Fun And Fine Motor Skills With Watermelons

  Fine Motor Fridays Blog Hop

Fine Motor Skills And Hands On Play

Welcome to another great week of the Fine Motor Fridays Blog Hop! I love Fridays and our chance to show off some great fine motor activities for kids happening over here! Hands-on play really facilitates fine motor skills work. Learn through play, practice through play, and develop life long skills through play! Fine Motor Skills for us is hand work, strengthening the hand muscles and working on finger grips/grasps that will prove so useful as he gets older! 

Watermelon Sensory Play

Fun and fine motor skills with watermelons! Whether you are using a real watermelon for sensory play, colored rice or even play dough,  there are lots of fun and easy ways to explore watermelons. We even grew our own mini watermelons on our back porch to examine! Check out how we incorporate fine motor skills and practical life skills into each watermelon activity as well as a good dose of hands on sensory play, a favorite around here! Some of these ideas are from last year so you will be directed to click on a link to take you to that post to read more.

Real Watermelon Sensory Play

Last years play: For this fun practical life activity we explored a real watermelon together. We opened it up, examined the inside, talked about how a water melon grows, tasted the juicy fruit and practiced making melon balls for daddy! Check out the full post here.

This years play: We practiced cutting skills with a plastic knife and used cookie cutters to make watermelon shapes. There was a lot of sampling going on too which made it extra fun. I simple cut the watermelon into big rounds for the cookie cutters and then some into strips so he could practice using the knife. Make sure to supervise and teach knife safety at all time with young children!

Watermelon Rice Sensory Play With Fine Motor Activities

Last years play: We love rice sensory play so last year I colored rice and placed it in a bin to look like a real watermelon slice. Click here to read about our fine motor sensory play!

This years play: I colored some quick red rice and he punched out construction paper “seeds”. No real watermelon necessary for this one! Then his job was to remove the seeds with the tweezers (or fingers). No hole puncher, just cut little squares instead. Make them an appropriate size based on the skill level!

Fizzy Baking Soda Watermelon Activity (with dinosaurs)!

Well we love anything fizzy and love to do baking soda and vinegar activities! Did you see our pumpkin-cano? There’s also a great erupting watermelon activity below to check out. Ours is simple and quick! After we used the cookie cutters and plastic knife to practice

Cutting And Gluing Watermelon Slices Activity

This is pretty straight forward. I marked off triangles on a strip of paper and we used the black paper seeds he collected from the rice sensory search. He cut out the “slices” of watermelon and glued on the seeds. Often he needs help with these so I tend to put the camera down, but you get the idea!

There are so many fun ways to practice fine motor skills with watermelons! Our summer favorite fruit! Please check out the ideas below for even more fun watermelon inspired play!

Watermelon Squish Bag and Watermelon Play Dough from Fantastic Fun And Learning

These are two awesome activities for fine motor skills. Pushing watermelon seeds into play dough and removing them work those little fingers. Sensory bags are great for using fingers to manipulate the materials inside. Please click on the link to read more!

Erupting Watermelons from Learn Play Imagine

More great science with watermelons and fine motor skills. This is a must see!

Watermelon Scissor Skills Craft from Frogs And Snails And Puppy Dog Tails

Simple but fun craft kids of varying ages can work on together to practice a variety of fine motor skills.

Fine Motor Fridays Blog Hop

Super Fine Motor Activity for Busy Bags from Powerful Mothering

Fine Motor Seashell Transfer from House of Burke

Ribbon Pull Board for Kids from Still Playing School

Fine Motor Activities For Pinch Strength from Lalymom

Follow Sarah McClelland’s board Fine Motor Skills Activities on Pinterest.

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