As you know, my little ones have been fascinated with colourful and patterned pretty tapes lately ever since they attended a crafty tea party with me.
Life has never quite been the same since they’ve been exposed to those tapes so instead of just letting them tape mindlessly, I decided that I’d put the tapes to good use.
I saw a clothespin colour matching idea and thought that I could make these washi tapes work for me! And because these tapes not only come in solid colours, they are available in a gazillion patterns which make things so much more exciting for this activity!
Strengthening the little finger muscles are so crucial for learning to write for young children so I’ve actually been concentrating more on working on developing my tot’s fine motor skills. This activity is really quite a gem, considering (1) it’s easy to prepare (2) it’s small and light to carry around as a busy bag activity (3) it’s a swell fine motor skills activity (4) he gets to practise recognising colours and patterns (5) I get to add this to my list of washi tape ideas. Win-win on so many counts.
So what do you need?
- a mixture of solid colour and patterned tapes
- plain craft sticks/ tongue depressors
- wooden clothespins
- a pair of scissors
Cover one side of the craft stick with tape. You can choose to cover the entire craft stick with tape – that is fine but quite a waste of tape. I had tried to tape the entire side of the clothespins for the first few I made but in the end decided that it was too time consuming and by taping only the front of the clothespin, it brings focus to the pattern/ colour. That, of course, is the whole point so yes, I managed to justify my laziness and saved some time there!
My boy loved it and he still asks to play with these, especially during lull periods like during lunch time at home or just after lunch (when I’m feeling a bit sleepy). Works out great for us!
He uses his right hand most of the time for doodling/ eating and when it came to using the clothespins, he very naturally used his right hand first too:
But he also tried the activity out with his left hand:
I actually lined the two sides of the clothespins with different patterns to save on the number of clothespins I had to use/ bring out on trips. I still think it’s a good idea as it adds another level of difficulty for him to notice that that’s not the right colour/ pattern and to turn the clothespin around to check.
Checking the design of the tape on the clothespin
I totally loved his concentration as well as how those little fingers looked as they worked hard pegging.
You don’t need to make too many of these and you can always rotate out the colours and patterns by peeling off the tapes easily without damaging the clothespins or craft sticks.
My girl (5.5 years old) decided that these worked better for her as aeroplanes when she came home from class that day as she took a clothespin and clipped the craft stick right through the centre portion. Yup, it did look like a gorgeous plane! 🙂
Have fun taping!
Click the link for more fine motor skills activities!
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