3 Christmas Activities for Kids – Jingle Bells Fun
Welcome back to another week of Fine Motor Fridays! This week I've got some fun Christmas Activities for Kids! These ones all use jingle bells, which we found to be a very fun material to play with this time of year! (Note: Affiliate links are used in this post for your convenience.)
We have been playing with jingle bells this week and it has been so much fun! And these little jingle bells are great for fine motor skills. Whether the kids are practicing their pincer grasp or using tools to pick them up, they got those little hands moving!
Jingle Bells Bottle
A while back we made a Frozen Themed Calm Down Glitter Bottle and it has kind of run its course. Today we re-purposed it by pouring out the glitter water and Frozen figures, then adding some jingle bells and water. Once it was full, my daughter explored using a magnet wand.
We used super cheap dollar store jingle bells, and they are probably not meant to be left in water for too long. (note: they will likely rust if you leave them in the water!) We took them out of the water shortly after my daughter was done playing with it. You could also do it without water, I just liked the way the bells floated down through the water.
This was really a neat activity for my daughter because we have not done a ton of science together yet. although I LOVED science as a kid! The neat thing about the jingle bells is that if you stick one bell to the magnet wand the next bell will stick to the bell since it is now magnetized. So my daughter had the cool surprised face when she saw all the bells stick together.
It was fun for us both to try to get as many bells as possible to the top of the bottle.
Jingle Bells Magnet Maze Christmas Activities for Kids
This is kind of derived from our plastic cups twisty maze activities. In this version though, I borrowed the clear plastic lid from the container that I made into our Multicolored DIY Light Box. I just took some dry erase markers and drew a large winding maze shape on it with a house at the end. I placed the jingle bells under the lid (you might need to place objects under the 4 corners of your lid if the bells don't fit freely underneath) and gave my daughter the magnet wand.
I told her it was her mission to get all the jingle bells to the house, “Can you do it?!” She did, but it took a few tries before she realized that if she went slowly she could get more bells all at once. It was pretty fun to see if she could get ALL the bells without losing any. She did that over and over.
Jingle Bells Tilt Puzzle
Okay this one is literally left behind from last year when we did our cranberry activities. We just changed it up to make it more Christmas-themed by using a jingle bell instead of a cranberry. Tricky stuff!
For this activity, you take a plastic take-out container, use a sharpie marker to color in the center section and add a jingle bell. Boom. DONE. So you start the jingle bell at the outside, and your child can tilt the lid to get the bell to stay still in the center red section! Now it may seem simple to you as an adult but this may be the first time your child has seen such a thing!
My daughter remembered this activity from the cranberry day, and it always blows my mind when she has such a good memory! So she quickly decided she would use her lid the same way we used the magnet maze! Out came the magnet wand!
Then we talked about how touching the bells to the magnet would actually magnetize the bells and it would allow us to stick one bell to another bell, without it touching the magnet itself! Science is Cool!
Looking for more fun and easy Chrismtas Activities for kids?
Inflatable Antler Ring Toss Game
Life Size Decorate a Felt Snowman Activity
Large Felt Decorate a Christmas Tree Set
Pin the Nose on the Snowman Kit
The Santa Clause Game for Preschoolers and Older
What is your favorite way to play with jingle bells? Any other favorite Christmas activities for kids that you can't get enough of? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below!
Fine Motor Fridays
It's another Fine Motor Friday and you know what that means! Lots of fun, playful Fine Motor activities for kids! Please check out the activities from the other Fine Motor Fridays bloggers!
Thanksgiving Writing Tray from Still Playing School
Fine Motor Turkey Craft from House of Burke
DIY Lego Duplo Puzzle Busy Bag from School Time Snippets
Boredom Buster – Writing on Windows from P is for Preschooler
Christmas Fine Motor Sensory Search and Find from Little Bins For Little Hands
Plastic Bag Flowers – Cutting Skills in Practice from Powerful Mothering
Could you please let me know where I can buy the handheld magnet?
Thanks! lriggs2002@yahoo.com
Hi Linda, Sorry if I didn’t link to it. These are the ones we have: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008AK6272/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008AK6272&linkCode=as2&tag=lalymom-20&linkId=BSELM65NQ5OH2V55