During this time of year our playtime is usually filled with lots of Christmas arts and crafts but I try to leave plenty of room for fun learning activities as well.

In this activity, my three year had lots of opportunity to develop and strengthen her fine motor skills decorating a Christmas tree made of squeeze pouch caps using tweezers and pom poms!

Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

Supplies

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• 28 green Squeeze Pouch Caps
• 1 yellow Squeeze Pouch Caps
• 4 red Squeeze Pouch Caps
• Pom Poms
• Jumbo Tweezers
• Contact Paper
• Painter’s Tape

Set Up

Cut a square piece of contact paper and tape it, sticky side facing up, to a table using the painter’s tape. Create (with or without your toddler’s or preschooler’s help) a Christmas tree (see picture below for reference). The contact paper helps to keep the caps in place while your toddler or preschooler is adding the pom poms.

If you are creating the caps Christmas tree together, this is a great time to go over counting. Together you can counting the number of caps in each row.

Once the tree is complete you can give the jumbo tweezers to your toddler or preschooler and have them fill the caps with the pom poms based on colour.

The jumbo tweezers are great tools for strengthening the fine motor muscles in little hands. These muscles are required for the crucial pincer grasp that is necessary to hold pens and pencils later on.

Toddlers under the age of three may find the jumbo tweezers a little difficult to use at first so don’t be discouraged if your little one wants to use their fingers. They are still gaining the benefits!

Practice Practice

After a while my preschooler wanted to use just her fingers as well. I didn’t force her to use the tweezers, the strength needed to use them for an extended period of time will come as she gets older. I will just keep introducing them in activities and giving her opportunities to use tools like these and eventually she will become more natural at using them.

Total Hit

This was a fun and easy to set activity requiring very little prep. My three year old had a blast and I was able to have the rest of my coffee!

Looking for other Activities using Squeeze Pouch Caps

Looking for other ways to use your squeeze pouch caps? Check out these other great activities:

• Squeeze Pouch Lid Puzzle
• Cap Twist-off Board
• Phonics Boards
• Mirror Play
• Tubes and Caps
• Caps Kitchen
• Caps in the Bath

Looking for more activities using contact paper? Check out 12+ Christmas Activities Using Contact Paper.

WILL YOU TRY CAPS CHRISTMAS TREE WITH YOUR TODDLER OR PRESCHOOLER? PIN IT FOR LATER!

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