Tips for Choosing Fine Motor Toys

Looking for simple materials to use in the classroom or at home to ensure preschoolers' fine motor development? 

 Click below to check out my flannelboardfun.com blog post!

Dessert Set

This is the last in a series of sets I'm making for my preschool's vendor fair next week.  Everything in this set comes apart, other than the stems from the cherries.  So great for building fine motor skills, with the added bonus of imaginative play, early math like color naming and counting scoops....  

Here's a super simple way to use this set to build all kinds of early math language, too.

Here's a video of one of the rhymes included with this set:

Flannel Friday is being hosted this week by Cate at Storytiming.  You can also find tons of ideas at Flannel Friday's Pinterest Pages, the Flannel Friday Blog, and Flannel Friday's Facebook page.

Counting Cupcakes!

This is a set that I won't use in front of a group, but I think the children will really love playing with it independently.  This will be great for color sorting, counting, and patterning--and I expect there will be some imaginative play going on as well as they use these.

I simply drew these sweeties. Easy as pie.  Or, cupcakes...

This particular cupcake set is no longer for sale, but here's a fun one for lots of fine motor fun and imaginative play:

Flannel Friday is being hosted this week by Mollie at What Happens in Storytime!  You can also find 850,000+ felt and story ideas at Flannel Friday's Pinterest pages, or Flannel Friday's Facebook Page --check them out!

Five Little Cupcakes in the Bakery Shop

So, last year I cheated.  I found these cupcakes on Storytime Katie's blog, and I printed them out on cardstock, cut them out, laminated them and stuck a square of velcro on the back.  I was all set for Five Little Cupcakes in the Bakery Shop--and they've served me well.

However, it was time to make a felt set of cupcakes, and with the Flannel Friday Birthday Extravaganza coming up, I decided there was no time like the present.  (Which led me to make a set of felt presents, too--but that's another post!)

So, here are my sprinkle-covered, fancy-papered, puffy-painted cupcakes.  I want to eat them...  They came from a google search of cupcake images.  There are a gazillion, and they made me hungry.

And here's the poem I use with these little sweeties:

Down around the corner at the bakery shop

Were five yummy cupcakes with sprinkles on top

Along came ________ with a dollar to pay

He/she bought a cupcake,  and took it away!

(continue, counting down...)

I usually use a bear puppet and a laminated piece of pretend money, but when my group of kids is small, I have the children come up and take a cupcake.  With the puppet, it's fun to have him eat really messily, but then he starts to get a bit of a tummy ache as he keeps going.  By the end, he's just taking a small bite, and chopping up the last cupcakes to share with the children!

Like this post?  Sign up for my newsletter to get shop updates and all sorts of fun tips on things to do with preschoolers at home or in the classroom:

Flannel Friday is being hosted this week by Mollie at What Happens in Storytime!  You can also find 850,000+ felt and story ideas at Flannel Friday's Pinterest pages, or Flannel Friday's Facebook Page --check them out!