Work those fingers!!!

Some ideas for working fingers, a lot of these ideas don't need tons of stuff. I can assure you that Egg has not done all of these, it's just ideas!! Also ammend the activites to suit your kid, if they are not ready for numbers etc leave them out, just hook on the monkeys with no numbers!

Get a cylinder (wood perhaps) and push hair baubles on to it. You can colour code this to make it a matching game also. See here at My Montessori Journey

Clasps onto elastic hair bands, again can make it also a colour matching game. See here at My Montessori Journey

Peg raindrops on to a cloud. See here. There a billion ways you can make peg games :0)

Locks with keys. See above link.

Hair baubles over a door handle, or put them onto a kitchen roll holder.

Hang seasonal items off either a decorative tree or a mug tree to make a decoration.

Transfer pom poms from one bowl to another (you can use smalls tongs-like tea bag or ice cube tongs, tweezers or a peg).

Transfer feathers from one bowl to another (as above).

Make two fabric squares, to one of these squares add a button, to the other add a slit. button practice. you can also make it a fabric matching game by using several different fabrics. See The Wonder Years here.

Make a pretty flower button board. Like the one at Chasing Cheerios here.

Tweeze/peg or tong pom poms into the holes of an ice cube tray.

Make a circle, draw lines to makes 4 sections or more if you want. Colour the sections and colour wooden pegs to match. Match the pegs to the colours. You can put the pegs into a bag and make it a several player game.

Draw a yellow circle, colour wooden pegs yellow or use yellow pegs and put around the circle to make a sun. You can add numbers round the circle and on the pegs to make this a math activity.

Stickers and a piece of paper, encouraging the child to pick the stickers off the sheet independently (sometimes I find it best to remove the sheet of the sticker that surrounds all the stickers).

Free creativity with pens, crayons, pencils.

If your child doesn't like pencils etc a fun activity suggested by Bonnie Arnwine is to use sand paper and a cinnamon stick, you won't see the picture, but you'll smell it!! Of course if your child does enjoy pens etc I would still let them enjoy this!It i in the book as a smelling sensory activity, did I mention I HEART this book.

Cut strip of paper that require just one snip to make a cut. use these squares to make a picture.

Make your own lacing cards by drawing a picture, laminating it and punching holes, or buy some, or use cross stitch fabric (needle only for this, or I have also seen plastic grids) and use a lace with a stiff end (cover in tape to strengthen), a plastic needle an thread or a thread attached to a pipe cleaner.

Use a Parmesan shaker and push pipe cleaners into the holes, then push beads onto the holes, it is pretty to use green pipe cleaners and flower beads. As seen here.

Give your child a stencil board and let them at it! You can see Egg with his here. He used squeezy glitter glue to decorate.

Make a pasta necklace or use Cheerios, or similar.

In Bonnie Arnwines book she suggests dipping pop corn into a cup of green(leaves) or pink(blossom) water, just for a few seconds and then drying. Make a tree by drawing a rectangle topped with an oval. Add glue to the trunk and add kernels, then add the green pop corn. Alternatively draw a tree with a brown pen and have the child add pink pop corn for blossom.

Dot to dot, best to make these yourself, you can make very simple shapes, instead of the ones you find in shop bought books.

Bonnie Arnwine also suggests using a big marshmallow and 8 cocktail sticks to make a spider.

Pushing cocktail sticks into a vinegar bottle, like this.

Use pom poms to colour a picture, either a printable with holes for the poms, or one you have drawn. Glue them into place. The easter picture was free from Making Learning Fun.

A shallow tray filled with sand can be used to draw in with a pointed finger.

Spoon things from one dish to another using a wide variety of spoons, bowls and things to spoon.

Math, counters. Lifting them up to complete the task uses fingers. Things like 0-10 numbered cards or shapes drawn onto a piece of paper. Theme it-bees round a flower, stars on a black sky, apples on a tree, sweets in an easter egg and so on, use buttons, counters, fancy pegs anything you can find. Too many ideas for this, the possibilities are endless!

Sorting, use different things to sort into cups, paint trays, coloured bowl, muffin tins etc. Example, coloured pom poms. The ideas for this are endless.

Use a Turkey baster to transfer water from one dish to another.

Peel oranges. Perhaps make jelly, like this.

Use a dropper to transfer water/coloured water from dish to dish, or use an to fill an ice cube tray.

Have the primary colours set out by means of water and food dye. Use these colours with a dropper to mix new colours.

Finger paint.

Use a sponge to transfer water from one bucket to the other, I suggest out side for this and it was hell inside!

Grate cheese, nut meg, cinnamon etc.

Make a marshmallow sculpture, as seen here at itty bitty love.

Take this idea for a medicine box colour game and replace the hair baubles with small beads.

Make a contact paper picture, seen here, as picking up the stuff will work those fingers!

Pop bubble wrap.

Make a button caterpillar as seen at Lucky Me!

Make a bead and pipe cleaner rainbow as seen here.

Make your own simple board games, as shop bought ones can be confusing. Gripping the pieces to move will be finger work.

Make a hedgehog by pushing cocktail stick into play doh. You could take turn to roll a dice (make one with just 1, 2, 3 to make it easier if need, it will also make the game longer) and if it says 3 push three sticks in, a good turn taking game.

Make other counting games, such as draw lots of flower pots with stems on some a4 sheets. Roll a dice and add little flower shaped rubbers to the top of the steam to correspond with the dice number.

Spin a salad spinner to help in the kitchen or use it to make gorgeous art like seen here at A Bit Of This and A Bit Of That.

Make 10 monkeys. Stick a pipe cleaner on the back of each monkey for a tail, use this to hook the monkeys in order on a piece of string attached to the wall, or similar.

Using your attached string peg on clothes (make clothes from paper or fabric scraps).

Build some meccano kids play, I can't recommened it enough, see here.