INSIDE: Cotton Ball Tiger Fine Motor Activity for Kids is a fun and easy tiger craft for kids! Whether it’s a craft for a wildlife or zoo themed unit or for the Lunar New Year in 2022 – The Year of the Tiger! All you need to make your tiger are cotton balls, eye droppers and colored water!!
Exciting Sensory Bins for Curious Kids
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Boring afternoons are made exciting with awesome animal-based bins, like Salty Shark Bay or Yarn Farm. Pretend play bins like Birthday Cake Sensory Play or Bubble Tea Party encourage creativity and imagination. And your kids will have so much fun they won’t even know they’re getting smarter with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) activities like Sink or Float Soup, Magnetic Letter Hunt or Ice Cream Scoop and Count.
Cotton Ball Tiger Craft
Cut a piece of cardboard and draw the outline of a circle for the tiger head. Including the ears. Glue down two large googley eyes for the tiger, then glue down cotton pads all over the tiger’s head.
In a bowl mix a single drop of orange food colouring and water. Use eye droppers to colour in the cotton pads.
Painting the Tiger
If this is the first time your little one is using an eye droppers I suggest practicing using them with just water before adding the food colouring.
Once they get the hang of squeezing and letting go to draw the water up the eye dropper you can add yellow, green and red food colouring into bowls of water.
First colour in the tiger all orange. You will add the stripes last. Once the entire tiger is covered in orange, unroll a few cotton balls and cut them in half if they are very long. Arrange three on each cheek of the tiger and on it forehead in between the eye, or as pictured.
Invite your child to try and colour just the strips black. It’s tricky and if they use lots of black water it will leak into the organ cotton pads but that ok.
Remember it’s the process and the amazing fine motor practice they are getting that is more important than the actual finished product. Let them have fun colouring in their tigers stripes as best they can!
Containing the Mess
This is indeed can be a messy activity. The good news is that the cardboard will catch and absorb most of the mess. Make sure to use a piece of cardboard large enough to hold the tiger with some room surrounding it to catch any run off.
Another way to contain the mess is to cover your table in Kraft paper or larger pieces of cardboard to protect it as well. Also dress your child play clothes as the coloured water may stain.
Age Suitability for Cotton Ball Tiger Craft for Kids
This activity is great for kids 4 years and up. My kids are 3.5, 3.5, and 7.5 year old.
Supplies for Cotton Ball Tiger Craft for Kids
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- Cotton balls
- Cardboard
- Glue
- Googley eyes (or black and white construction paper)
- Bowl
- Water
- Black and orange food colouring
- Eye droppers
Make quiet time their favourite time!
Play is at the core of learning during the early years and it can take many forms. One of the most important of these is sensory play because it engages all of a child’s senses (taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing) and has a enoumous positive impact on brain development.
My Sensory Play Kits are a fun and easy way to keep your child engaged while at the same time capitalizing on the benefits of sensory play to nurture their mind!
Shop my ready made sensory play kits here.
STEAM Activity Book
Looking for a fun activity book for your preschooler this summer? Check out my new book Super STEAM Activity Book: Launch Learning with Fun Mazes, Dot-to-Dots, Search-the-Page Puzzles, and More! ! Click here to learn more or order it now!
WILL YOU MAKE THIS COTTON BALL TIGER CRAFT WITH YOUR CHILD? PIN IT FOR LATER!
