Spring Fine Motor Mats with LEGOs

Did you see our Winter Fine Motor Mats with LEGOs? I had such a great response, not only from my daughter (who has just recently decided to add something different into her day), but from readers too. Which I understand why! It is incredibly simple prep but engaging and fun for kids. I would say that most don’t even realize they are strengthening skills and learning, they think it’s just play. I couldn’t leave you all hanging with just one fine motor mat with LEGOs, though. I had to make another. So introducing our Spring Fine Motor Mats with LEGOs.

Spring Fine Motor Mats With LEGOs

We try and incorporate as many fine motor activities as we can in our house. The thing with LEGOs is that no matter what you do with them, you are strengthening fine motor skills in one way or another. That makes it even more beneficial to add in ABCs, numbers, sight words or activities that require critical thinking. These Spring Fine Motor Mats include a little bit of all of this. How amazing is that??

Fine motor skills are incredibly important. They help strengthen the hand and finger muscles that are critical for eating, zipping a zipper, handwriting, typing and so much more! These skills as well as sorting, counting, letters, beginning sounds and more are strengthened all while having fun and playing!

Materials Needed For Spring Fine Motor Activity with LEGO

Paper | Laminating Sheets or Dry Erase Pockets | LEGO bricks | Dry Erase Marker or Crayons

LEGO Classic Large Creative Brick Box 10698LEGO Classic 10717 Bricks Bricks Bricks 1500 Piece Set – Encourages Creativity in all Ages – Ideal for Creators of all Ages – Brick Separator Included

Classic Baseplates | 100% Compatible with All Major Building Brick Brands

 

How to prep the Spring fine motor printables for LEGO:

Print and laminate the fine motor cards. Cut apart the individual fine motor mats.
Grab your LEGO bricks, dry erase writing utensils and let’s go!

If you prefer not to laminate activities, our other favorite option is to use dry erase pockets. This allows the activities to be used over and over without using lamination process. You can still use these to write with dry erase markers or crayons. You can also set LEGO bricks or other counters on top as well.

I prefer laminating for activities that I know we will use over and over, like this one. I KNOW this is going to be a hit. Ones that we may use for a shorter period of time, I will just slide them into a dry erase pocket until we are ready to move on.

We used the LEGO Classic set. The newer sets have pink and purple as well as the traditional colors. The colors that we use in this activity are: Brown, Dark and Light Blue, Pink, White, Red, Purple, Orange, Black, Yellow, and Grey.

PLEASE NOTE: There is a good chance that you will not have enough of some colors. (Especially the purple, brown and orange bricks.) This is a GREAT opportunity to help your kids use flexible thinking and find out ways to create the pictures with different colors, using multiple small bricks to make a larger brick.

LEGO Classic Quad Pack 66554 Building KitLEGO Parts and Pieces: Dark Purple (Medium Lilac) 2×4 Brick x50LEGO Classic Orange Creativity Box 10709

How To Play:

We have included 10 spring themed fine motor mats total in both English and Spanish (woohoo!!). Each fine motor mat includes a spring themed picture (listed below), a big bubble letter that said picture starts with, as well as lines to count the colors that appear.

The pictures that we have included are:

• Butterfly – mariposa
• Leaf – hoja
• Raindrop – de agua
• Flower – flor
• Ladybug – mariquita
• Umbrella – paraguas
• Birdhouse – pajarera
• Tree – arbol
• Rainbow – arco iris
• Fountian – fuente

Each page highlights the uppercase version for the beginning letter of each word, as well as, listing the word. This is fantastic for letter recognition and beginning sounds. Students can use a dry erase marker or dry erase crayon to trace the letter.

Each page also has a space for children to count each color of block and record the answer on the correct line with a dry erase marker. This is extending the activity and including math into a fine motor activity. This is helping to break up the focus for kids and put it in a different direction, while still learning!

Finally, the main event. Each page has a spring themed picture with grids that are the size of the LEGO blocks. This is basically like a map for kids to use to create each picture with LEGOs. Children just need to place the LEGO in onto the right colored square and continue to until the picture is complete.  This is increasing fine motor skills and strength while working on something most kids do as a hobby!

While I worked hard to try to make the picture of the grid the correct size, I know that every printer is a little bit different. It may work better to have the kids create the picture on a LEGO baseplate and using the picture for a guide.

You can grab the clear baseplate that we used here:

Classic Baseplates | 100% Compatible with All Major Building Brick Brands

 

Additional Ideas:

• To increase fine motor skill strengthening even more, put LEGO blocks in one big tray or bowl and ask child to pick out the color they need using fine motor tweezers. This not only helps strengthen hand and finger muscles but is increasing the challenge as well.
• Ask child to count the color of blocks, sorting them, but then add up all of the numbers to see how many blocks were used in total.
• Instead of using a dry erase marker or crayon to trace the letter, ask child to form the letter with play dough and place it on the letter.
• To increase the building challenge. Ask the child to create the picture with LEGOs on the side of the fine motor mat, instead of on top of it.