of our Fine Motor Fridays series, where I joined with four other fabulous kid bloggers every week in October to brink you new Fine Motor Skills activities. Did you miss last week's activities, here they are!
Below are the links directly to this week's Fine Motor Fridays posts, while the links at the top of this post will take you to their Facebook Pages…it's handy up there right next to the Like button for my own Facebook page (Hint, hint! Like, like!).
Powdered Chalk Spray Painting from Craftulate
We hope to see you next Friday for more Fine Motor Fun! I'll also be sure to pin each of our posts to my Fine Motor Fun Pinterest board, so check that out for more inspiration! Thanks for coming by!
As I mentioned above, this post is part of a month long series called Fine Motor Fridays. Every Friday in October, you can head to Lalymom and the 4 other lovely blogs below to find a new fine motor skills activity! Pencil in some extra time though, because my co-host's blogs are chock full of amazing and inspiring activities for your kids! I've found loads of fun activities for both my 3 year old and my 1 year old on these blogs. If you're not following them already, you should surely check them out!
Below are the links directly to this week's Fine Motor Fridays posts, while the links at the top of this post will take you to their Facebook Pages…it's handy up there right next to the Like button for my own Facebook page (Hint, hint! Like, like!).
We hope to see you next Friday for more Fine Motor Fun! I'll also be sure to pin each of our posts to my Fine Motor Fun Pinterest board, so check that out for more inspiration! Thanks for coming by! – See more at: http://lalymom.blogspot.com/2013/10/easy-fine-motor-activities-using-fresh.html#sthash.bshe1iTN.dpuf
This is ADORABLE! I loved that she gave the fish a bath!
Ha, thanks for the comment! Yes that was cracking me up!
Super cute!
Thanks!
I love how big the animals are! My daughter would love this, too. In fact she does this type of stuff with her dolls all the time. Her baby just took a bath in our water table the other day! ; )
Cute! I love that kind of pretend play, so sweet!
What a wonderful time they had caring for pets!
Thanks for the comment! Yes it is cute to see her affection and care for them!
How cute! Where did you get those animals?
Oh they were a gift but let me find out!
This is so cute. And your daughter was learning about taking care of animals all the while! I love how you came up with so many ways to reuse old containers!
What a great way to strengthen those little muscles during play! I pinned this to my (CarlaINHouston) Awesome Preschool board–thanks so much for sharing!!
Cute!! Linking learning to topics that are enticing to your children is one of the best parts of teaching. Thank you for sharing and for linking up this week to the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop.
This is gorgeous, love how you have combined play and fine motor fun. Thanks for linking up to the Monday Parenting pin it party 🙂
Great idea, especially playing to your daughters love of animals. Thanks for stopping by the Outdoor Play Party
http://www.zulily.com/p/jumbo-domestic-pets-21245-2485974.html?pos=12&e=1& I did a google search to find this Jumbo Pet Set
What creative ideas, Laura! I’m so glad you linked up with Montessori Monday. I added your post and photo to my Montessori-Inspired Pet Activities post today. 🙂
Thank you so much for kind comments Deb! And thank you for including my post in your Pet activities post, how nice of you!!!