Winter Fine Motor Activity for Preschoolers

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When my husband called me at 7:00 this morning to tell me he had almost been in not one, but several car accidents I had a feeling that school would be delayed. Then we he told me there was a 6-car pile up on one of our main roads, I knew that school was cancelled. Seriously, even if they didn’t call it, WE were cancelling because there was no way I was going to drive our daughter to school 10 miles away. On pure ice. So we needed to come up with some activities FAST. This winter fine motor activity for preschoolers (or special needs kids like my daughter) is the perfect impromptu activity. We had so much fun that I wanted to share this free printable fine motor activity

Free Printable Winter Fine Motor Activity

Whether you are dealing with an ice day like us and kids who are stuck inside or you are getting a bit tired of inside recess, these are a great low-prep fine motor activity for winter.

Preschoolers or kids who are struggling with handwriting skills will benefit from these free printable winter fine motor activities!

Materials Needed for the Pom Pom Fine Motor Mats:

Paper | Laminating Sheets | 1/2 inch Pom Poms | Tweezers (optional)

Learning Resources Jumbo Tweezers Set Of 12 Caydo 1200 Pieces 1cm Assorted Elastic Pom Poms for DIY Creative Crafts Decorations Partners Brand PVEL151 Velcro Tape, Combo Packs, Dots, 0.75

How to prep the winter fine motor printables:

Print and laminate the pom pom cards. Cut apart the individual fine motor mats.

Gather your 1/2″ pom poms and optional tweezers.

How to use the winter themed printables for preschool:

Simply place the pom poms on the matching colors on the winter fine motor mats.

While this seems like a simple activity (and it definitely is when you consider it will take about 2 minutes to prep if you have a fast laminator… I love my Fellowes laminator!!), it is not simple for preschoolers who are starting to work on the pincer grasp.

Make sure that you are supervising the activity because while most children wouldn’t, there is always a wild child in the bunch that will want to know what pom poms taste like.

Does each color have its own flavor?

Or will it fit in my nose or ears?

I love their curiosity, but…

Anyway, because this is a fine motor activity, it does require small materials and you should always supervise closely.

Says the mom who had to take her three year old to the emergency room because she shoved a piece of craft foam in her nose. *sigh*

The good news is that she has survived to age 14 with minimal damage…lol!

I digress…

Additional Fine Motor Challenges:

Use a pair of child-safe tweezers to pick up and place the pom poms. These fine-motor tweezers from Learning Resources are our favorite.

Learning Resources Jumbo Tweezers Set Of 12 Learning Resources Gator Grabber Tweezers, Various Colors, Set of 12 Learning Resources Squeezy Tweezers

Have the child use different fingers besides the pointer finger/thumb combination. Can they grab the pom poms with their middle finger and thumb? Or what about their pinky finger and thumb??

Additional Learning Challenges:

Have your child identify each color as she places the pom poms.
Have your child count how many of each color are on the mat.
Identify which color uses the most pom poms. Or the least.

We found that using the pom poms on a laminated sheet worked fine as long as we worked hard not to bump the table and held our fingers high above the pom poms.

If you feel that your students would struggle to keep the pom poms steady on the mat, you can use the hook side of clear velcro dots on top of each dot and place the pom poms on the velcro.

Partners Brand PVEL151 Velcro Tape, Combo Packs, Dots, 0.75

You can also attach the loop side (the soft side) of the velcro to your pom poms to prevent the pom poms from getting stuck or leaving fuzz behind.

This will offer some resistance work when removing the pom poms from the mats.