Pom Pom Sort

This is a simple activity that’s very important for children to develop their grasping skills. A child ought to learn and bring into practice the correct form and pattern of grasping a pencil for their future. This needs to be cultivated in the child right from the beginning stage. It could be anything right from picking up big objects like a teddy bear to picking up a tiny object such as a seed. We need to strengthen the hand muscles of a child, which this activity assists the child to do. 

Materials

• Colourful pom-poms
• Empty box/container with lid (add holes to the lid to fit pom pom when pushed through) 

What to Do: 

• Take the empty tin/box and make holes in it just wide enough for the pom-poms to enter.
• Now place the pom-poms in a tray and give it to the children.

• Simply observe what they do.
• Children will take the pom-poms and push it through the holes. 

Hints and Tips

• Make a note of how they pick the pom-poms, the kind of grasping skills they use.
• You can give something like a shape sorting lid and observe how the child puts the pom-pom through the correct shape. Some may even guess and put into the correct shape.
• You can use child friendly tongs/spoons also for this activity.
• Ask the children to put in the pom-poms and then shake and listen to the sounds they make.
• You can use cotton balls instead of pom-poms.
  While you use colourful pom-poms you could ask the children to pick a particular colour and put it in thus improving their recognition on colours.

Reference
Teachingmama