We are continuing our Christmas tree theme this week with lots of fun activities for preschool!! Here is our spin on some Christmas Tree themed fine motor centers.
Emmett and Lillian, my preschoolers, flocked right to the Play-Doh tray! (Can I just say how much I love these chip and dip dishes from the Dollar Tree??) I set up the divided tray as an invitation to create a Christmas tree. I included pony beads, plastic gems, and festive fabric trim. Emmett asked for stars, which I wasn’t able to include, but will keep an eye out for them for next time.
Lillian, my two year old, was very engaged in this activity, which honestly surprised me! I’m still trying to figure out what will hold her attention for longer than a few minutes so this was a win.
Here are our final products! The kids had fun creating these and were very proud to show them off to me.
I found a great pack of foam Christmas tree stickers at Michael’s and grabbed them with the intention of creating this Christmas tree discrimination sort. Emmett found this a little too easy and lost interest. He just turned five- I would say this activity is more suitable for a 3 or 4 year old preschooler.
Lillian, on the other hand, played with it for a while, but made up her own rules. She had lots of fun transferring the bells from a different activity and trees from bowl to bowl.
Next, I set up the tall, thin triangles from our Picasso Tiles pack to look like little Christmas trees. I challenged Emmett to figure out how many bells he could hang on each tree. He did this challenge rather quickly then made it his own.
Emmett decided to get the square Picasso tiles and build a structure that could hold ALL the bells. He had fun constructing different shapes and filling them with bells. He discovered that a cube would hold all the bells at once. I love how this activity led to even more experimenting than I intended.
Our final Christmas tree activity was a simple invitation to decorate a Christmas tree. I set out a small tree that I already had in our decorations and a set of shatter proof Christmas ornaments. Emmett helped decorate for a few minutes, but Lillian sat here quite a while decorating and redecorating the tree. Then I left it out in the playroom to do and redo again.
The fine motor work that had to go into grasping the string, separating the hoop, and placing it on the branch is great practice for preschoolers and fun too! As with any fine motor activity with small pieces, know your preschooler. My two year old needed supervision with these activities and when she was done I put them out of reach.
We had a lot of fun with Christmas trees this week! Which Christmas tree preschool activity are you going to try???
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Mrs Mama Bird 