Button Sorting Sensory Bag

Toddlers need sorting skills for a variety of reasons. Sorting helps them learn about the world around them, develop their fine motor skills, and improve their problem-solving skills.

Learning about the world around them

When toddlers sort objects, they are learning about the different characteristics of those objects. They are learning about colors, shapes, sizes, and textures. They are also learning about the relationships between objects. For example, they may learn that all of the blue objects go together, or that all of the small objects fit in the small container.

Developing fine motor skills

Sorting requires toddlers to use their fine motor skills. They need to be able to pick up small objects, hold them in their hands, and move them around. This helps to strengthen their muscles and improve their coordination.

Improving problem-solving skills

Sorting also helps toddlers to develop their problem-solving skills. When they are faced with a problem, such as how to sort a group of objects, they need to use their logic and reasoning skills to come up with a solution. This helps them to learn how to think critically and solve problems on their own.

If you would like to make a DIY sorting activity for your little learners, you might love this easy buttons sorting bag. You might have everything you need at home to make this easy and engaging activity.

Supplies:

A zipper seal baggie

Clear hair gel

Buttons

Markers

First, figure out what colors of buttons you have to work with. You will want to use coordinating markers to make this work.

Start by drawing a large circle with one color of marker.

Then repeat using all of your marker colors.

When you have used all of the colors of markers, add about 2 tablespoons of hair gel into the baggie. You don't need a lot; just a little to make the activity extra fun! Little hands will love the way the buttons glide thru the hair gel. Spread the gel out with your hands.

Add the buttons to the bag.

Seal the bag. You can secure the seal with duct tape if you like.

Encourage your toddler to sort the buttons by color, and maneuver the buttons into the circle.

This activity is so simple but so awesome for hands on learning because it combines sorting skills with fine motor work.

Fine motor skills are the small, precise movements of the hands and fingers. They are important for a variety of tasks, such as eating, writing, and playing musical instruments. Fine motor skills also play a role in cognitive development, as they require children to use their brains to coordinate their movements.

Here are some of the reasons why kids need fine motor skills:

• To perform everyday tasks: Fine motor skills are essential for performing everyday tasks, such as eating, dressing, and using the bathroom. Children who have difficulty with fine motor skills may struggle with these tasks, which can lead to frustration and delays in development.
• To learn: Fine motor skills are also important for learning. Children who have good fine motor skills are better able to hold a pencil, write neatly, and turn pages in a book. This can help them to learn more effectively in school.
• To participate in activities: Fine motor skills are also important for participating in activities, such as playing sports, playing musical instruments, and doing arts and crafts. Children who have good fine motor skills are better able to participate in these activities, which can help them to develop their social skills and have fun.

There are many things that parents can do to help their children develop fine motor skills. Here are a few tips:

• Provide opportunities for practice: One of the best ways to help children develop fine motor skills is to provide them with opportunities to practice. This could include giving them toys that require them to use their hands, such as blocks, puzzles, or play-dough.
• Encourage exploration: Children learn best by exploring. Encourage your child to explore their environment and use their hands to interact with objects. This could include letting them help you cook, garden, or clean.
• Be patient: It takes time for children to develop fine motor skills. Don't get discouraged if your child doesn't master a skill right away. Just keep providing them with opportunities to practice and they will eventually get there.

Fine motor skills are an important part of child development. By providing children with opportunities to practice and develop these skills, you can help them to succeed in school and in life.

Find more fine motor ideas here

Dino Rescue

Sensory Ball Fine Motor Activity

Button Stacking

Fine Motor Counting Activity

This easy activity is perfect for practicing early math while developing fine motor skills.

Before I was a mom, I was a developmental psychology major. In my studies, I was intrigued by sensory and fine motor development then. Now that I am a mom, I love setting up activities for my own kids that give them hands on fun and learning opportunities without spending a ton of money to do it.

This fine motor counting activity is perfect for preschoolers.They can work on their fine motor skills while practicing counting. You might have all the materials at home to do this, making it fuss free and frugal. If not, I have included some affiliate links you can use to get your supplies.

Supplies:
Rainbow Bands
Large Craft Sticks
Sharpies

Directions:
Write numbers on large craft sticks with sharpies.
Use the largest craft sticks you can find to make the activity challenging.
Offer your child small rubber bands, like the rainbow loom style of bands and encourage your child to count the number of bands that need to go on each craft stick and slide that number of bands on to each craft stick.

If you are looking for more fine motor activities for kids, check out these posts:
Unicorn Fine Motor Bin
Play Doh Pre Writing

Feather Beading Fine Motor Activity

Feather beading is a fun fine motor activity that kids will love. It is perfect busy work and offers an outlet for creative expression with essential skills. Best of all, the supplies to create this activity are affordable and easy to find.

The kids have been out of school for a long time, at least 4 months already. I have been pulling out all of the stops to keep mine entertained and ready for when they are back in a classroom. This easy fine motor feather beading activity has been a big hit with both kids. They love to make patterns and have something to tinker with.  It is ideal for preschoolers and kindergartners.

Supplies:

Craft Feathers

Pony Beads

Directions:

Give your child a few feathers and a pile of beads.

Encourage your child to thread the beads onto the feathers.

To make things more of a challenge, encourage your child to make a pattern with the beads.

If you are offering this activity to younger kids, observe them carefully as beads can pose a choking hazard.

If you are giving this activity to older kids, challenge them to make more complex patterns, with a reminder to keep beads out of the ears, nose and mouth. No matter what age you complete this with, it is a great boredom buster with some educational perks.

                                             You can find all of my fine motor activities here.

Reader favorites include:

Fine Motor Counting

Unicorn Fine Motor Bin

Fine Motor Pattern Activity

Fine motor and pattern making come together with this easy to set u activity for preschoolers and kindergartners. This activity is engaging and educational, and it is so much fun too!

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know that I love both fine motor and sensory play for kids.  I love to create easy hands on play ideas too. This one is perfect for kids, and it is so cheap to create too, which is more important than ever. You might have most of the supplies needed on hand, and if not, no sweat, your local dollar store will have everything you need.

As this activity does have small parts, be sure to carefully observe your kids while they complete this activity.

Supplies needed:

A pipe cleaner

small clothespins 

pearler beads

Directions:

Using the small clothespins, create a pattern. 

As you can see I went with green, yellow, purple.

Offer your child the beads and encourage them to thread the beads onto the pipe cleaner in the same pattern.

This is an awesome and engaging activity for small hands. They will benefit from the fine motor busy work later in their handwriting efforts, and the pattern making skills are also pretty important as it helps them make predictions about what comes next while putting their logic and reasoning skills to use.

Harper is now in the first grade, but she still enjoys pulling this activity out of our busy bags and making some eye catching deigns.

You can find more fine motor activities here.

Reader favorites include:

Fine Motor Counting

Feather Beading Pattern Activity

Easy Fine Motor Sensory Ball Activity

Preschoolers will love this easy to set up and totally engaging sensory ball activity. It combines fine motor work and sensory play for a boredom buster with benefits. Best of all this activity is super affordable to set up. You can get everything you need at the dollar store.

If you have been reading this blog over the last decade, you might know I am passionate about fine motor and sensory activities. I love creating activities that are fun and benefit development. This is no exception. It is so easy to set up, but it is engaging for kids and helps them build fine motor skills. No fancy equipment required.

All you need to make this fine motor ball is two simple things.

A bumpy ball 

Tiny rubber bands

This is so easy to set up.

Simply stretch the bands over the bumps of the ball

For younger children, use fewer bands

To challenge older children use more bands and make the loops complicated. 

Offer the ball to your child and encourage them to remove the bands. 

Have your child place the bands in a container, storage bag etc as these can be a choking hazard and dangerous to pets. Supervise this activity please!

If you are looking for more sensory and fine motor activities check out these popular posts.

Feather Beading Activity

Dino Rescue 

Rainbow Disc Sensory Bag

Button Stacking Fine Motor Activity

This button stacking activity is easy to set up and is really fun for little hands. With basic household supplies you can set up an activity that will challenge fine motor skills in your kids while giving them a fuss free boredom buster.

Summer is here, but, really, it feels like summer has been here for months already with the school year going as it did. My kids have been getting a little restless.  I have been finding easy ways to entertain them, and give them the quiet play options like this button stacking activity.

Kids of all ages will love this activity. It is perfect for preschoolers and kindergartners as it works their fine motor and pincer grip.  It is just as fun and beneficial for elementary aged kids because it gives them a chance to practice working with fragile materials like brittle spaghetti. My kids like to challenge each other to see who can build the tallest tower the fastest.

This post uses affiliate links, if you make a purchase I will earn a small commission.

Supplies:
Dry spaghetti
Play doh
Buttons

Directions:
Flatten a can of play doh.
Insert two dry spaghetti noodles into the play doh.
Offer your child a pile of buttons.

Encourage them to thread the buttons on the pasta. See how many they can stack up without breaking the pasta.
Or encourage them to make a pattern of colors for variety.

Or encourage them to race!

See who can make the tallest stack of buttons without breaking the pasta!

Find all of our fine motor activities here
Veggie Garden Sensory Bin

Fine Motor Counting

Feed Me Fine Motor Activity

I have always encouraged fine motor play in my children. Not only is it important for their development, but there are so many ways to offer an invitation to fine motor play!

A well-meaning friend purchased tennis balls for my senior dogs. Bless her heart, but my pooches are too old to do much fetching. As much as we love the dogs, truth be told, they are hounds and have always been prone to take it easy; to sleep in bed only waking for food, water, and a walk. As I type, both are snoozing on pillows at my feet. No fetch will be played willingly by these dogs!

My kids were delighted. Balls! In the house?! YAY!!

I acted fast. With a moment of my time and some very basic supplies, my kids were distracted from the idea of throwing balls and were enthralled with the idea of feeding the ball.

To make a feed me ball you will need

A tennis ball
A utility knife
2 peel and stick eyes or a black magic marker to draw eyes
A few pom poms or cotton balls

The first step is the trickiest. Use caution while using the utility knife to cut a slit in the tennis ball, this will become the mouth.

Next affix or draw the eyes. We went with what we had on hand and used small stick on eyes. The kids and I agreed that really big eyes would be lots of fun!

After the eyes have been added you can offer the pom poms or cotton balls along with the ball.

Play combined with fine motor skill development is ideal for kids of a variety of ages. Both of my kids have fun feeding things to the ball over the years. From cotton balls to barbie doll shoes. The fine motor aspects remain, but we have added in simple math, counting, and color sorting to the ways we use the feed me ball.

You might also enjoy these 7 Ways to Entertain a 3 Year Old.

Dinosaur Rescue Fine Motor Activity

Looking for a way to work on fine motor skills with the kids while having a ton of fun? This dinosaur rescue fine motor activity is perfect for hands on fun and busy work.

Some of the best activities are the simple ones and this dino rescue is no exception! While cleaning bedrooms, the idea to add a new dimension of play to some old toys was hatched.  

This hands on play idea will give kids a chance to explore a favorite toy in a new way. They  will love rescuing the dinos while working on their fine motor skills. Parents will appreciate how easy this is to set up, and that only two supplies are needed.

Affiliate links have been used below.

Supplies:
Dinosaurs
Small Rubber Bands or Rainbow Loom Bands

Directions:
Stretch small rubber bands all over the dinosaur, cover the arms, legs, tail, scales, spikes, etc in a variety of ways.
Offer the trapped dino to your child.
Encourage your child to remove the bands, one by one, until the dinosaur is free.

Carefully supervise this activity as these bands can be dangerous to little people and critters.

Be sure to dispose of the bands properly as they can be a choking hazard to children and pets.

If your children are younger, use fewer bands. If your children are older, add more bands to make it more challenging!

If you had fun with this idea, you might want to check out my other fun fine motor activities.

Reader favorites include:

Play Doh Lollipop Counting

Play Doh Pre Writing

Unicorn Fine Motor Rescue

Bring a bit of whimsy to your fine motor exercises with this easy to set up, but super challenging unicorn fine motor rescue activity. It is perfect for preschoolers, but don't be surprised if your older kids want to accept this challenge because it is a lot of fun!

We have been rescuing a lot of things from these little rubber bands lately. Pine Cones, Dinosaurs and more!

It is a lot of fun for Harper, and I am always an advocate for little kids to have access to fine motor activities. 

This one is much like the others we have done, but just a bit more magical. What little girl wouldn't love to rescue a unicorn from danger?

To set this activity up you will need:

A toy unicorn

Rainbow Loom Bands

Directions:

Trap the unicorn with bands by stretching them around the legs, tail, head, horn and body.

Offer the unicorn to your child and encourage your child to remove the bands, one by one.

Be sure to observe this activity, especially with younger kids, as these bands can be a choking risk.

Discard all bands when finished to keep kids and pets safe.

If you have older kids who want to work on this activity, add a lot more bands! For younger kids, adding 10 bands is more than enough of a challenge, but with older kids, you can really wind the bands around the unicorn, and go overboard! It will keep them entertained for a while.

Check out these other fine motor activities for more fun ideas.

Reader favorites include:

Feather Beading

Cat in the Hat Pattern Making Bin

Unicorn Fine Motor Bin

Little hands will love this fun threading bin! It is a great fine motor exercise that kids will be magically enchanted with!

Harper and I love to make and play with bins. They are perfect for an afterschool activity for her, and she is always curious about what she might find in one of our bins. This was a really easy bin that I put together literally from our junk drawer. 

We had a bunch of Ikea straws from a recent binge visit and a few sections of ribbon. I ran across these leftover party favor unicorns and knew immediately what we would do with these goodies. In case you don't have all these things at home, this post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase I will earn a small commission from the advertiser.

Supplies:
Straws; I used soda and milkshake straws in assorted colors to offer variety.

I used 4 straws of each color

Ribbon; 12” length; add several strands.

Plastic Unicorn Figurines

A plastic bin with a clip on lid

Instructions:

Cut your straws by color in assorted lengths

As you cut the straws add it to the plastic bin to layer the colors

Tie a knot one on end of the ribbons. Depending upon the width of your ribbon you may want to add
several knots so that the straws will not slip off

Add a few unicorn figurines for fun

With supervision, allow your child to explore the texture and colors of the straws in the bin and thread
them onto the ribbon.

This was a fun fine motor activity for Harp with an added touch of unicorn fun. She happily threaded straws most of the afternoon!


Find  unicorn gift ideas here.