Fine Motor Play with Lids

I’m thrilled to be part of this super fun series, Everyday Fine Motor Materials from A to Z, fromStill Playing School. Each day a different blogger will share an everyday item is the great for developing fine motor development. Since we love recycled materials so much, I was so excited to join this series and share one of our favorite activities right now for fine motor play. 

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If you are a regular here, you might remember when we were part of Project Recycle‘s Lid Series. We shared 3 fun ideas for playing with lids with babies. Ever since then, lids have been something we save and collect around here, and something we love to play with. Our basket of large lids has had a home in our kitchen for quite some time, but recently we made a fun DIY shape sorter for more fine motor practice. It was simple, fun and loved by everyone, especially Super B (1).

Making a DIY Toy For Fine Motor Play

What You Need to Make Your Own Lid Sorter:

• 1 Large Cardboard Box
• A Collection of Lids (We use lids larger than a paper towel roll for safety)
• Box Knife

Optional Materials

• Decorative Duct Tape

Making the box was so simple.

First, I made slits in the box at various lengths (for the different lids in our collection). I even chose to cut a circle for some of the lids to add to the dynamics of the choices and add to the game later.

Next, I covered the entire box with decorative duct tape. I even covered the holes on the inside of the box so that I could make slats and closed holes (to increase the difficulty in the activity later on.

Finally, I cut slats in the duct tape to create openings. For 2 of the holes, I cut the tape completely away.

Fine Motor Play with Lids

Super B couldn’t wait to get started with the Lid Sorter! She, of course, grabbed the largest lid she could find and tried to find the perfect hole. (There is only one spot this one fits, encouraging her to use trial and error skills.)

Next up was finding something that fit in her favorite place on the toy. She tried a few lids before realizing that the juice lids fit perfectly. She loved having me place them on top and completing the task for me. Using this hole encouraged her to strengthen her object permanence skills after the lids “magically disappeared” away.

Super B spent lots of time working on her pincer grasp as she picked up the lids, squeezed them into the slots and pushed them into their places.

Her big brother even got in on the fun. Actually, I think he enjoyed the game just as much as she did and it was great for strengthening his hand muscles to help with his handwriting.

More Fine Motor Play

As I mentioned before, this post is part of an incredible series with 25 other blog posts about everyday fine motor materials. Be sure to hop on over and check out all the posts that have come before “L | Lids” and follow along for the rest of the awesome ideas sure to come!

Do you have a favorite activity to do with lids? I would love to hear about it! I plan to share a roundup of all the great lid activities I keep finding everywhere so we can have them all in one place! For now you can check out these Pinterest boards for 100s of fine motor play ideas.

Follow Dayna :: Lemon Lime Adventures’s board Learning: FIne Motor/ Handwriting on Pinterest.

Follow Kid Blogger Network’s board KBN Fine Motor Activities for Kids on Pinterest.

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