Fine-Motor Birthday Hat for Preschoolers

Our sweet preschooler had her 4th birthday yesterday! Happy birthday, Shiloh! Since this week’s #PlayfulPreschool theme is hats it worked out perfectly for us to do this fine-motor birthday hat craft while we were waiting for the festivities to begin. I was happy because it kept her busy and it worked on some important skills at the same time.

Materials needed for a fine-motor birthday hat craft:

Hat template found here

Pom poms

Crayons in colors matching the pom poms

School glue

Scissors

After printing out the hat template, draw dots all over the hat with the coordinating crayons. For Shiloh, to minimize confusion, I only set out as many pom poms as I drew circles.

After that, my oldest daughter jumped in to help out. She put glue on the dots (one dot at a time) and helped Shiloh pick a pom pom that matched the color of the dot.

Then, Shiloh placed the pom pom on each dot to decorate her hat.

She worked on fine-motor skills while picking up the pom poms and hand-eye coordination when she tried to set the pom poms exactly on the dot of glue. This was a new challenge for her, so I was pleased that most of the time she could get the pom pom on the dot.

After she finished with all the dots, I cut out the hat template and glued it together for her. It’s best if you wait for all the glue on the pom poms to dry first, but Shiloh doesn’t have that much patience, so I did it while it was wet.

Many preschoolers would be able to assist with those steps.

Then I used a single-hole punch to put one hole on two sides of the hat. We threaded a pipe clean through each hole.

When we put the hat on, we used the pipe cleaners to tie a “bow” under her chin.

Side note: we won’t be repeating the pipe cleaners again…not because they didn’t work, but Shiloh had a meltdown over having the hat tied on… thus the leftover tears in this picture. (It took four people to get her smiling again!)

Check out all the great hat-themed activities from the #PlayfulPreschool team!

Upper and Lower Case Hat Match by Rainy Day Mum

Literacy Activities for Preschoolers: Beginning Sound Hats by Growing Book by Book

Quick and Easy AT Word Family Hat Activity by The Educators’ Spin On It

Preschool Hat Improv Game by Capri + 3

Guess The Hat? Sight Word and Colour Recognition by Learning 2 Walk

Hat Matching Printable Cards by Powerful Mothering